Following Monday's news that Brandeis University wants to sell its museum's art in order to shore up its finances—and today's news that museum backers are fighting that impulse tooth and nail—comes this: The Maryhill Museum of Art, that weird little institution-that-could out in the middle of nowhere on the border of Washington and Oregon (I wrote about it in The Believer here), now has found a regular revenue stream in wind power.

Maryhill Museum of Art announced today that it has entered into a unique agreement with Windy Point Partners to site 15 wind turbines on the eastern end of the museum’s 5,300 acres in SW Washington state. Once the turbines begin producing energy in late 2009, the relationship is anticipated to generate over $100,000 in revenue for the museum each year.

According to the American Wind Energy Association, this is believed to be the first wind energy project in the United States to generate revenues for a nonprofit museum.

“This is literally is a wind-win situation — the museum will earn much-needed funds and at the same time, play an important role in a renewable energy project,” said Colleen Schafroth, executive director of Maryhill Museum of Art, which contains the second largest collection of August Rodin artwork on the West Coast and the largest public display of Native American basketry in North America.

“Revenue from the wind farm will provide additional resources to maintain the museum building and grounds, and allow us to meet the needs of our growing audiences,” says Schafroth. “Most people are feeling the pinch of increased expenses and Maryhill is no exception. Our costs are not static. And while we have membership revenue and generous donors, there is still an income gap.”

The museum’s approved operating budget for 2009 is $1,138,000. The museum welcomes approximately 45,000 visitors each year.

... The Windy Flats Wind Farm and the nearby Windy Point Wind Farm, both operated by Windy Point Partners, will be one of the largest wind projects in the U.S. It is expected that the two wind farms will produce enough clean electricity for over 250,000 households per year. Windy Point Partners has said that turbines on the site will be placed to avoid impacting the view from the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. In addition, Windy Point Partners has committed to contributing over $1 million to a Columbia River Gorge habitat preservation fund. For more information, go to http://www.cannonpowergroup.com/.

Not many museums have 5,300 acres to play with. But they're all wondering what they do have to make money with.