Jeremy Efroymson (pictured here) cited lack of support in Carmel as one of the reasons for scrapping plans to open a contemporary art museum in the area. (Frank Espich for The Star)

Local arts philanthropist Jeremy Efroymson has canceled plans to open a contemporary art museum in Carmel.

After negotiations to house the Midwest Museum of Contemporary Art (MiCo) at the Lurie Building fell through, Efroymson said he failed to find another suitable location in Carmel. Also, funding he sought from the Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau did not pan out.

"It didn't turn out like we had planned," Efroymson said Wednesday. "I don't need to do this for myself. I do it for the community, and the community has to support it and embrace it, and I guess we have some of that in Carmel but not enough to support it or make it work."

MiCo had been scheduled to open in September on the second floor of the Lurie Building at 30 W. Main St., but Efroymson said in August that he couldn't "make the numbers work" with owner Evan Lurie.

The city's Arts Advisory Committee had set aside $100,000 from its Support for the Arts Fund to help finance MiCo.

Efroymson said Lurie, a consultant hired by the city to recruit businesses to its Arts & Design District, also helped facilitate talks between MiCo and the visitors bureau for special-projects funding.

Brenda Myers, the visitors bureau executive director, said MiCo applied for about $200,000 a year for two years to help with planning and revitalization. The request was denied because staff and board members thought more planning needed to be done.

"It's unfortunate because it's really a great product, and we would have wanted to invest in it," Myers said. Lurie said Wednesday he didn't know Efroymson's museum would not be coming to Carmel.

"The museum was going to be another nice feature to the district," he said. "That's not going to stop us from getting a museum here in the distant future."

Tania Lopez / The Indianapolis Star