Rob Cook, a Santa Ana neighborhood activist, posted a few eye-opening comments about the Bowers Museum yesterday over at the Santa Ana Citizens Yahoogroup. Apparently the museum is not dealing fairly with the local residents whose tax money underwrites the Bower’s operations. Here are Rob’s comments:
Bowers Museum closes early Saturday so the high brows can enjoy the clay dolls without the general riffraff abound .
Then for the high rollers the Bowers has the grand opening of the Terra Cotta Warriors Sunday 18th.
Open from 10am to 4pm, ticket prices $12/9 or $27/21. (two tier pricing).
I called the Bowers about this 2 tier price system. And after the Santa Ana residences have paid MILLIONS of our tax dollars to underwrite the Bowers Museum. The small dividend we receive for our largeness, is flushed down the toilet.
The Santa Ana free days do not included the clay pots, what the heck is with that?????
Rob
Willard area
I have been writing about the problems at the Bowers Museum for a long time. Santa Ana tax money should NOT be funding this institution. Their Board of Directors is chock full of wealthy south Orange County residents. The Museum does not give us much for our $2 million a year in underwriting. This is yet another reason not to support Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, who is a Bowers board member.
Found this blog through the Foothill Cities blog (www.thefcblog.com).
Awesome..and makes me thirsty for a nice tall glass of OJ.
Blogrolling you on my blog.
– AP
http://www.proctorformayor.com
hey art i like the new look of this site very cool! i thought about going to this exibit when i first heard about it but at 25 bucks to get in i decided not to go. i mean seriously, thats just too expensive. i’m sure i’m not the only one who feels that way.
Museum of Contemporary Art: $8 (Kids Free, Free Thursday 5-8PM)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: $12, $8 seniors, kids free, pay-what-you-wish after 5pm
Orange County Center for Contemporary Art: FREE (…and yes, that’s in the Artists’ District – not much tax revenue there Mayor Pulido!)
(Taxpayer-funded) Bowers: $21/$27?!?!
Wasting taxpayer dollars? Priceless.
SMS
Councilman Benavides contacted me Saturday and will check on this problem, and Mayor Pro Tem Alvarez contacted me Sunday and she said she will bring this up at the council meeting tonight at the police community room.
Tonight is the budget presentation that will include the amount of the next fiscal years grant to Bowers. How much? Don’t know yet, but it was 2 million last FY and $1.8, $1.7, $1.3 for the 3 years prior.
sms, the la brea tar pits is 7 bucks for adults and kids 2.00-4.50 and that place is awesome! even with gas as high as it is it’s still cheaper to go there instead of the bowers. and cook, what is benavides and alvarez gonna do? just the fact that the bowers is charging that kind of money from the get go pretty much says it all. kinda seems like they dont want poor people in that museum.
Jose S,
I believe that Alvarez and Benavides and the others on the council will fix this error in judgment by the Museum in some way, give them some time to get the facts together so they not be flying blind.
Last nights council meeting was short with a discussion on the ethics requirement of measure “D” and an overview of the up coming budget. That is now on the cities web site, and until it disappears last FY budget is still there too.
I got there late and missed half the 1 ½ hour meeting. Because it was in the police community room and not the council chambers I did not see the green speaker cards so I did not speak on anything.
But half the council was gone before public comments and there was very few public there to begin with.
I did get a E-mail from Executive Assistant M. Lawrence Monday afternoon on behalf of Mayor Pulido and the council. The note included: “clarity the free admission policy to the Bowers Museum for Santa Ana residents.” I am disappointed at this “Agreement” between the city and the museum and hope that it is changed in the very near future.
The proposed budget has the yearly grant to Bowers Museum “Cut” by (almost) 5 thousand dollars. So instead of last years $2,020,530 this year it is only $2,015,545
BUT, a Newport Beach Billionaire has stepped up to the plate and is paying for 300 tickets every Friday night for anyone in Orange County who can’t afford the $27 per person price tag.
**********
I went and saw the Terra Cotta Warriors at a cost of $25 dollars early Tuesday morning, (and I told the ticket seller to make sure I was listed as a Santa Ana resident.) My 2 grand kids were no charge being under 6 years old.
It is probability a mistake to go in the mornings or early afternoon because of all the school kids coming from all over Southern California. The museum lady told me that she has 7,000 school kids lined up this week alone.
I was impressed with the exhibit.