Longmont Museum begins $30 million capital campaign

The Longmont Museum is kicking off a $30 million capital campaign for improvements and expansion with a $4 million pledge from the Stewart Family Foundation.

A master development plan identified multiple needs at the Longmont Museum, including improvements to the museum courtyard, expansion of galleries and support spaces, a new entry and new classrooms and support spaces for educational programs. The museum hired Essenza Architecture to develop the plan into reality, who has worked with staff the past two years.

The project has been broken into phases, the first of which includes the courtyard and remodeling of a storage room into additional offices. That phase is already fully funded through a combination of city allocations and a $1 million gift from the Stewart Family Foundation approved by Longmont City Council last November.

The second phase will add over 6,000 square feet of gallery space, an artist in residence studio and exhibit construction space. The third phase will complete the master development plan, with a new larger entry, local art gallery amenity cafe, two new classrooms and additional support spaces.

The cost of construction for all phases, based on an estimate completed this month, is $22.7 million. Including interior furnishings, new exhibitions, design fees, owner’s representative fees and money set aside for Art in Public Places, the total project cost comes out to $28.5 million.

The museum already has the $1 million from the Stewart Family Foundation, $631,000 from museum-related capital improvement projects and $908,577 from council-designated oil and gas revenue. The Stewart Family Foundation also pledged another $4 million to kick off the capital campaign, giving the city a starting point of $6.5 million total.

Funds raised by the campaign will be given to the Friends of the Longmont Museum, and will be periodically transferred to the Longmont Museum’s services fund to be expended for the project.

The museum has allocated $20,000 from its 2023 budget for events and materials related to the campaign. Funding for events and materials in subsequent years will come from the proceeds of the campaign.

On Tuesday, Longmont City Council voiced support for the capital campaign, though it was noted that at some point additional revenue might be needed to cover the expanded operations. 

Councilmembers Tim Waters and Susie Hidalgo-Fahring noted their desire to pass a resolution requesting a future council — once the museum has completed this campaign — consider a ballot question for a tax to support the museum’s expanded operations. That will likely be discussed at a future city council meeting.