Museum Staff a Casualty of Villa Terrace, Charles Allis Privatization

Charles Allis Art Museum (top) Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum (bottom).

On New Years Day, a multi-year process to transition the Charles Allis Art Museum and the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum from public to private ownership officially began.

It will be a challenge for both institutions to survive on their own and big changes have already occurred.

In December, just before Christmas, nearly all employees at the two museums were fired. Part-time event staff, maintenance workers, curatorial staff, marketing; all were given notice that they no longer had a job with Charles Allis Villa Terrace, Inc., (CAVT) which is the non-profit that has operated the two museums since 2012.

Both museums are formerly private residences that are owned by Milwaukee County, bequeathed to the government for public exhibition. In late 2024, the county worked out a three-way deal to split the ownership of the museums and midwife the eventual transfer of the Charles Allis to CAVT and the Villa Terrace to the Friends of Villa Terrace.

The split, in theory, made sense for both museums. The institutions were only lumped together as a vestige of an earlier ownership structure when they were managed by the Milwaukee County War Memorial. But the county turned them over entirely to CAVT in 2012, albeit without ever signing a formal agreement, or lease. Twelve years later the deal approved in 2024 stripped CAVT of the primary source of revenue it was using to operate both museums: rentals at Villa Terrace.

On Dec. 19, the day of the annual CAVT holiday party, the entire staff was told their positions were being terminated, with some exceptions for staff needed on a temporary basis. One of them, Executive Director Jaymee Harvey Willms, would have her job until Jan. 25., when she returned from maternity leave — that would be her last day. The firings came as a shock, with staff wondering how the museums could possibly be operated without workers or how the CAVT board managed to find itself in this position.

The institutional split, the layoffs, all of this was the result of a county policy decision to get the two museums off the public books, to shut off the flow of public money. A contingency was even built into the 2024 deal for the possibility that the institutions do not survive on their own: they will be sold at fair market value.

In 2023, Sup. Shawn Rolland, watching the county board fail to make adequate investments in the maintenance of the two aging museum buildings, sponsored a budget amendment asking the county administration to explore strategies for eventually severing the county’s relationship with the two museums. One year later, supervisors were considering the split of the museum governance and the pathway to privatization.

CAVT, which refused to ink an agreement to operate the museums in the past, running them in an unofficial capacity for the county, was caught flat footed by the entire process. Once it became clear the county was serious about getting rid of the museum, CAVT leaders misjudged how much support they would receive to take it over.

Initially, the nonprofit asked for eventual ownership of both museums, and for a massive $10 million infusion of funding for maintenance and infrastructure accompanied by a gradual step-down of operating support. The proposal was dismissed by the county as “unrealistic.” What CAVT ended up getting was the Charles Allis museum and one year to generate sustainable funding and operations, during which time it would receive 50% of the county operating support it previously received.

“I was not anticipating that,” said Claudia Egan, chair of the CAVT board. “I thought we’d get offered a deal. I understand now why we didn’t: the political pressures are what they are.”

Egan and other CAVT board members had studied the deals the county had struck in the past with other cultural institutions, and tried to pattern their proposal after those: “they got a capital influx and a wind down of operating,” Egan said. 

But this deal was tougher and it was clear to Egan what the outcome would be for CAVT and the Charles Allis: decimation of their operating revenue. Most CAVT staff floated between the two museums, and the bulk of their hours were spent on work at the Villa Terrace. The rentals business at the Villa Terrace is also the primary source of non-county revenue CAVT used to pay staff. The split meant CAVT lost the majority of the work its staff performed and the majority of the funding they used to pay them.

The CAVT board’s primary goal was always to maintain access to the museums, not fundraise for them. This focus was shaped by the way the organization inherited the museums and by the commitment from the county to provide annual operating funding, Egan said. The nonprofit took the otherwise taxable income from rentals at the Villa Terrace and used it to program and curate the museums and pay staff; that was its charitable purpose, Egan said. For this reason, the board never structured itself as a vehicle for raising funds and sustaining itself.

“[The Friends of Villa Terrace are] also very savvy people,” Egan said. “And so here we are, the Allis firing all those people.”

The employee let go were paid by CAVT, but the work they did and the revenue used to pay them is now controlled by an entirely different entity: The Friends of Villa Terrace (FOVT).

However, FOVT was apparently just as blindsided by the CAVT layoffs.

“We did not have good communication with CAVT regarding anything related to personnel,” Doug Rose, FOVT board president told Urban Milwaukee. “They never indicated to us that they would be laying people off at any point in time.”

FOVT decided it would not hire the museum’s event staff, and instead turned the rentals business over to a private events company — Noble Events. Other staffing will be kept at the minimum, as the friends group does not believe it needs curatorial staffing, Rose said.

“We are basically leasing out the space to what we consider to be a very, very reputable and very good events management company which will handle all the weddings and other events of that nature,” Rose said.

FOVT will not be extending job offers to any of the CAVT staff, Rose said, with the possible exception of its former leader: the friends group is considering Willms for the role of Executive Director of the Villa Terrace.

“We have always wished CAVT personnel the best, and we certainly did not want anything adverse to happen regarding their employment,” Rose said. “They certainly have every every opportunity to work at Charles Allis.”

The relationship between the two nonprofits has ebbed and flowed over the years. As negotiations progressed in 2024, the relationship was clearly in an ebb. In a public meeting in December, shortly before the deal was finalized, Rose mentioned that it was proving a “difficult separation.”

“I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen any agreement that actually has specific clauses and how they cannot say negative things about each other in a legal document,” said Sup. Sheldon Wasserman, chair of the county board’s Committee on Parks and Culture.

The deal includes clauses stipulating that the two nonprofits and their employees agree not to “slander or injure the business reputation or goodwill” of the other.

Both Rose and Egan also admitted that in the past, having two nonprofits associated with and fundraising for a single institution created confusion. At times, CAVT staff have gotten involved in fundraising efforts that were actually projects of the friends group. For example, in 2022, CAVT leader Willms got involved in a fundraising effort for the rehabilitation of Hermes statue at Villa Terrace.  But the fundraiser was an FOVT project, and as Egan sees it, CAVT was paying Willms for this work and then turning around and cutting a check to FOVT for the money that came in as a result.

In 2024, Megan Holbrook, former chair of the FOVT, described the organization’s 100th anniversary gala as an opportunity to show off the hard work of CAVT staff. But the ticket admission for the gala wasn’t supporting the work on display, CAVT’s operating budget was.

The split will clear up all this confusion for donors, Rose said. Both organizations now need to chart a course for the future if they are to survive.

Wasserman, whose district includes both museums, is giving CAVT the benefit of the doubt in the wake of layoffs.

“They are trying to get their house in order,” Wasserman said, “but they have a lot of things to do and it’s problematic.”

The supervisor said it is critical that both entities hire executive directors that can chart a course for financial independence and public access. They need to be able to stand on their own, and they need to run themselves however they see fit to achieve that and maintain public access, Wasserman said.

“We are not going to be giving them money… unless they meet the specific achievable goals in terms of self governance and self sufficiency,” the supervisor said.

Rolland, who authored the budget amendment setting the events of last year in motion, said he was hearing “mixed opinions” about the necessity of the layoffs, adding, “Ultimately, museum leadership is making these difficult decisions.”

“We are all rooting for the new Charles Allis and Villa Terrace boards to be successful,” he said. “Thanks to the fiscally responsible plan these boards agreed to, Milwaukee County can strategically shift $22 million to the priorities people care about most – and both museums can work to become independent and financially sustainable.”

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