Artist gave FAU a museum; school giving her art the boot
Locked building houses about 2,000 Hibel originals
Renowned painter Edna Hibel donated an art museum to Florida Atlantic University that she hoped would create joy and culture. But three years after her death, it’s brought bitterness, eviction notices and a court battle that goes before a jury this month.
The Hibel Museum of Art, situated on FAU’s Jupiter campus, still has a grand piano inside, as well as $1 million worth of art created by Hibel, who died in December 2014 at age 97. But a sign on the door says the gallery is “not open at this time.” Another sign is an eviction notice.
FAU claims the foundation that runs the museum has long abandoned the building, constructed in 2001 with a $900,000 gift from Hibel. The university says it terminated the museum’s lease in the summer of 2016 and gave the foundation a chance to collect its property, but it failed to respond.
So now about 2,000 original paintings, serigraphs, dolls, sculptures, lithographs and works of porcelain should belong to FAU, the university claims in court files. It plans
to sell the work in a public auction, according to an eviction lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County circuit court.
Since the owners failed to claim the artwork and other property within 30 days of FAU’s terminating the lease, “a gratuitous transfer of title” was made to FAU, “for whatever disposition was deemed to be in the best interest of FAU,” the lawsuit states.
Foundation members paint a different picture. They say a former employee erroneously turned her keys into FAU, instead of to the museum foundation, and FAU wouldn’t give them back. So they are locked out and can’t run the museum.
“They wanted to steal her building. Now they want to steal her artwork. It’s outrageous,” said Robert Gibson, a trustee and registered agent for the Edna Hibel Art Foundation.
A jury trial on what to do with the building and and art collection is tentatively set for Monday.
Hibel, a native of the Boston area, moved to Palm Beach County in 1968 and became one of South Florida’s most well-known, respected and prolific artists. She produced thousands of paintings, sculptures and other work during a career that spanned well into her 90s. She often depicted mothers with children, and many of her creations became collector’s items.
In 1995, she was commissioned by the Foundation of the National Archives to commemorate 75 years of women receiving the right to vote. She is also known for a portrait of dance legend Ginger Rogers, who bought many pieces of Hibel’s art.
Most of her work is priced from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars on websites devoted to the sale of art.
The first Hibel museum was opened in 1977 in Palm Beach by a couple who collected her work. It was touted as the world’s only nonprofit public museum dedicated to the art of a living American woman. The museum moved briefly to Lake Worth before Hibel decided in the early 2000s to create a more permanent home on FAU’s new Jupiter campus.
“We have all the elements in place for a successful partnership … a vibrant community, a growing campus and residents who are very much involved in the arts,” Hibel said at a 2003 dedication ceremony.
Her $900,000, combined with some state matching funds, were used to construct both a museum and the Edna Hibel Fine Arts Building, which houses labs, offices and classrooms. The payment was considered a donation to the university, according to a written agreement with FAU.
But foundation officials say Hibel thought she was investing in a home for her work. The agreement included a 40-year, $1-a-year lease to the Edna Hibel Art Foundation to operate the museum.
“By the time the Hibel art museum was built ... Edna Hibel’s construction money had magically turned into a donation, and Edna Hibel and her art museum had become tenants,” the foundation wrote in court files. “After a time, it became clear to Edna Hibel and others that FAU wanted possession of the museum to house more space for its faculty and classrooms.”
FAU’s Jupiter campus changed its mission from a general education school to one focused on science, after two biotech giants, The Scripps Research Institute and the Max Planck Society, opened research facilities on the campus.
Gibson said the university then became less interested in the arts. The university’s main Boca Raton campus is home to three galleries for art exhibitions: the Schmidt Center Gallery, the Schmidt Center Gallery Public Space and the Ritter Art Gallery.
Hibel was a constant presence at the Jupiter museum, and her death brought uncertainty to the museum’s future. A museum employee and family members had different ideas about how to operate the facility. The employee basically shut down the museum in the summer of 2015 and turned her key into FAU without consulting the foundation, Gibson said.
“Visitors to the museum have spoken to campus personnel about their disappointment in not being able to visit the museum after traveling to the site,” Eliah Watlington, associate provost for northern campuses, wrote in a letter Feb. 5, 2016, to Hibel’s son, Richard Plotkin.
FAU officials say the museum also failed to maintain its insurance, another requirement of its lease.
“No one from the Edna Hibel Art Foundation has accessed or requested access to the museum in well over a year, and FAU efforts to contact foundation officials have gone unanswered,” FAU spokesman Joshua Glanzer said.
Foundation officials say they tried to get into the museum, but FAU officials refused to give them a key. Gibson said the university initially would let Plotkin into the building, but later quit giving him access entirely.
“The strategy made it appear as if the museum had abandoned the building, thereby giving FAU the rationale for not only taking the building, but attempting to commandeer the Hibel artworks housed therein,” the foundation wrote in court files. “This posthumous ‘thanks’ that FAU is giving to Edna Hibel’s loving generous spirit is unconscionable and will not stand.”
Gibson said Hibel’s son Andy Plotkin, who lives in Palm Beach Gardens, is “ready, willing and able” to take over operations of the museum “as soon as we can get in.”