Marshant Museum Of Art And History

MARSHANT MUSEUM OF ART and HISTORY

The net income Ð'-loss- of the Marshant Museum of Art and History was pretty low between 2002 and 2004. These three consecutive years of losses followed seven consecutive years of either breakeven or profitable status. That's why, in the early 2005, Ashley Mercer, Director of Development and Community Affairs, and Donald Pate, Director of Finance and Administration, of the Marshant Museum of Art and History, discussed what had transpired at a meeting the previous afternoon. Mercer and Pate were assigned responsibility for making recommendations that would reverse the situation.

The Marshant Museum of Art and History (MMAH) is founded in1925. It is a non-profit corporation located in Universal City, western United States. MMAH was in the beginning contracted as the Fannel County Museum of Fine Arts and funded by an annual appropriation from Fannel County. The name was changed to the Jonathan A. Marshant Museum of Art and History in order to reorganize the museum's major benefactor, Jonathan A. Marshant, in 2000. He had provided the museum with a sizable donation. According to the terms of a $25 million gift given to the museum upon his death, the museum's charter was revised and its name changed. Its purpose was "to provide an inviting setting for the appreciation of art in its historical and cultural contexts for the benefit of this and successive generations of Fannel County citizens and visitors" . According to Randall Brent III, the Museum Director, this charter is different from the other museums, it gives both and opportunity and s challenge. He thinks that the museum offers a unique perspective both art and history as an opportunity, also as an challenge he says that a person can only truly appreciate what the museum has there if the person is willing to become historically literate.

MMAH has over 15,000 works of art in its permanent collection that includes pre-Colombian, African, and Depression-era art, as well as European and American decorative arts.

The company's net income (loss) is about $- 383,000 (2004), $-183,000 (2003), $- 226,000 (2002). These three consecutive years of losses followed seven consecutive years of either breakeven or profitable status. Finally, several observations and projections were made that indicated that the museum's financial condition needed attention:

Ð'* The appropriation from Fannel County would decline and whereas the county appropriated about $2 million annually