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Fleischer Museum
 

Editorial
Copyright 2001  Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.
Article date: July 7, 2001
 

Scottsdale has wisely taken the first step toward holding onto and busting open one of the best-kept secrets in Scottsdale.

The Tourism Development Commission has endorsed the idea of using hotel bed-tax money to build a first-rate public art museum in downtown Scottsdale to house an impressive collection of paintings owned by Mort and Donna Fleischer.

For 11 years, the works, by California and Russian impressionists, have been on display at the couple's Fleischer Museum, housed on the first two floors of their business, Franchise Finance Corp., of America. Now, the business has been sold and the Fleischers are closing their museum. But they have offered to loan their collection to the city on a long-term basis, provided a suitable site is offered.

It's a generous offer the city ought to grab.

The city's tourism director, Rich Wetzel, has proposed spending up to $3 million in bed-tax funds to build a museum as part of the planned Loloma Arts District, an arts-oriented redevelopment project southeast of Main Street and Goldwater Boulevard. Wetzel estimates that such a museum would attract up to 75,000 tourists a year, resulting in an estimated increase of $208,000 a year in new bed-tax receipts.

Last week, the tourism commission endorsed the idea of using bed-tax revenues to build it and fund start-up operations, noting that the Fleischer collection and a proposed Western arts exhibit "can only add to the critical mass for the visual arts in downtown."

The City Council is on hiatus now, gone until mid-August. When it returns, its members should immediately evaluate the commission's recommendation and find a way to keep the Fleischer collection in Scottsdale.

They'll have to move quickly.

Once the Fleischer Museum closes this fall, the couple plans to auction off the bulk of the paintings and move the rest to their home.

Better, we think, to keep the collection together and to put it in a place where everyone can enjoy it.

A public art museum in downtown Scottsdale would be good for an area of town in need of a boost. It would be good for an industry always in search of another reason to bring in visitors.

And it wouldn't exactly hurt the city's reputation as a center for the arts.
 

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