More Museums Cut Back

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Feb 27th 2009 at 9:02PM

The end of the week brought more news of museum cuts as drops in the value of endowments and decreases in donations continue to eat away at their budgets. One of the hardest hit is the Detroit Institute of Arts which has said that it will lay off about 20 percent of its staff as part of a mission to pare $6 million from its $34 million annual budget.

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta has also announced cuts including a seven percent reduction of its staff to save $1.4 million from its operating budget. The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore will lay off seven out of its 150 employees and is canceling an exhibition that would have been a collaboration with the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and the Getty in Los Angeles. The museum director Gary Vikan will take one month of unpaid leave before the museum's fiscal year ends June 30. Also in the area, the Maryland Historical Society has laid off six staff members. It's been a tough time for Baltimore which also lost its opera company at the end of last year.

Gallery: Culture in Trouble

Tags: museum

Filed under: Art

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mish Mar 5th 2009 2:22PM

It's a sad state of affairs that isn't being helped by people refusing to spend on "frivolities". Yet, the arts have been an integral and important part of society since the beginning. People don't need to break the bank, but not spending money means others don't receive income, and it's become a vicious cycle.