A deeper look at the financials for Remai Modern shows that despite besting its targets for admission and membership grosses in 2018, the Saskatoon art museum still fell short of its first-year business revenue goal.

On Thursday, Remai Modern publicly released its audited financial statements for 2018, the art museum's first full calendar year in operation. The release came two days after the museum's ex-director touted its launch as "exceptional and certainly unprecedented in Western Canada" in a newspaper column.

According to the financial statements, the museum brought in $431,406 in general admissions revenue last year — over $100,000 more than projected in the museum's 2015-19 business plan, which based its projections on a 2016 opening.

Memberships fees racked up $303,815, nearly three times the business plan's target of $108,500.*

The museum also brought in an impressive $2.7 million in fundraising in 2018. That includes money from donations — including an annual $1-million donation from the museum's namesake, Ellen Remai, for acquisitions — sponsorships and major gifts. The 2018 total is more than three times the $755,000 the art museum originally predicted it would raise.

Despite those strong numbers, the museum still fell short of meeting a key requirement of its operating budget.

Under the 2018 budget, 45 per cent of the art museum's revenues had to be generated from areas such as admissions, memberships, facility rentals, catering, the restaurant and the gift shop.

Some of those operations fell short of projections, the Thursday release showed.

Sales at the Art & Design gift shop totalled $399,707, well short of a projected $650,000.

When it comes to renting out the museum for events, as well as catering and restaurant revenue (all reported in one combined category), the museum pulled in only about half of what it predicted: $206,382 versus a goal of $403,280.

Museum knew targets were ambitious

Ultimately, the museum only generated $1.7 million, or 18.4 per cent, of its revenues from its business activities in 2018. The rest of its revenue came from grants, including a major grant from the City of Saskatoon, which typically funds about half of the museum's operations.

When fundraising (excluding Ellen Remai's annual contribution) is also factored in, the museum generated $3.3 million, or 35 per cent, of its own revenues. That's still 10 per cent short of the 45 per cent goal required by the operating budget.

The museum was aware that its sights were set high going into 2018.

"Our revenue targets are ambitious and it is an area of vulnerability for the gallery," Herb McFaull, chair of the Remai Modern Foundation Board, told city councillors in October 2017, during a discussion about the museum's 2018 budget.

Council concerns

Some city councillors agreed, voicing concerns about the museum's sustainability following its opening year.

"I'll just be very blunt with you," said Coun. Darren Hill at the time. "My areas of concern really are your facility rental space in terms of being able to hit your targets on that."

Fellow councillor Randy Donauer wanted to know what the museum would do if its revenues fell short.

"I don't want you to come back here mid-year asking for more money from us for operations," said Donauer.

"We would just have to cut certain levels of programming," said McFaull. "Our hope is that we would not be running a deficit."

Remai Modern ended 2018 with a reported $52,000 surplus.

Ex-director touts strong 1st year

The museum's public release of the audited financial statements on its website — which it did after CBC News requested a copy — came two days after the museum's former director, Gregory Burke, wrote a bristling column for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

In it, Burke said Remai Modern's "exceptional" early success came despite what he called "an active campaign" from city hall to remove him.

The museum's former executive director and CEO, Gregory Burke, said the art museum's early success was 'exceptional and certainly unprecedented in Western Canada.' (Remai Modern)

"I … faced the relentless machinations of city hall, with many board members often commenting that I had a bullseye on my back," Burke wrote.

In response, Mayor Charlie Clark said in a press conference said that "any allegation that this is about political philosophy, differences, competing political visions of the gallery or anything along those lines are simply wrong."

Clark added, "Our job has been to ensure the integrity and the health of the gallery and to ensure a safe workplace for our employees."

Burke has not responded to a request from CBC News to speak about his column.

* For comparison against the newly reported 2018 numbers, the CBC used projections for the museum's first full calendar year as outlined in its 2015-2019 Business Plan. Under that plan, 2017 would have been the museum's first full calendar year, though in actuality the museum opened in October 2017.