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By ANN ROSENBERG New Market Tax Credits help U.S. cultural institutions become property owners
Since 2000, the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland is one of the U.S. non-profit groups to have qualified for assistance from the NMTC Program. This tax credit scheme is philosophically similar to the bonused amenities system that contributes to the financial well-being of Vancouver's Contemporary Art Gallery, but is very different in the way that funds are allocated and applied.
As with the Contemporary Art Gallery (see previous column), this well-respected craft venue had a significant history prior to its recent move to the DeSoto Project (in the North Park Blocks) located between the Pearl District and the Old Town-Chinatown area of Portland. The various incarnations of the museum served the crafts community since first opening as the Oregon Ceramic Studio in 1937 with WPA support in the historic Lair Hill area. Portland arts patron and developer Jim Winkler was instrumental in realizing a way to greatly improve the museum's amenities and profile. Winkler knew that the Daisy Kingdom building in the DeSoto Project was eligible for placement on the 1976 National Register of Historic Places, thereby ensuring federal funding for renovations and up-grading. But, perhaps more importantly, he was certain that the museum itself would be eligible for funding through the NMTC program designed to provide financial assistance to a range of non-profit organizations dedicated to revitalizing communities, through planned ownership of condominium units in structures such as the DeSoto Building. By the time the project was ready to open, the museum was sharing the DeSoto space with Charles Hartman Fine Art, Blue Sky Gallery (photography), Augen Gallery, Froelick Gallery, and other business ventures which had benefited from the NMTC program. The huge street party on 22 July celebrating the Project's completion, was an enormous success and proved that Winkler's vision for community enhancement, and for concentration of cultural amenities, had happened 'big time'. In its new location, the two-level Museum of Contemporary Craft has a store-front profile on a busy shopping street. The 4,500 square foot space can accommodate a shop, changing exhibits, an interactive educational program, and an expanding permanent collection of Pacific Northwest contemporary craft. How does Vancouver's bonused amenities approach compare with the NMTC program? A non-profit cultural entity such as the Contemporary Art Gallery has the benefit of a rent-free, purpose-built space, for 20 years through a specific contract between the city and a developer, in exchange for granting the developer, for example, the right to build beyond restrictions for a particular zoning. The gallery will never own the space and must amass an endowment fund to cover the rental costs when the subsidized period has ended. The Portland Museum, on the other hand, received $2.5 million in tax credits as a “cash” infusion for payment towards the mortgage registered against their DeSoto space. Ann Rosenberg is a freelance curator, critic and author. |
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