Inside the Southwest Museum Part III: The Autry's Vision

The following is the final in a three-part series on the in Mount Washington. Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch recently toured the soon-to-be 100-year-old building, and got a first hand look at the extensive work that is being done to catalog and preserve the massive collection stored there.

  focused on the state of the collection and the restoration effort. of the series looked at the condition of the historic structure. In the final installment, we consider two distinct futures laid out for museum. considers the arguments of the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition.

For more background on the Southwest Museum and the debate over its future,

At a June 20 meeting of the Los Angeles City Council’s Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee, Autry National Center CEO Daniel Finley made clear his intentions for the Southwest Museum of the American Indian.

Finley submitted to the committee a letter, which had previously been sent to Councilman José Huizar, stating that the Autry, which merged with the Southwest Museum and took possession of its historic site and collection in 2003, “has no plans to operate a museum [inside the Southwest Museum].”

Read Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition Member Nicole Possert's response to Finely's letter .

While a 2003 architectural study of the Southwest Museum by Levin & Associates and a concurrent financial analysis by Economic Research Associates (ERA) lays out the vision of a modernized museum with expanded programming and exhibition space, the Autry’s 2006 Master Plan also explicitly states that the reopening the Southwest Museum is “not contemplated due to technical and financial limitations.”

ERA’s 2003 analysis of the Southwest Museum put a $22.8 million price tag on the full-scale renovation of the building.

Perhaps the Autry’s boldest statement against the reopening of the Southwest Museum came in August of 2009, when the Autry withdrew a $175 million plan to expand their Griffith Park campus, due to an unwillingness to accept stipulations proposed by Los Angeles Councilman José Huizar that they also commit to reopening the historic Mount Washington campus.

In rejecting those stipulations, former Autry CEO John Grey said that "as a non-profit, [The Autry] has fiduciary obligations that do not allow us to make the sort of commitments to Mount Washington that have been requested of us."

Later that year, the Autry also rejected Huizar’s offer of a $25 million low interest Proposition 84 loan, to be used for the renovation of the Southwest Museum.

Joan Cumming, senior director of marketing and communications for the Autry, said that as of 2011, the Autry’s future efforts will focus on maintaining the Southwest Museum’s collection and providing a suitable display place for it in their Griffith Park Campus.

According to Joe Bollert, director of the Southwest Museum project, the Autry National Center budgets approximately $268,000 per quarter for preserving the collection. Overall estimates of the Autry’s investment in the Southwest Museum’s Collection are around $9 million.

Obstacles and Opportunities

What Southwest Museum supporters consider one of the building’s strongest assets—its location on a hill high above the Arroyo Seco in one of Los Angeles’ oldest neighborhoods—may also be one the biggest obstacles to its future as a museum.

The Autry’s 2006 Master Plan, describes the museum’s location within a mixed residential/commercial area as a detriment to “way finding” for visitors.

The Master Plan also points to Americans With Disabilities Act and fire/life safety compliance issues a major detriment to visitors and refers to the 85 space upper parking lot as “insufficient.”

The Levin & Associates plan also points to obstacles presented by the Southwest Museum’s location, including its distance from Downtown and Central Los Angeles.

A “Mixed Use” Future

“We believe we have a positive and respectful future in mind for the site of Los Angeles’s first museum. By bringing in a different type of not-for-profit--an organization that does not rely on admission and membership for survival, but one that can bring quality educational, artistic, and community programming to this site--ensures the doors will always be open,” Cumming wrote in an e-mail to Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch. “The Autry will continue to underwrite the care and storage of the Southwest Museum Collection while making exhibitions and collection loans possible as part of a new and vibrant Southwest Museum site.“

As for the Southest Museum itself, Finley’s letter to Huizar calls for the city to take legal possession of the site, and for a non-profit with a “historical, cultural or artistic mission” to take responsibility for operating it.

Through this plan, the Autry would cover the initial cost of installing a “modest” exhibit inside the museum, but retain full legal ownership of both the entire Southwest Museum Collection and name.

In January, both the Autry and Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition appeared to be on the path to ensuring that mixed use future through a partnership with Occidential College.

Read Patch's article about the potential Autry-Oxy partnership .

Though the Friends were not willing to submit to several of Autry’s conditions, including their insistence on maintaining rights to the Southwest Museum’s name and complete control over what items would be displayed at the historic museum, a pair of meetings had taken place.

However, after the recent weeks of contentious meetings, maneuvering, appeals and threatened lawsuits, the future of the Southwest Museum is no clearer than it was following the 2003 merger