Resignations Offered to Preserve Facility

 KAREN BRANCH Herald Staff Writer

Four days before they are scheduled to get kicked out of the Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, its directors will try a last-ditch effort to keep the institution going.
For three years, the directors have battled the city of Miami over a bitterly disputed art auction that split the institution's board of directors. Thursday, the city, which owns the property, will get the last word: The museum's lease runs out April 1.

The current directors have done little to woo the hearts of city commissioners since the so-called "Communist art" auction in April 1988, in which the museum sold paintings by artists still in Cuba who had not officially broken with the Castro government.

After the auction, some directors defended the sale on First Amendment grounds. Other directors said the auction insulted Cuban exiles. When the first group refused to resign, the second did -- and lobbied the city to kick the insiders out.

Twice since the auction, bombs have exploded in front of the museum, 1300 SW 12th Ave. Twice, its directors repaired the damage and carried on.

City commissioners, lobbied by the side that resigned, took on the remaining members, armed with a battery of audits and a failed February 1990 attempt at eviction. But none of that affected the outspokenness of the directors -- until now.

Now, those directors who refused to resign in 1988 are offering their resignations.

They're submitting a proposed slate of new directors, along with a list of "noncontroversial" members who will stay -- if City Hall approves.

"If, in order to preserve the museum, there's a need for those of us who have fought for First Amendment rights to resign, we are willing to do that," said director Alfredo Duran. "We wanted to survive as a cultural institution, not as a political institution."

Political pressure, however, is very much a part of the effort to keep the museum going. The current directors recruited powerful mediators who formed a committee to lobby city commissioners. The committee includes Monsignor Bryan Walsh, former Metro-Dade Cultural Affairs Council chairman A.J. Barranco; Eduardo Padron, head of Miami-Dade Community College's Wolfson Campus; ad agency owner Tere Zubizarreta; Books & Books owner Mitch Kaplan; Miami American Civil Liberties Union president Maurice Rosen, and art dealer Dora Valdes-Fauli. Miami Herald Publishing Co. President Roberto Suarez has attended some of the committee meetings, although he says he is not a member.

This will be the proposal:

Nine directors -- the ones most prominently involved with the auction -- will resign. Another 17 "noncontroversial" members now on the board will stay. And 10 others will become new members.

Confusion surrounds the proposal.

Some people whose names appear on the lists said they were not consulted.

The list of directors who would resign includes Ramon Cernuda, Siro del Castillo, Duran, Santiago Morales, Maria Elena Prio, Marian Prio Odio, Teresa Saldise, Pedro Ramon Lopez, and Carlos Luis.

Saldise and Lopez are in Spain and were not told that they were on the list of those resigning.

Luis says he was not consulted, either.

"I refuse to resign before the city of Miami," Luis said. "I don't want to get in the way of negotiations. But after three years of fighting here, with the city of Miami commission working against the Cuban Museum, I won't resign. I don't think the commission has the moral capacity to decide whether I am controversial or noncontroversial, good or bad."

Morales, acting board president, said a majority of directors approved the slate March 6.

It may seem unusual for a private institution to seek its landlord's approval in selecting a board of directors. But it's nothing new for the Cuban Museum controversy.

The Museum Rescue Committee -- a group formed by directors who resigned after the auction -- has also offered commissioners its recommendations.

Commissioner Victor De Yurre has his own list: It mirrors a Rescue Committee request.

"What I would be proposing would be for the original founders of the museum to take it over again," he said. "And I think there may be some members from both sides that were founding members."

One founding member, Duran, is still on the board.

The other 15, according to Rescue Committee president Margarita Ruiz, are strongly allied with her efforts to oust the current board.

"We'd rather see it be closed than see it remain with anyone on that board," Ruiz said. "We think, No. 1, this museum is not strictly an art museum, as some of them think. No. 2, it has a historical mission to tell the exiles' story, our side of Cuban history, not the way Castro portrays it."

While it isn't clear whether the four other commissioners will follow De Yurre's lead, there is an inclination to bring about changes.

In February 1990, after the city attorney said it would be difficult to evict the Cuban Museum, commissioners voted unanimously not to renew the lease.

Museum directors received the eviction notice last week.

Commissioner J.L. Plummer said he wants a museum "for the good of the overall community."

Mayor Xavier Suarez said: "The neighbors -- when the last controversy arose and, ultimately, there was a bomb placed there -- were very, very upset this whole issue was affecting their neighborhood. I would be looking to find other uses for the property at the end of the lease. That's my concern, it's not an inclination."

Commissioner Miriam Alonso did not return repeated phone calls from The Herald. Neither did Commissioner Miller Dawkins.

If commissioners follow through with the city's eviction notice, the survival of the museum is questionable. With the loss of half its board, the museum also initially lost members of its fund-raising group, Friends of the Cuban Museum.

Questioned about the museum's financial situation, acting president Morales simply said: "We're paying our bills."

Morales was uncomfortable discussing the controversy.

"The best way not to revive the controversy is not to talk about it. I have no interest in reviving it. For us, the only thing that matters now is keeping the institution alive."