Committee Approves Villa Terrace Takeover Plan

A plan to transfer ownership of the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum from Milwaukee County to a nonprofit group received a thumbs up Tuesday from county supervisors.

The Milwaukee County Board’s Committee on Parks and Recreation voted unanimously to give the county administration authority to negotiate a transfer of the Villa Terrace to the Friends of Villa Terrace. The unanimous vote also gave direction to the county’s Office of Corporation Counsel to begin investigating options for dissolving the trust applied to the Charles Allis Art Museum.

Charles Allis and Villa Terrace have been managed and operated by a single entity — Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Museums, Inc. (CAVT) — since 2012. Both museums were originally private homes that were bequeathed directly, or indirectly, to the county along with the art collections they contained. The county owns the buildings and art collections.

The county has a massive backlog of maintenance affecting every major function of the government estimated at approximately $1 billion, half of which is in the parks system alone. The county has more infrastructure needs than it can afford, and it needs to decrease its portfolio of assets and infrastructure. Milwaukee County Parks recently received a green light to begin liquidating some of its underused and vacant assets, and county government has been downsizing its building footprint for years.

Like so many other county owned properties, maintenance at the two museums has been deferred over the years. It’s estimated the two buildings will need approximately $18 million in maintenance over the next 20 years. The county currently provides $225,108 for their operations, and policymakers have struggled to fund requests for their maintenance in recent years.

In 2023, the board passed an amendment asking the county administration to “explore opportunities to terminate the County’s ongoing operational and capital support” for the museums. The county has been slow-walking a number of cultural institutions to independency. Now policymakers are looking to get the two east-side museums off the county’s books, as well.

Villa Terrace Transfer

When the county opened up a public call for ideas for the two museums, The Friends of Villa Terrace was one of four organizations that responded.

The group is proposing separating the governance for the two museums and taking over operations and financial responsibility for Villa Terrace. The friends group is asking the county for $3 million in funding for maintenance over five years and $125,000 over three years for operations as it assumes full responsibility. The group would fundraise approximately $1.5 million to set up a $500,000 endowment and assist with maintenance costs. The group is willing to consider taking control of the Charles Allis art collection, but not the building.

The group is prepared to immediately begin raising money and negotiating a transfer with the county, board members told supervisors on the parks committee Tuesday.

“We’re motivated; we want to do this; we want to do it now,” said Doug Rose, president of the friends group’s board of directors.

The friends group was created in 1990 to fundraise and provide programming at Villa Terrace. The group has extensive experience raising money, and has already begun speaking with potential donors to a capital campaign, said Barbara Velez, a professional fundraising and board member. The group is confidant they can raise at least $1.5 million.

“We need to start moving,” Velez said. “We can’t delay.”

CAVT Wants Three Years To Plan Transition for Charles Allis

Leaders of the nonprofit that currently runs the two museums told supervisors they were unprepared to develop a plan for ownership and longterm financial responsibility for the Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Museums.

Board President Claudia Egan asked supervisors on the parks committee to amend their Villa Terrace resolution to maintain operational funding for Charles Allis and give the nonprofit three years to develop a plan. At this point, CAVT supports transferring Villa Terrace to the friends group. The group wants the county to begin negotiating with CAVT on a transfer of the Charles Allis museum, too, Egan said.

“Shifting our focus and our function and having only a single museum — the [Charles] Allis — to work with gives us much more hope and much more ability to raise funds for something that’s distinct and unique, as opposed to being stuck with the Villa [Terrace], as it were,” Egan said. “So our goal here is to ensure that both entities survive.”

Sup. Jack Eckblad noted that other county cultural institutions that have negotiated ownership transfers with the county came to the table with firm numbers and plans that CAVT has, as of yet, failed to develop.

Egan said the nonprofit has had “two exploratory conversations” with entities that could provide funding, and stabilize operations at Charles Allis, but had nothing concrete to report. “We could not, in good conscience, say honestly that we can come up with a million dollars in a year, because we don’t think we can,” Egan said. “Do we think we can in three years? Yes.”

Sup. Steve Taylor, who wants to see the county sell the Charles Allis building, said $1 million in three years will not bring CAVT close to the millions in maintenance the facility needs.

“What I believe the Charles Allis is asking for in the amendment they’re proposing is money from the county to continue, basically, the status quo while they find a solution to the capital needs and the management needs,” Eckblad said. “It seems like there isn’t really a solution being proposed for both.”

Egan agreed, in part, with Eckblad’s assessment, but said it leaves out that CAVT needs to rebuild its board, which is currently configured as a governing board for both institutions and not a fundraising board for just the Charles Allis, she said.

CAVT Executive Director Jaymee Harvey Willms said she thought it was “crucial” for supervisors to have the county negotiate with both the CAVT and the Friends of Villa Terrace. The executive director also said the county board should “consider the amount of time it takes for a nonprofit to be successful and survive.”

CAVT has never had a formal agreement with the county to manage the museums, despite past attempts by the county to formalize the relationship. Now, depending on what direction county policymakers take, the nonprofit could find itself without a museum to manage or an art collection to program.

Taylor said he thought negotiating with both entities was reasonable and characterized the split as a “divorce.” He also said he does not support providing additional funding from the county, adding that he doesn’t like the funding proposal of $3 million for Villa Terrace, but the group at least has a plan to get the property off the county’s books.

“If the Charles Allis has the value that you’re saying it does, then find some money,” he said.

Willms said her organization included a request for infrastructure funding because the county owns and has deferred maintenance at the Charles Allis. “I would urge you to consider the responsibility the county has for deferring maintenance,” Willms said.

CAVT was initially asking the county for $10 million and continued operational funding for an unspecified time until the nonprofit was ready to take over. When the proposal was poorly received by the county administration the group downgraded their capital request.

Taylor said the CAVT representatives were being “short sighted” for not considering selling the mansion to pay for a new home for the art collection. The funding they are asking for could other go toward “parks and playgrounds and pools and everything else that’s a higher priority for this body,” Taylor said. “That’s what you’re up against.”

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