Bronx Museum Leads Borough’s Renaissance
UPTOWN WORLD Holly Block in front of a mural, ‘Activism is Never Over,’ created for the ‘Making It Together’ exhibition by graffiti writer Lady Pink.
When Holly Block left the downtown arts venue Art in General to run the Bronx Museum of the Arts in 2006, many of her friends told her she was crazy. The museum was in serious trouble: It had almost no base of private support, had been running deficits for three years, and was about to open a new building that it didn’t have the funds to operate.
But Ms. Block, who had worked at the museum as a curator in the late 1980s, believed strongly in its mission of collecting Latin-American, Asian-American, African-American, and Bronx-based artists. After 18 years at Art in General, she was ready for a change and believed she could help turn the museum’s fortunes around.
Two years later, she has worked little less than a miracle: The new building, designed by the Miami firm Arquitectonica, is open and running. The museum has more than quadrupled its private fund raising and has run surpluses for two years in a row. This year’s gala, in May, raised $140,000 — an almost 40% increase over last year. The museum’s re-energized board, expanded to 19 members from 14, donated an additional $100,000.
“Holly’s amazing,” the board chairman, Douglass Rice, said. “She’s well-respected; she’s smart; she has incredible contacts. Where she goes, a lot of funders want to follow.”
The road to financial stability wasn’t easy. In her first few months, Ms. Block had to cut the museum’s staff to 22 from 28 and only program in part of the new building.
“That time period was the worst,” Ms. Block said of the fall of 2006.
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