Will the Tucson Museum of Art someday become the Oro Valley Museum of Art? Or the Foothills Museum of Art?
More likely, it will become the Art Museum of Southeastern Arizona, according to Richard "Andy" Anderson, the museum’s past board president.
But one answer that’s already known, the museum has outgrown its buildings at 140 N. Main Ave. in downtown Tucson.
 Entrance to Tucson Museum of Art complex downtown. Ed Egger photo |
Anderson and Robert Knight, executive director of the museum, told the Oro Valley Town Council a site in the town is one of several options the museum is considering.
The museum’s board met Sept. 15 to consider what Knight calls a "matrix of options" on where the museum might relocate or expand. One possibility was eliminated at that meeting - locating in Marana.
The board is taking its time considering the rest of its options and is doing due diligence, said Meredith Hayes, director of public relations and marketing for the museum.
Still on the options list is a site near Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa in the Catalina Foothills, a site in Oro Valley, and the Rio Nuevo redevelopment plan’s proposed museum district west of downtown Tucson.
Knight and Anderson told the Oro Valley Town Council the town is an attractive option for the museum because it would place the facility "closer to a lot of our constituents" and would be a "safer, easier place to access."
While conceding one option might be to keep a downtown satellite operation and relocating the main museum elsewhere, Knight and Anderson said they are also considering relocating the entire museum to Oro Valley.
The town is sending a letter of interest to the museum’s board indicating there are five potential Oro Valley sites where the museum could relocate, including the Naranja Town Site, a 213-acre parcel between Tangerine Road and Naranja Drive about one mile east of La Cañada Drive. The town will seek approval of a $48.6 million bond issue in the Nov. 4 election to develop a multi-faceted recreation and cultural facility complex there.
While museum officials made it clear they weren’t in a hurry to make decisions about their future location, several town council members said it would be good to know prior to the November election if the museum liked the Naranja Town Site.
"We are open to every possibility," Knight told council members. "We need a minimum of five acres and if we develop our sculpture park in the same location, we’d need another 25 acres, but the sculpture park doesn‘t necessarily need to be in the same location as the museum."
Hays said another possibility being considered for the sculpture park is a collaboration with Biosphere 2 in Oracle.
The museum’s four-acre downtown site is on land owned by the City of Tucson. Although the museum owns the building housing most of the art, the museum also manages five restored historic properties owned by the city.
Anderson said the museum, founded in 1924, has an annual budget of $3.4 million and a staff of 50. The facility has operated profitably for 19 years and has over 8,000 objects in its collection. The facility receives about $86,000 a year from the City of Tucson for the cost of maintenance on the five historical properties, but Anderson said that is only about half what the city provided in the 1980s.
Contact reporter Ed Egger at eegger@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4238.
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