On Friday, the Museum of Biblical Art will unveil its biggest, most ambitious show yet: sculptures from the Florence Cathedral by Donatello and other Renaissance artists.
But after the exhibition closes in June, the decade-old museum faces an uncertain future.
Its landlord, the American Bible Society, plans to move its headquarters to Philadelphia and has sold its building near Columbus Circle to a developer for $300 million. That means the museum, which had been paying the Bible society $1 a year for gallery and office space, must now come up with an estimated $1.5 million to $5 million in annual rent if it is to remain in Manhattan—a tall order for an institution whose average annual budget is about $2.8 million.
“The nub of the issue really is not finding a place,” said museum director Richard P. Townsend. “It’s affording a place.”
The museum, also known as Mobia, started out as an art gallery inside the headquarters of the Bible society, a 199-year-old nonprofit religious group that promotes engagement with the Bible. Mobia spun off in 2004 as a separate—and secular—entity with the mission of examining the Bible’s influence on Western art. After an extensive renovation, the museum reopened to the public the following year.
Although Mobia only employs a dozen staffers and has no permanent collection, it is well-regarded, mounting shows on glassmaker Louis Comfort Tiffany ’s ecclesiastical work, the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible and last year’s “Back to Eden,” which examined how the biblical story has inspired contemporary artists.
“They present the topic of religion from a secular perspective,” Glenn Adamson, director of the nearby Museum of Arts and Design, said, “and at a time in history when there are deep divides between secular and religious communities, that mission seems important to me.”
Long the museum’s largest supporter, the Bible society has dialed back its funding in recent years. In the 2010 fiscal year it contributed about 60% of the museum’s budget—about $1 million in cash and $500,000 of in-kind support, the bulk of which is rent, according to the museum. This year the group is slated to contribute about $525,000 in cash, though in-kind support will remain roughly the same.
The joint goal was always that the museum would become financially independent. But the two groups appear to have differed on the timing.
In 2012 they signed a three-year funding agreement that included a lease through June 2015—an arrangement that Mr. Townsend said wasn’t, according to the museum’s understanding, “tantamount to Mobia leaving 1865 Broadway,” he said. “We were thinking beyond our present incarnation, of course, but we had made no plans, and there was no definite framework for a move.”
In March, Mobia staffers learned of the Bible society’s plans to sell the building, located a block from Central Park, by reading about it in the newspaper, Mr. Townsend said.
Geof Morin, a spokesman for the Bible society, said the group had been considering the sale for some time. As real-estate values in the area soared, its board became increasingly convinced that to be good stewards, “we should unlock that value for other parts of the ministry,” he said.
Mobia has been working to broaden its donor base to replace the Bible society funding, with some success. Revenue from other sources, such as government, individual and corporate donors, has nearly doubled since 2010, totaling more than $1 million last year. Mobia expects to take in $2.1 million from such sources for the fiscal year ending June 30.
The museum, however, doesn’t have an endowment. Nor does it have a capital campaign in place to raise money for the move.
Mr. Townsend said in recent years the museum’s priorities had been to diversify its funding and to build a program of exhibitions and educational offerings that could support a successful capital campaign. He told the board when he was hired in 2013 that it would take at least three years to build up a base of support for an endowment campaign, he said.
To be sure, the prospect of the Bible society moving has loomed for years. The museum’s founding director, Ena Heller, said she had conversations with the museum’s board about getting its own building before she left in 2012, though at the time no hard date for a move had been set.
Making rent isn’t the only challenge. Assuming a suitable place is found, it would likely cost an additional $2 million to $4 million to build the space out and install the kind of temperature and humidity controls needed to safely store fine art objects, said Mobia trustee Brian O’Neil.
Mr. Townsend is scouting prospective locations in Manhattan where the museum could move, and its board is considering strategic partnerships with other nonprofits, such as universities.
The clock is ticking: Mobia’s coming shows include a planned collaboration with the Andy Warhol Museum that looks at Warhol’s “The Last Supper” series, as well as the first exhibition of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros ’s collection of Spanish colonial art, which would tour nationally.
Mr. Townsend said the museum is “immensely grateful” to the Bible society, and that its increased independence is a good thing.
Still, “I wish things had been different,” he said. “After all that Mobia has accomplished thus far, it would be a sad loss if we had no choice but to close our doors.”