Washington state’s Bellevue Arts Museum faces ‘dire’ financial straits

Washington’s Bellevue Arts Museum (Bam)—a Pacific Northwest mainstay in the Seattle suburbs dedicated to the intersection of fine art, craft and design—is facing a “dire” financial crisis, prompting the cash-strapped institution to launch an emergency campaign in hopes of raising $300,000. The money would be used to address operational costs like salaries, building upkeep and catering for its upcoming gala. According to executive director Kate Casprowiak Scher, closure is on the horizon if the funds do not materialise within the next six weeks.In a conversation with Margo Vansynghel of The Seattle Times, Scher declined to comment on the museum’s current cash flow but admitted that Bam has been relying on board donations to keep afloat for the past six months. “We’re at the place where the straw breaks the camel’s back,” she said. As it buckles under the weight of outstanding debts, the pandemic’s sector-wide toll and philanthropic reprioritising across the industry, Bam faces an uncertain future. The museum also lacks a sizable endowment—the investing income that nonprofits use to plan ahead.“A lot of our problems started 24 years ago when this building opened. They built this gorgeous, 40,000-square-foot building by Steven Holl, but they didn’t raise money for an endowment,” Scher told The Seattle Times. “It’s like having a great big modern home and not planning for its future.”Between Bam’s absence of a nest egg and the lack of a permanent collection, Scher maintains that the museum has found itself in a “doom loop” of yearly fundraising, a recipe for institutional precarity. “This campaign… it’s for this commitment that we are going to do something different, and that we are going to be more aware of our community and our demographic, and be very intentional about how we try to connect with them,” Scher said.Bam’s tax documents reveal that the museum has ended almost every year since 2010 in a deficit. A majority (about $1.6m) of Bam’s revenue in 2022 came from government grants and donations. Rampant staff and board turnover has also been an issue. In 2021, then-executive director and chief curator Benedict Heywood resigned after community-wide allegations of disrespect towards artists of colour and the museum’s first Black woman guest curator. The successive director stayed less than two years on the job. Scher’s appointment as permanent director was announced only this past week.“While it’s sad to see what’s happening at Bam, it’s not surprising,” Joseph Steininger, a former museum board member, told The Seattle Times. “Since 2019 the Bellevue Arts Museum has consistently lost the trust of its community and their donors… I resigned from my position as a member of the board of trustees when it became evident that this lack of accountability was systemic. After reading their plea to be ‘saved’ I have no reason to believe anything has changed.”