Schneider Museum of Art loses funding from SOU for at least three years; University administrators to meet today with executive director on path forward

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

A plan for an estimated $8 million redesign and rebuild of the Schneider Museum of Art has been shelved for now as 100% of funding from Southern Oregon University has been eliminated for the museum under the university’s budget-cutting Resiliency Plan for at least three years and possibly indefinitely, a decision to be made by SOU’s administration.

The university-affiliated museum had already hired a local architect to design the rebuild, which Scott Malbaurn, executive director of the museum, called “ultimately a new museum,” and would have included the following: a basement for storage, four new galleries, a second floor with room for more exhibitions, a classroom to hold events, space for the museum’s permanent collection, new expanded restrooms, a loading dock, and a rooftop deck with views of Grizzly Peak. 

The funding for the rebuild, which would more than double the museum’s 4,000-square-foot footprint, would have come from $2 million in naming rights for each of four galleries inside the new museum, according to Malbaurn. 

“Last year, we were working towards … the possibility of a new museum, and now a complete 180,” Malbaurn said. “These dollars that we’ve raised and saved for exhibitions and programming to possibly go toward these renovations are now being re-earmarked to be put towards salaries and benefits.

“By lowering the bar of what we’re able to do ultimately … it’s just us going backwards,” he added.

As of Wednesday, Oct. 29, Malbaurn was slated to meet with Provost Casey Shillam and Dean of Arts & Humanities Andrew Gay at SOU on Thursday, Oct. 30, to discuss how to move forward.

“I’m hoping at that meeting to know if the museum is indeed going to be 100% fundraising dollars indefinitely, or if it will be just for a three-year period, as per other programs were allotted,” Malbaurn told Ashland.news in a phone interview this week. 

“We really need to know where we stand with the university,” he added.

The Schneider Museum of Art opened its doors in 1986, with Bill and Florence Schneider leaving an endowment, Malbaurn said, providing about $40,000 a year for the museum’s working and operating budget.

The museum is also funded through grants, museum memberships and other fundraising activities that keep the museum operational and able to host exhibitions, according to Malbaurn.

“It is the visual arts equivalent of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival,” Malbaurn said.

“That’s what we’re offering in terms of the art here.”

Malbaurn said, if the museum has to fundraise for 100% of salaries and benefits for its three full-time employees rather than 30% previously, “it’s going to leave scraps to go towards exhibitions and programs” and could equate to removing one of its four seasonal exhibitions, which in the fall costs around $186,000.

If museum staff are not successful in fully fundraising its positions, “we could be terminated without notice,” Malbaurn said.

“You kind of feel like the rug was pulled from underneath you,” he added.

That as Malbaurn estimates the museum could likely lose money this year, looking at a decline overall in the art market and revenues for the nonprofit that are down by nearly 75% compared to this time last year.

“That tells us … we’re going to start losing money compared to what we have been doing without being an institutional museum, without institutional support,” Malbaurn said.

Malbaurn said SOU President Rick Bailey gave him “the green light” in 2024 on starting to work toward these renovations, which would require a “total teardown” of the current 1986 structure.

“The structural engineer confirmed that the current structure cannot handle these new renovations,” Malbaurn said. 

The museum hired an architect to design the rebuild and they hired a structural engineer, Malbaurn said.

“We put out over $30,000 for this work to be done last fall and now all of that is probably not going to go anywhere anytime soon,” Malbaurn told Ashland.news this week via phone.

“We were saving up money, but we were also poised to do …  major fundraising,” he added.

“We were getting ready to take on the possibility of funding for a new museum. I shared with the university we would take that work on ourselves. We would not ask SOU for any help.”

Malbaurn also emphasized to administrators that he wouldn’t ask SOU to request funding from the state, either.

Malbaurn sent renderings by Arkitek architect Chris Brown to Bailey and Provost Casey Shillam in December 2024.

“That’s when things were kind of put on the back-burner,” Malbaurn said.

Up until the Resiliency Plan was unveiled this summer, Malbaurn said he wasn’t anticipating losing university funding.

“I never thought the museum would be at threat or risk,” he said, noting his shock when 100% of the museum’s funding from SOU was cut.

Malbaurn believes the current administration needs more time to understand the foundation of the museum, how it works and operates and how it serves the university and community.

“It’s a little puzzling and I think shortsighted in that maybe they’re just hopeful that our fundraising can continue to go up and be even more successful,” Malbaurn said.

After a decade at the museum, Malbaurn said he knows what the “glass ceiling” is for fundraising for the museum — what members and donors can contribute. 

“What that brings in really doesn’t bring in enough,” he said.

Malbaurn shared concerns about cuts being made to the arts at the university as part of the Resiliency Plan approved by SOU’s Board of Trustees in September.

During a tour of the museum’s current exhibits earlier this month with Malbaurn and Gay in tow, Gay expressed optimism that contributions from SOU could return.

“We’re going to work on a plan to … move back to a SOU contribution,” Gay said.

“I don’t know how long before we can get the sense of a … long-term plan,” he added. “We’re just one piece of the university and many sections of the university are going through similar (experiences).

“It’ll take some time, but one thing I am confident of is that President Bailey and Provost Shillam believe in the museum,” he added. “This is an important part of our campus, so I definitely think they want to see us achieve what we can achieve.

Gay previously served as an SOU trustee and now oversees Oregon Center for the Arts. He recalls what it felt like being in the room discussing potential cuts to numerous areas of the university as part of the Resiliency Plan.

“I was in tears in the first hour of conversation,” he said.

“Things we’re having to let go of are deeply painful. There are no good options when you’re doing these kinds of cuts.

“The Schneider Museum will stay open, (will) stay open, and continue to thrive, utilizing fundraising dollars,” Gay added. “Hopefully we can go back to SOU contributing to the budget.” 

Prior to SOU’s exigency declaration over the summer, the university contributed about $204,500 to the museum, which helped fund more than 70% of the museum staff’s benefits and salaries of employees. Museum staff were tasked with fundraising about 30%, or more than $80,000, to round out that budget, including Malbaurn’s executive director salary. 

Now that SOU’s contribution will be zero, according to the plan, Malbaurn told Ashland.news that he and staff will now need to fundraise the entire $280,000-some budget for employee salaries and benefits.

“It’s an additional $200,000 every year we have to find, or to put on top of what we were already fundraising for,” Malbaurn said.

Can it be done?

“Having (about) $1 million in the bank can get us through three years,” Malbaurn said, enough to pay salaries and benefits for each full-time employee for those three years.

But if the art market starts to do poorly, there’s going to be fewer donations to meet the demand of what is needed for fundraising, he said.

Malbaurn said there’s a separate budget for costs associated with exhibitions, programs, and workshops.

“We were fundraising close to $300,000 for exhibitions and programs, so we’re taking almost all of that budget away and now having to focus on salaries and benefits,” Malbaurn said.

“If there’s no people, there’s no museum.”

He noted that the three full-time staff positions are not endowed, but Malbaurn said the desire to do so is there.

One concept Malbaurn floated as a way to boost funding is finding a way to endow Malbaurn’s position as director, which represents the larger chunk of three positions in need of sustained funding.

“Of course if we can endow all three (positions) – problem solved,” Malbaurn said.

“First we have to secure those positions and then we can build on top of that,” he added.

In a separate interview, Malbaurn also weighed other options.

“Or do I resign from my position, which is … the bigger part of the budget coming from the university?” Malbaurn said, pondering a return to teaching and even to becoming a consultant for the museum.  

“I’m up at night brainstorming and thinking about things,” he said.

Malbaurn said that ever since he started at the museum in 2015, initially on an interim basis, he’s noticed needs in several areas of the museum, leading to a desire to renovate and then to rebuild.

“We have large artwork in crates that we have to navigate off of these large trucks at the curb and then bring them down a wheelchair ramp and it’s very precarious and kind of dangerous,” Malbaurn said, “so we’ve always wanted a loading dock.”

A storage area for fine art has also been a need for sometime, Malbaurn said, which the remodel would provide.

“Many people have wanted to donate a collection to us … we would have to say ‘no’ simply because there’s simply no room in our storage for taking that work,” he said.

Malbaurn also said the exigency declaration changes the way the museum will plan to celebrate the nonprofit’s 40th anniversary in 2026. He anticipates planning something this winter to mark the special occasion, though it may not be with the same fanfare it would have without the exigency declaration.

“Putting on an event costs money and we’re not guaranteed the return or the fundraising proceeds of an event,” he said. “We’re really … rethinking what is this new paradigm shift for the museum, what is the best direction forward, and can we secure the support we need to kind of allow us to think in creative ways as opposed to thinking of strictly survival.”

As the museum looks ahead to celebrating four decades in the community, Malbaurn reflected on the last decade in his position.

“We were at an odd place with only $20,000 in the bank,” he said, with no exhibitions planned.

Malbaurn said he created a museum council, added fundraising events and began wearing multiple hats, including grant writer and development director, in addition to executive director.

“I remember the very beginning, I said ‘give me 18 months, and I’ll show you what the contemporary art world is doing,’” Malbaurn said. “I started this position when I was 39 and this year I’ll turn 50, so I feel like I’ve really given it many of my wonderful years,” Malbaurn said.

During the past decade, Malbaurn’s 9-year-old son, whom he said was essentially raised at the museum, was also born. 

“He will give docent tours to his friends,” Malbaurn said. 

Malbaurn has made it his goal that the museum provide a way of looking at art that is “not just in a magazine, not just in a computer,” as if to show children and youth, “This is real, this is by humans — and you could do it, too.”

The museum offers K-12 tours and hands-on activities that foster creativity for local youth.

“They can meet the artists at the opening reception,” Malbaurn said.

The opening reception in early October drew 300 to 400 people.

“When I started 10 years ago, we’d maybe get 200,” he said 

Malbaurn reflected that interest in the museum has been steadily growing.

“Ten years ago, we did not have the funds to bring artists here to engage with our community,” he said. “After 10 years of fundraising and saving those dollars, it’s been more of a common practice of bringing as many artists as we can to Ashland to meet and engage with our community and do Q:A sessions and do some fundraising activities with those artists. We’re hoping we can keep some fashion of that going.”

He noted the importance of the Schneider Museum for the Southern Oregon region. Along with the Grants Pass Museum of Art, it provides an artistic oasis between museums in Eugene and Sacramento. 

This provides easy access for both locals and transplants who are used to being close to the experience of fine art in larger cities, without the five to six hour-travel time and expensive entry fees, Malbaurn said, as he showcased an exhibit by artist Jason Stopa.

Admission to the Schneider Museum of Art is always free.

“We (serve) a very large, vast rural community,” Malbaurn said. “Many students have come to SOU and walked into the museum and said, ‘I’ve never been in a museum before.’” And then, four years later, they’re graduating, getting scholarships to top-ranked grad schools and students also have opportunities to work with us at the museum so they’re able to engage with these artists. 

“So, we really are bringing the art here,” he added. “We’re not just recognized as just a regional museum, we’re working with nationally recognized artists and internationally recognized artists and then our community members living here … especially those who retire and move to our community … they had arts and culture in their backyard and they had access to that so we want to kind of bring that to them, that they do not otherwise have to travel to see these kinds of exhibitions and this caliber of work.”

Malbaurn expressed gratitude to and confidence in the many members of the museum who support its efforts.

He acknowledges the museum is understaffed and works overtime to keep operations going.

“We’re all wearing multiple hats and doing multiple things,” Malbaurn said. “Working for a nonprofit arts organization, you need passionate people.”

“I’ll do everything I can to ensure my team … they can pay their rent and their bills.”

Reach Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected].

Nov. 5: Some references to “nonprofit” removed to avoid possible misinterpretations that the museum is a standalone nonprofit organization; it is not. It receives nonprofit financing through the Southern Oregon University Foundation. Donations to the museum may be made at this website (click to view).