Attachment 1 - NUMU ProposalDocuSign Envelope ID: 2B7C4A33-8B2D-467B-8AF6-5A416DCFB02A DocuSign Envelope ID: 19655E6A-D6C3-421C-98D5-35FDD9CFF93C
Los Gatos Town Council
The Honorable Mayor Ristow, Vice Mayor Badame, and Council Members Hudes, Moore, and Rennie
110 E. Main St.
Los Gatos, CA 95030
January 17, 2023
Dear Mayor Ristow, Vice Mayor Badame, and Council Members Hudes, Moore, and Rennie,
We are writing today to encourage you to treat NUMU | New Museum Los Gatos as an integral part of the Town of Los
Gatos’ strategic priorities by removing rent payments from NUMU’s lease with the Town. Now more than ever, NUMU
provides critical services to the Town that makes Los Gatos an incredible place to live, work, play, and learn, in addition
to attracting visitors from the greater Bay Area. We are asking the Town to reduce rent for 106 E. Main Street to $1
per year to support NUMU’s ongoing responsibility to maintain and steward the Town of Los Gatos’ history
collection and provide arts, history, and cultural educational services to the Los Gatos community. This
arrangement is in line with other museum/city partnerships in our region. By retaining the funds that NUMU obtains
through donations and grants, it will allow us to recirculate them into more services and programs that ultimately serve
the Town of Los Gatos with art, history, and culture.
We want to express our ongoing gratitude for forgiving our rent this past three years, which has helped us not only
navigate the pandemic, but deepen our ability to serve our community. Rent forgiveness has enabled NUMU to achieve
several key mission-aligned goals that directly support the Town’s priorities for local history, community vitality, and
inclusivity. NUMU is also a key feature of the Town Culture initiatives in the 2040 Town Plan. The 2040 General Plan for
Los Gatos commits to “Enrich the Town by making visual arts, the performing arts, literary arts, and other cultural Tx
amenities more accessible to the Town’s residents.” We have been working tirelessly on critical areas that support these
goals such as the Los Gatos History Project; delivering the high-visibility ArtNow high school exhibition and program;
and collaborating with local community partners and beyond, like the Los Gatos Library, CASSY, and LGS Recreation.
The Town’s rent forgiveness has been a true lifeline for all of these efforts, and is a testament for what we can
achieve together.
We can continue to achieve all this and more with your increased support:
●The Los Gatos History Project makes our permanent art and history collection accessible in-person and through
an online database. We display, steward, protect, and in the future, will loan our collection of art and history
objects that represent Los Gatos. The staff has decades of cumulative experience in collections care and display.
The collection includes unique objects and archives from Los Gatos history, including the world’s most
comprehensive collection representing the lives of prolific artists and life partners Frank Ingerson and George
Dennison, and their home, Cathedral Oaks, a mountain destination for creatives in mid 20th century Los Gatos.
●We are hosting the exhibition, Reclamation, a partnership between the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and San Jose
State University, featuring Los Gatos and Bay Area places of significance to the Tribe. It amplifies the Muwekma
Ohlone Tribal Council’s efforts to gain visibility and federal recognition.
●The ArtNow high school exhibition program creates visibility for Los Gatos with high schools county-wide, and
attracts a large audience to the Museum and the Town. The program features teen artists from Los Gatos and
across the county, and provides scholarships for award winners.
ATTACHMENT 1
DocuSign Envelope ID: 2B7C4A33-8B2D-467B-8AF6-5A416DCFB02A DocuSign Envelope ID: 19655E6A-D6C3-421C-98D5-35FDD9CFF93C
● We completed a Packard Foundation-funded, year-long diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI)
strategic planning process that will help us shape our exhibitions and programs, educate our audience about the
untold histories of Los Gatos, and help us build alignment with Town DEAI initiatives.
● NUMU collaborates with local community partners like the Los Gatos Library, LGS Recreation, the Chamber
of Commerce, Los Gatos Art Association, CASSY, and Mosaic America to implement programs and
exhibitions that provide a platform for underrepresented artists and communities. We run the Footbridge summer
camp program in partnership with LGS Recreation to enhance the Town and involve students in local history.
As we are all learning, NUMU, like other arts and culture organizations, will not fully recover by July 2023; in fact, full
recovery will take years. Starting rent payments in July 2023 will paralyze our ability to become a truly world-class
destination for art and culture in the Bay Area. Moreover, we will be unable to adequately steward the history collection
and it will once again languish, hidden away in boxes. This domino effect would decimate our ability to serve Los Gatos
with history, culture, and art.
There is no better time to re-imagine the Town’s relationship with its community museum. NUMU is in the Town's 2040
Plan both as a steward of the collection and a center for arts and culture. These proposed lease amendments not only
ensure that the museum will exist in 2040, but will be able to thrive for decades to come. Nominal rent would be in line
with virtually every museum in our area (see appendix), and signal to the region that Los Gatos values inclusivity,
community, and culture. Please vote to reduce rent for 106 E. Main Street to $1 per year to support NUMU’s critical
role in maintaining–and expanding–the Town’s cultural footprint, moving toward a deep and permanent
partnership.
NUMU’s relationship with the Town of Los Gatos is vital to us and our ongoing ability to serve our community. Thank you
from all of us for your continued support.
In partnership,
Ami Davis | Executive Director Jan Schwartz | Board President
Jillian Troftgruben | Vice President Florence Cheung | Treasurer
Member Barney Davidge | Board Member
Allison Railo | Community Representative Matt Schechter | Board Member
Maureen Cappon-Javey | Board
Museum Name Most Recent Operating Budget (FY18)
Total Expenses Total Revenue Contributed Income Earned Income Total Facilities Utilites City Rent Add hyperlink to 990 form Add'l Info/NOTES
San Jose Museum of Art
2016
$4,317,176
$4,582,092
$3,278,807
$491,871
$66,630
$1 per year
receives funds from the TOT :https://www.san joseca.gov/hom e/showpublished document/7010/ 6366442109578 00000
Saratoga History Museum 2016 $23,658 $66,544 $48,800 $17,744 $0
Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH)
2016
$1,864,470
$2,457,382
$1,935,159
$514,713
$0
Montalvo 2017 $6,196,158 $6,293,180 $2,422,323 $2,534,318 $445,451 $114,197 owns http://montalvoarts.org/document/12
Tech Museum - San Jose
2017
$21,777,974
$26,382,036
$20,438,835
$5,635,454
https://990s.foun
dationcenter.org/
990_pdf_archive
/942/942864660
/942864660_20
1706_990.pdf
As of May 2019,
it is known
called "The Tech
Interactive"
Computer History
Museum
2016
$12,796,532
$9,252,904
6 574 509
$1,078,019
Per a
9/18/2002 NYT
article, the
museum
"acquired" its
current space -
formerly the
home of Silicon
Graphics - in
2002
https://990s.foun
dationcenter.org/
990_pdf_archive
/770/770507525
/770507525_20
1706_990.pdf
Los Altos History Museum
2015
$467,109
$527,797
$285,985
$0
$0
$0
$0
https://990s.foun dationcenter.org/ 990_pdf_archive /942/942542813
/942542813_20
1606_990.pdf
bldg owned by
city, no utilities
or rent. Treated like Police Dept,
Town Hall. Do
pay weekly cleaning service.
FREE admission
Palo Alto Art Center
2017
$778,213
$989,841
$757,421
$129,638
city funded - no utilities or rent
city funded -
$0
https://990s.foun dationcenter.org/ 990_pdf_archive /942/942382459
/942382459_20 1706_990.pdf
City funded - no utilites or rent
Museum Name Most Recent Operating Budget (FY18)
Total Expenses Total Revenue Contributed Income Earned Income Total Facilities Utilites City Rent Add hyperlink to 990 form Add'l Info/NOTES
Quilt & Textile Museum
2017
$740,416
$487,707
$429,162
$32,213
$37,000
owns
https://990s.foun dationcenter.org/ 990_pdf_archive /770/770123939 /770123939_20 1706_990.pdf
Campbell Museums (Ainsley + History Museum)
2018
$410,826
$410,826
$346,696
$64,130
$21,000
$0
https://www.ci.ca
mpbell.ca.us/Arc hiveCenter/View File/Item/1122
Page 180 of the City of Campbell
budget
highlights the
most
information.
Parks and
musuem trust: $142,952
Pacific Art League
2018
$1,011,789
$1,176,348
$200,920
$565,764
97,300 incl.
utilities
$9,000
$0
i used budget
De Saisset Museum $0
Triton Museum
2016
$684,131
$716,296
$486,178
$76,166
$12,499
Electric
from City;
budget gas
$25K/year,
usually
under
based on
usage
$1/year
https://990s.foun
dationcenter.org/
990_pdf_archive
/946/946122076
/946122076_20
1706_990.pdf
Triton houses
city art & historic
artifacts; gets
rent & elec in
recognition