Museum loses out on SCFD funding

Contemporary art facility was 2 days late with paperwork

Erika Gonzalez, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 15, 2006 at midnight

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The expanding Museum of Contemporary Art won't receive any proceeds from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District this year because it missed the deadline for submitting its application for funding.

After receiving the museum's audit on June 8 - two days late - the district's board decided to remove the museum from it's Tier II category of funding.

"The board thought it was important to uphold the deadline," said Mary Ellen Williams, administrator for the district. "We have to quickly review all the applications in order to let the organizations and the board know who is in Tier II and what their distribution is by the end of July, so there's not a lot of time to wait for extra material."

The museum received roughly $81,000 in funding last year. A spokesman for the museum said the loss of funding was not a cause for alarm, even though MCA is in the midst of raising $5 million for a new home in the Central Platte Valley.

"It's certainly not a permanent condition," said the museum's deputy director Judy Hussie-Taylor. "We keep forging ahead and making our financial goals."

Hussie-Taylor said the museum plans to make up the loss of funding through other sources, including museum memberships, individual donations, and grants from family and corporate foundations.

"We are operationally sound and we have plans in place because there is no guarantee that any one of your revenue sources will be there every year," said Hussie-Taylor.

MCA has already raised close to $10 million for its new $15 million building, designed by British architect David Adjaye. The facility, featuring five galleries on two levels, is slated to open next summer.

gonzaleze@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5350

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