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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > January > 20 > Entry
Money troubles at Latino arts museum in San Antonio
Looks like San Antonio’s Smithsonian affiliated Museo Alameda, aka, the Alameda National Center for Latino Arts and Culture — which opened to great fanfare three years ago — has stumbled financially.
Here’s a story from the Associated Press:
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The nation’s largest museum devoted to Latino culture and arts is having money trouble three years after it opened.
The Alameda National Center for Latino Arts and Culture spent grant money intended for its charter school on the cash-strapped Museo Alameda, the San Antonio Express News reported Wednesday, citing minutes of a Nov. 9 Alameda board meeting. The $1 million Henry Ford Learning Institute grant, announced in August, was earmarked for renovations at the Henry Ford Academy: Alameda School for Art + Design.
The money was used before Margarita Flores took over as head of the nonprofit organization that oversees the museum, the charter school, the Alameda Theater and the Casa de Mexico office building, according to the Express-News.
Maintaining a museum “is a very expensive endeavor,” Flores said. “So was this spent on frivolous or things that are not the right things? No. It was spent on the operating expenses for the museum.”
Some of the grant money was used for the school, she said.
The Museo Alameda, which opened in April 2007, is about $1.5 million in debt. In recent months, the Smithsonian affiliate has struggled to pay staff and stay open.
During the November meeting, the board approved an amendment to the agreement between the Henry Ford Learning Institute and the Alameda that essentially gives the organization until Aug. 31, 2011, to meet terms of the grant.
“We look forward to the future and our continued partnership with the Centro Alameda and other community partners,” the institute said in a statement.
In 2008, Bexar County voters approved $6 million in venue tax funds for restoration of the Alameda Theater.
County Judge Nelson Wolff, who described the Alameda as being “on very dangerous ground right now,” said the county is “closely monitoring” the group.
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