Dear Mexican Museum Family,

 

We have decided to close the museum doors at year’s end due to high expenses, low attendance, and our need to focus on fundraising. We will be closing our chapter at Fort Mason with our wonderful current exhibit Family, Homeland, Revolution: Stories of the Chicano Movement. In this regard, we would spend the next two years in a similar mold as SFMOMA did during its expansion with exhibits throughout the Bay Area.

 

We will be spending the time with a small office near the construction site of the new museum, conducting exhibits for our Museo Sin Paredes (museum without walls) and educational programs in schools and other cultural and educational centers such as Center For Latin American Studies head by our co-Chair of our National Advisory Board, Professor Harley Shaiken.

 

The primary emphasis for the next two years will be on fundraising to meet our $30 million capital campaign for tenant improvements at the new building. Our general counsel will continue to work with the City and County of San Francisco on finalizing all points of the agreement that we have with them regarding funds which are now pledged or paid in the amount of approximately $15 million which is halfway to our goal. In addition, we will continue to work on the expansion of funds for the Endowment fund of which we have commitments and payments of $8 million towards the $30 million of that fund with no timeline on that particular effort.

 

We will continue to have our excellent staff working at the Museo Sin Paredes program. Lastly, we will continue to upgrade our collections through acquisitions and donors under the direction of Theron Kabrich, our chairman of our collections committee.

 

Thank you for all of your continued support and participation!

 

Andrew Kluger, Chair.