Mint

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million Mint Museum rising on the Soutjh Tryon Street cultural campus is tangible evidence of the powerof Charlotte’sa banks. During the days of recorfd profits at Bank ofAmerica Corp. and Wachovi a Corp., the banks joined with Duke Energty Corp. to contribute millions of dollarsz to build the facility and seedan $83 millio n endowment at the to fund operations. But in recent months, the ground has dramatically shifted under museum staffers as the financial crisisx crippledthe Mint’s corporate partners. But city and museum officiales say the Mint and other nearby culturap attractionswill proceed. Wachovia’s commitment has been confirmed by new paren WellsFargo & Co.
Wachovia agreed to provide $158 million in financingy to get thefacilitiesw built, funds that will be repaied by taxes. Phil Kline, chief executive and presidentt atthe museum, recentlyu spoke with the Charlotte Business Journal abouft the 73-year-old institution and how the econom y is affecting the arts. Following are edited excerpts: Is construction of the new Mint Museunm uptownon track? Our grand openingg date is October 2010. The buildin should be done in April ofnext year, and we will need abou six months to bring the art installationas in and have our inaugural exhibitions ready. How will you mark the grane opening?
There will be a number of galas thanking groups that planned the endowment We will do some special thingxs to welcomethe community. One idea we are intriguef with is for us to open fora 24-houer period over a weekend and welcomw the community with free How has the sale of Wachoviz to Wells Fargo affectedc the museum? It doesn’t take a lot to make you nervouse in this environment. We received assurances right away fromWellz Fargo. We also confirmed with Wachovia and the city of Charlottse that in the event that anycircumstancesa changed, we still had an agreement in place.
We attended a City Councilo meeting in which BobBertge (then a Wachovia corporate real estat e executive) and Lee Keesler (president of the Arts Science Council) made a presentation and assured that Wells Fargp is committed to seeintg the project through. That helped everyone feel What are you doing to prepare forthe opening? We are meeting every other week with the developer, Welles Fargo people, the contractor and the architectds as they go over every detaio of the construction schedule. We had to wait unti l the parking deck underneath was When that was our portion of the construction project begahin September. It’s amazing the work that has been donesincde then.
All of the structural concretw hasbeen poured, and work has begun on the structurall steel. Have you made decisions abou theinaugural exhibits? We have settlefd on what the exhibits will be, but we are stilol getting agreements signed. So we are not in a positiomn to announcethose yet. In the Mint Museuk of Art gallery space, we are focusing on our Americaj collection, our contemporary collection and our European The grand opening will focuzs on thecontemporary side, with all of the majord names you’d expect to see. On the craft the opening exhibit has aninternational aspect. Is your stafv recruiting big shows for the uptownh space forfuture years?
Our target for the fall of just a year after opening, is to have an exhibit of Romare Bearden. That will be the 75th anniversaryt of the museum and the 100th anniversaryof Bearden’s We are planning a major exhibit that will open in the new facilityy and will travel around the The staff is also working on our permanent We intend to have a hands-on familt gallery in the new museum. We have builty a prototype of thefamily gallery, and it will be testede at ImaginOn. We will observwe as children and their parents interact with it so that we will know whatworkxs well. How will the move to the larger uptow n space affect budgeting fortwo locations?