Schneider Museum at Southern Oregon University loses funding for at least three years * Oregon ArtsWatch

Southern Oregon University removed all funding for the Schneider Museum of Art under its Resiliency Plan for at least three years, possibly indefinitely. The planned $8 million redesign and rebuild has been shelved after the museum hired a local architect and planned to more than double its 4,000-square-foot footprint. Planned features included a basement for storage, four new galleries, a second floor for exhibitions, a classroom, permanent collection space, expanded restrooms, a loading dock, and a rooftop deck. Funding had been anticipated from four $2 million gallery naming rights. Raised exhibition funds are being re-earmarked for salaries and benefits, and museum leadership scheduled meetings with SOU administrators to discuss next steps.

"The nonprofit museum affiliated with the university had already hired a local architect to design the rebuild, which museum Executive Director Scott Malbaurn called "ultimately a new museum," and would have included 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."

""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."

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