museum closing

Fresno Metropolitan Museum Closes

Filed under: Art

The Fresno Metropolitan Museum announced yesterday that it is closing. In a letter on the museum website, museum president Stewart Randall called a museum "an exercise in hope" and expressed regret that the museum is closing after more than two decades in the California town. The museum is closing because of financial woes. It had struggled to stay afloat and was over $5 million in debt. The museum has laid off 12 employees and 10 others are staying on for a couple of months to close the museum. The city of Fresno owns the building after spending $15 million to cover the museum's recent of the former Fresno Bee newspaper building which went over budget. The museum's art collection and any other assets subject to creditor claims will be sold off over time. The building will be available for lease from the city and may house the Pop Laval photo collection gallery and the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame.

This isn't the only museum to recently close in California. Last month, the Claremont Museum of Art closed and moved its permanent collection to a warehouse.

Tags: art, fresno, museum closing, MuseumClosing

Claremont Museum of Art Facing Closure

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Another Los Angeles-area museum is in trouble. The LA Times says that the Claremont Museum of Art may end up closing up shop after being open only a couple of years. The museum is located in a former fruit packing plant in the town known for the being the home of the Claremont Colleges (the town's nickname is the city of trees and PhDs). The LAT says that the museum's troubles stem from the fact that three expected donations did not come in and so the museum cannot support itself. The museum's five full-time employees have been laid-off and the museum board may try to continue the education program and keep the collection intact while hoping to re-open at a later date.

Gallery: Culture in Trouble