Walmart heir wants museums to attract more people and donates $40 million to help
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The Museo de Arte in Puerto Rico is one of 64 art museums receiving grants as part of a new initiative called "Access for All" funded by Alice Walton's Art Bridges foundation.Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico -
Alice Walton believes all museums should be free.Stephen Ironside / Ironside Photography -
Space Fall by Akili Ron Anderson, 2015 Lithograph 24 x 37, from The Ronald W. and Patricia Walters Collection at the Howard University Gallery of Art.Howard University Gallery of Art
Alice Walton's foundation Art Bridges is providing $40 million in grants to 64 museums around the country, it announced Wednesday. The grants, ranging from $56,000 to more than $2 million for a three-year period, are intended to fund programs to attract new audiences, whether that means extending free hours or offering free meals.
Walton, one of the billionaire heirs to the Walmart fortune, said the impetus for the initiative, called "Access for All," was the pandemic's impact on museums and the general public.
"I think that there are a lot of repercussions in terms of mental health and stability for people coming out of the pandemic. So I really see this as a crucial point in time where we all need to figure out everything we can do to create that access," Walton said.
According to the American Alliance of Museums, recovery from the pandemic has been inconsistent. While nearly half of museums project an increase this year to their bottom lines, two-thirds report that attendance is down 30% from pre-pandemic levels.
Museums were chosen based on "annual operating expenses and admission cost structure," according to a statement from Art Bridges. Among the museums receiving grants are the Wichita Art Museum, The San Diego Museum of Art, the Delaware Art Museum and the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University.
Free can be costly for many museums
María C. Gaztambide, executive director of Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, called the Access for All grant "transformational" (Art Bridges is not disclosing the grant amount). The museum has been free for just a few hours a week on Thursdays, but the money will go toward extending those hours and creating monthly family days, among other things.
Walton told NPR that she believes all museums should be free. But Gaztambide does not foresee a time when that could be a reality for Museo de Arte. Since the 2014 Puerto Rican debt crisis, she said, "energy costs are stratospheric."
"Of course, we would like our museum to be free," she said. "But we can't with the kind of energy bills that we face each month."
Free doesn't always equal an audience
Another grant recipient, the Howard University Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is always free. Yet co-director Kathryn Coney-Ali said there are plenty of people who don't know the gallery exists, even though it was established in the late 1920s. Their plans for the grant include developing an interdisciplinary fine arts festival and bilingual programming.
In addition to attracting new visitors, Walton hopes the grants give museums the opportunity to focus on long-term sustainability.
"I hope it gives them the incentive to reach deep in their own communities to those that are able to help fund free access, at least for a part of the time," Walton said.
This story was edited by Jennifer Vanasco. The audio was produced by Phil Harrell.
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Transcript
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
One of the richest women in the world believes art museums should be free.
ALICE WALTON: Everyone deserves access to art no matter where they live or what their situation is.
MARTIN: That's Alice Walton, one of the heirs to the Walmart fortune and a billionaire. Today, one of her foundations, Art Bridges, is announcing it is giving away $40 million in grants to dozens of museums around the country. Alice Walton is also associated with the Walton Family Foundation, which is a supporter of NPR. And NPR's Elizabeth Blair has more.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: Alice Walton has spent tens of millions of dollars buying art. Much of it can be seen at Crystal Bridges, the Arkansas museum she founded that opened in 2011. She believes the pandemic has made art more important than ever.
WALTON: It sparks things in us that take us out of the everyday. We see things through someone else's eyes.
BLAIR: Sixty-four museums around the country will receive grants from Walton's Art Bridges Foundation, ranging from 56,000 to more than $2 million. And with that money, Walton wants them to focus on attracting people who've never gone through their doors, whether it's by extending free hours or offering free meals.
WALTON: We intentionally didn't put a lot of constraints on the utilization because each community's different and each museum's different, and they need to figure out what will work best for them.
BLAIR: Maria Gaztambide is the executive director of the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. It's getting one of the grants. She says the money will be transformational for the museum. It's housed in a neoclassical building that was once a hospital.
MARIA GAZTAMBIDE: There's this preconception that we might not be welcome in that space, or the space itself, the architecture of the space itself, is imposing. And so we want to break down those barriers.
BLAIR: Gaztambide says the museum is planning family days that will include music, theater, dance and poetry. The grant will also allow them to extend free admission hours on Thursdays. She says ever since the Puerto Rican debt crisis of 2014, energy prices have been stratospheric. She does not foresee a day when they'll be free all the time.
GAZTAMBIDE: Of course, we would like our museum to be free, and we're finding ways of maximizing the time that it is free for people. But we can't with the kind of energy bills that we face each month.
BLAIR: Walton is happy to help with these issues, but she also thinks long-term sustainability for museums comes from local support.
WALTON: I hope it gives them the incentive to reach deep in their own communities to those that are able to help fund free access.
BLAIR: In other words, find your local Alice Walton to help fund your museum.
Elizabeth Blair, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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