New York City Ballet Cuts Back

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Feb 24th 2009 at 9:02PM

The New York City Ballet is another New York City cultural institution cutting back. According to the NY Times the ballet master in chief, Peter Martins, has let go 11 members of the corps. The ballet is facing the double hit of reduced ticket sales and a decrease in donations that has plagued museums, theater companies and others in the arts. The company is predicted a $5.5 million deficit this season on a budget of $62.3 million.

The ballet is also instituting salary reductions for senior staff, a hiring freeze and is pursuing cutbacks in other areas such as marketing and administration. The NY Times article quotes Kenneth Tabachnick, the general manager, who says that the company has "over the past several years, had an increasing level of deficit."

Like the Metropolitan Museum, the ballet has seen its endowment shrink, from $187 million to around $138 million. If the economy doesn't worsen or gets better then the layoffs and cost-measures will help pare down the deficit the company is facing. Should the economy get worse however, it is likely that more cuts might be necessary.

Tags: ballet, culture in trouble, CultureInTrouble, new york city, NewYorkCity