Arkansas Arts Center officials are looking for a way to finance the purchase of a generator -- a move that would help prevent its art from becoming damaged when the power goes out.
A generator, estimated to cost $800,000, would allow the art museum, children's theater and museum school to function during those times, the museum board's executive committee members said.
The Little Rock museum is maintained at about 70 degrees and 50 percent humidity to protect its collections and exhibitions, said Todd Herman, the center's executive director. The gallery and storage spaces are designed in a way that allows them to hold temperature and humidity for a limited period of time if the power fails, he said.
But, he said a generator is needed in case of longer power disruptions. Rapid fluctuations in temperature and humidity could cause damage to the museum's art.
"The danger is when it moves very quickly," he said. "If something went from 70 degrees to 75 degrees over a period of 72 hours, that's not going to be as damaging [as] if it went from 70 to 75 in two hours."
Herman said this type of damage isn't immediately obvious, but accumulates over long periods of time.
"If it were to continue to fluctuate and keep flexing, eventually damage will occur to the work of art," he said. "Since our job is to maintain these things for generations even a hundred years from how, we need to take care of them."
Longer power failures can also affect the running of the museum school's kilns, ovens used in the process of making pottery.
Herman said the center had to cancel one of its children's theater shows earlier this year when the power went out and there was no generator for the lights to run.
"We basically have to vacate the building," he said. "We lose revenue."
Herman said having a generator is a best practice in the museum field.
"An institution of this size with a collection that's this important and this valuable, you'd be hard-pressed to find one without a generator," he said.
Committee members have discussed several options for paying for the generator. Earlier this month, they agreed that the first step would be to find out if there are energy grants available to fund the project.
"There's something out there, I would think," said Robert Burnett, one of the center's trustees. "There are energy programs all over the place."
Committee members also discussed approaching city officials about funding the project if grants cannot be acquired.
The Arts Center is housed in a building owned by the city in MacArthur Park.
In its 2014 operating budget, the city appropriated $400,000 to the center. City Manager Bruce Moore said the allocation goes mostly toward maintenance, which is performed by Arts Center employees. Moore said he didn't know whether the city would contribute to the purchase of a generator.
"We'll discuss that with the [Arts Center] staff as the project moves forward," he said.
Committee members said that if they couldn't get funding for the generator through grants or the city, they would look into taking out loans.
"We need to challenge ourselves with coming up with some type of solution," said Mary Ellen Vangilder, president of the center's board of trustees.
Herman said the center has previously been unable to seriously consider purchasing a generator because it was experiencing financial problems.
"In the first few years I was here, at the top of the list was getting the institution to fiscal stability," he said. "Now that we've had four consecutive years of ending the year in the black, we feel now that we need to concentrate on doing some of these deferred things."
Metro on 06/15/2014