NASHVILLE -- Gov. Bill Haslam will be leading the planned $40 million private fundraising campaign intended to bolster $120 million in taxpayer support for the new Tennessee State Museum.
In a presentation to the state's Douglas Henry Museum Commission on Monday, the governor's chief of staff, Mark Cate, outlined plans for both fundraising and construction of the facility, which will be located on the Bicentennial Capitol Mall in Nashville.
"The governor would have to have a lot of ownership in this," Cate said in his presentation to the commission, calling it a "very complicated project with a lot of stakeholders."
Haslam included the $120 million in state appropriations in the budget approved this spring by state lawmakers.
The $160 million project will provide the museum with its first stand-alone building in the institution's 78-year existence. The museum houses Tennessee historical, cultural and archeological artifacts and provides educational displays. It currently is housed in cramped quarters in the basement of the James K. Polk State Office Building in Nashville.
Staff Photo By Doug StricklandThe Tennessee Promise program offered by Gov. Bill Haslam, shown speaking to a group of Chattanooga State Community College students last month, can be a free ticket to an education and a good job if students are willing to take advantage of it.
Mark CateCate, who plans to leave the administration on Aug. 1, said the museum will continue operating in its current space for about three more years until the new building becomes operational. That will cover the fundraising campaign intended to attract corporate and individual support as well as the construction period.
Haslam will appoint a "steering committee" intended to provide "high level" oversight and provide recommendations on major decisions. The governor or his designee will head the committee.
Day-to-day project oversight would be provided by the Department of General Services which would contract with an external project manager
Other members include two members of the Museum Commission, two members of the ancillary Museum Foundation Board which currently does fundraising for museum purchases, the state architect who answers to the State Building Commission and the state General Services commissioner. Museum Executive Director Lois Riggins-Ezzell will serve as an ex-officio member.
The Museum Foundation, meanwhile, will create a new State Museum Capital Campaign over which Haslam would serve as chairman. It would include at least three foundation members as well as donors and stakeholders seen as "key" to the campaign's fundraising success. Haslam will help recruit members and leadership.
Cate said the Museum Capital Campaign will hire a fundraising firm. He said the fundraising could be done with a $1.75 million expenditure which is equivalent to a 4.3 percent expensive ratio. Similar nonprofit fundraising efforts for such projects typically have ratios of between 5-10 percent, he said.
Commission member Robert Buchanan, a Nashville attorney who is president of the Tennessee Historical Society, wanted to know how public the planning process would be.
"This will absolutely be an open, transparent process," Cate told him.
Another commissioner, former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, was interested in the fundraising process, wanting to know if donors' names would be made public.
"I think your point is right on," Cate told Ashe. "We definitely would anticipate making opportunities, you know, you've been involved in a lot of these things. We would want to think that through but we think that would advantageous to our fundraising opportunities."
For example, Cate said, the new museum will have a theater which should attract the interest of either an individual donor, corporation or foundation.
In an interview last week, Riggins-Ezzell, who has served as executive director since 1981, said she hopes the new museum will be a "crowning achievement" for the governor.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550.
The front entrance of the Tennessee State Museum. Gov. Bill Haslam's budget for the new fiscal year includes $120 million for construction of a new museum on the Bicentennial Mall and is expected to be bolstered by a $40 million private fundraising campaign.