The Space to Succeed
Anyone thinking of starting a museum would do well to emulate the much lauded Nasher Sculpture Center, which Dallas shopping center developer Ray Nasher, 84, opened in October 2003 to exhibit the collection of modern and contemporary sculpture that he and his late wife, Patsy, had built over half a century. Nasher spent approximately $70 million to build the museum, and was immersed in practically every detail—from selecting the downtown Dallas Arts District site next to the Dallas Museum of Art, to hiring world-renowned architect Renzo Piano, to choosing smaller details such as the custom oak floors and Venetian glass.

"I was always totally involved, and I was fortunate that I had a background in real estate development," Nasher says. His collection of approximately 700 pieces of 20th-century sculpture, including nine of the famed Women of Giacometti as well as Rodin’s Age of Bronze, is so comprehensive that several of the world’s best museums, including the Tate in London and the Guggenheim in New York, have vied for it; a few even offered to build a separate sculpture garden, to no avail. "This is a lasting thing that I’ve created, and it’s totally different than giving away a collection," Nasher explains. "When you give a collection away . . . they handle it as they will, and you’re relieved of any responsibility."

But what has made Nasher’s museum a tour de force in the art world is the combination of fine art with an important architectural showcase. Robert Campbell’s comments in the Boston Globe in October 2004 were typical of reviews from U.S. and London newspapers: "This is a building that distills the uncluttered essence of light and space . . . . The Nasher belongs on anyone’s list of the best recent American buildings."

TOP VIEW: The notion that an art collection deserves to be seen provides a powerful incentive for collectors to start their own museums. But despite altruistic intentions, these projects are dogged by high costs, diplomatic snafus and the charges that their backers are motivated mainly by vanity. Collectors have succeeded by staging creative exhibitions, engaging community support and welcoming art from other sources.

The locale for such an institution can help build bridges to the community. The ideal location is an up-and-coming cultural district. This not only makes the benefactor a friend of both the community and local government, but also makes it easily accessible for visitors. The Nasher Sculpture Center helped spur development of the Arts District in Dallas. The Rubins chose a former Barney’s department store building in Chelsea, an area that in the late 1990s was beginning to attract artists and galleries priced out of SoHo.

Livia and Marc Strauss, who started the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill, N.Y., in 2004, believed their museum could inject some much needed life into Peekskill, a small city about 40 miles north of Manhattan on the Hudson River. For the past decade, Peekskill has attempted to foster an arts community as a way to revive its fortunes. In September 2004, New York Times critic Benjamin Genocchio called the Strauss museum, located on the site of a former home improvement store on Main Street, "the most dynamic contemporary art site in Westchester [County]."

The Rubins also understood, from the outset, that it was important to engage their neighbors. Once they settled upon the former Barney’s site as their venue, the Rubins hired a project director, Lisa Schubert, and a start-up consulting team to attend community board meetings to keep local residents apprised of the Rubins’ plans. They hired another staffer to be a conduit for questions and concerns from neighbors, and invited area residents to the museum’s inaugural events. Since the opening, they have employed a staff person dedicated to community outreach efforts.