Terra Museum Gets Down-to-Earth
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But with the founder’s blessing, it appears, Donnelley is intent on changing things. Other museum executives think Donnelley is just the man for the job, even though he has no experience at art museums. Museum of Contemporary Art CEO Kevin Consey says Donnelley has the political skills necessary to transform the museum “from a private collection into a public institution.” Hal Stewart, the Terra’s new, first-ever director of development, says Donnelley firmly believes that the people in charge of museums must realize the arts are a business and run their institutions accordingly if they are to survive.
Donnelley may never have worked at an art museum, but he’s no stranger to art or to business. A scion of the well-known printing family, Donnelley remembers as a child asking for an Art Institute of Chicago membership instead of a bicycle. While a student at Yale, he wrote about art for the school newspaper. For 30 years he worked at the First National Bank of Chicago developing the bank’s corporate art collection and helping many of the city’s cultural institutions arrange financing. Along the way he also served on the boards of directors at the School of the Art Institute and the MCA.
Down the road Donnelley doesn’t rule out selling the Michigan Avenue property and moving the museum to another site that would meet the Terra’s expanding needs. But, he says, such a decision is at least five to seven years away. In the meantime he’s launching a vigorous fund-raising campaign for the museum’s educational programs, and he has green-lighted renovations in the galleries, classrooms, and lecture halls beginning in August. And, he says, he’s finally warming to the job. “I’m in this for the long haul.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Yael Routtenberg.
