Displaying items by tag: organization

The architecture school run by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation will try to raise $2 million before the end of 2015 to ensure its future as an independent organization, the foundation announced on Monday, having approved a possible path toward the school’s incorporation.

The school is at risk of losing accreditation in 2017 since the Higher Learning Commission, a Chicago-based nonprofit that accredits universities and colleges, made a recent policy change requiring that “accredited institutions must be separately incorporated from sponsoring organizations.”

As of 2013, California taxpayers will no longer be able to donate their income tax returns to arts programs. In 2010 and 2011, the state added a section to tax forms that allowed taxpayers to check off whether or not they wanted to donate to the California Arts Council as well as 17 other state-funded causes.

The arts option is being nixed from tax forms because it didn’t bring in enough money; the state required that at least $250,000 be donated from tax returns for it to remain on the document. At the end of November 2011, the option only brought $164,330 from 15,940 taxpayers. Arts Council officials stated that if more taxpayers were aware of the organization and its purpose, people would be quicker to donate. The Arts Council is considering getting back on the tax form for 2013, but a new bill would have to be passed in order for that to happen.

In the meantime, Arts Council officials are exploring innovative ways to garner new donations. They are currently considering ways to make specialty arts license plates more accessible to California motorists. The plates, which cost $50 for new ones and $40 for renewals, have been a huge success for the Council. In fact, officials are turning to plate sales for half of its $5.6 million budget for the current fiscal year.

The California Arts Council’s budget took a beating in 2002 and 2003 at the hands of Governor Gray Davis. The organization, which was once a $30 million-a-year agency, never rebounded from the cuts and has been surviving on about $1 million from taxpayers and another $1 million from the National Endowment for the Arts.

A house built in 1952 by Frank Lloyd Wright for his son, David, has spent months on the brink of demolition. Fortunately, an anonymous buyer has purchased the Phoenix, Arizona home, ensuring its preservation.

The buyer paid $2.387 million for the house, which overlooks the picturesque Camelback Mountains. The former owners, Steve Sells and John Hoffman of the Arizona-based development company, 8081 Meridian, continued to raise the price of the house after purchasing the property for $1.8 million this past June.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, an organization devoted to preserving the seminal architect’s legacy, facilitated the recent sale. After hearing that the former owners planned to level the house and split the lot to build new homes, the conservancy petitioned the city with the help of other organizations, asking that the house be granted landmark status. While three local government bodies approved the proposal, the City Council, which would be the deciding vote, repeatedly postponed their decision.

One of Wright’s most significant later works, the house in Phoenix features a coiled design similar to the one Wright employed for the Guggenheim Museum in New York. For years ago, Wright’s granddaughters decided to sell the house to a buyer they thought would preserve it. However, the house was sold again in June to 8081 Meridian putting it in danger of demolition.

While the house is in need of approximately $300,000 worth of restoration, the conservancy is helping to establish a nonprofit organization that will maintain and operate the house as well as oversee the renovation. The new owner plans to acquire landmark status for the house so that it can be made available for educational purposes on a limited basis.

During the holiday season donations to Goodwill start pouring in; one location in Federal Way, Washington got more than they bargained for this year. A signed etching by the pioneering Surrealist artist, Salvador Dali, was dropped off by an anonymous donor and quickly identified by employee, Shea Munroe. The piece was added to Goodwill’s online auction system for a mere $999 and the price has continued to soar. It is currently listed on the organization’s auction site at $18,525. The auction ends tonight, November 19, at 7:30 p.m. PST.

Authenticated by Period House Appraisal Service in Tacoma, the framed color etching titled, Reflections, is from the artist’s The Cycles of Life Suite and features one of Dali’s famous melting watches. Signed and numbered “126/150,” the piece is also labeled as an “etching and photolithography from collage.” Although the work’s paper is slightly warped due to humidity and there is some discoloration to one part of the matting and a few scratches and scuffs to the glass and frame, the etching will undoubtedly sell for an impressive price.

Goodwill trains their employees to look for potentially high-value items and asks that they put aside any signed items or pieces with paperwork attached. Other valuable items that have appeared on the Goodwill auction site are a Rolex watch that sold for $900, a diamond ring that reached $12,000, and a Frank Weston Benson watercolor that fetched $165,002 in 2006, the most valuable piece to sell online to date.