New York Museums Feel the Economic Pinch
The New York Times reports that New York museums throughout theboroughs have felt the economic pinch and have had to make variousadjustments including cutting back programs and laying offworkers. The article reports that while these are tough times forcultural institutions all around, they are particularly hard on those in NewYork City’s outer boroughs, which lack the foot traffic, tourism concentration,and cachet of Manhattan. Regardless, the arts organizations aremaking the adjustments necessary to keep their doors open and trying tomaintain business as usual. As important anchors in their neighborhoods,cultural institutions hope they can count on the loyalty of locals, for whom atrip to the museum is fast becoming one of the few affordable activities.Because museums outside Manhattan tend not to be as dependent on tourists,their attendance shows less of a drop-off.
With corporate donations down, public funds cut andendowments depleted, the challenges facing the museums now areparticularly formidable. “The real question for everybody is how to dealwith the funding picture,” said Kate D. Levin, the city’s Commissioner ofCultural Affairs, adding that museums were facing challenges “not becausethey’re not in Manhattan.” Flushing Town Hall saw its city allocation,including City Council funds, reduced by 41%. Cuts from other city agencies forcedthe hall to eliminate after-school programs and elder services.
There are bright spots. Those organizations thatalready had building projects financed and under way, for example, havebenefited from a decline in construction costs. The Queens Museum of Art hadtrouble generating contractor interest in its renovation project seven monthsago, but the bid it reissued in December received a very different response.“They were knocking down our door,” said Tom Finkelpearl, the museum’sexecutive director. “Frankly, I don’t think we could have built the building ifthe economy didn’t go south.” The Queens Museum had raised the $48million for its renovation before the recession hit. However, one of themain contributors had invested with Bernard L. Madoff, who is accused ofrunning a Ponzi Scheme that hurt nonprofit institutions, as well as otherinvestors. The Queens Museum is extending exhibitions in order to program fewernew ones, has eliminated 7 of its 40-member staff through layoffs and attritionand will decrease its annual operating budget by about $1 million.
If thereis any important lesson to be learned from all this, arts groups say, it is inpart the importance of building strong boards and diversifying financingsources. Flushing Town Hall, for example, gets 48% of its $1.2 million annualbudget from the city. The Bronx Museum, which said its financing from cityagencies was down about 60% between fiscal year 2008 and fiscal year 2010, hasalways relied on public funding from a variety of government sources.
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