NYC Museums scale back - Front Page - New York City, finance - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Art in America, Jan, 2002 by Stephanie Cash

Museums and arts groups around the country are suffering from the current economic crisis and the continuing impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. With tourism in a steep decline, museums that rely heavily on out-of-town visitors have seen a sharp drop in attendance, and much financial support has been withdrawn or redirected. Not surprisingly, some of the hardest-hit museums are in New York.

In mid-November, the Guggenheim Museum laid off 80 employees from its 440-member New York staff and announced that its exhibitions program is being scaled back. "Brazil: Body and Soul," currently on view at the uptown facility, will be extended until May 29, and will be followed by selections from the permanent collection. The Norman Rockwell exhibition, part of a national tour, will close as planned on Mar. 3. A Matthew Barney show originally slated for spring 2002 has been rescheduled for January 2003, following stops in Cologne and Paris. A Kazimir Malevich exhibition for May that was to have included Russian icons has been postponed indefinitely, partially due to post-9/11 concerns about security, insurance and shipping. The Guggenheim's SoHo branch is scheduled to close at the end of 2001. Programming there had already been significantly reduced over the last few years.

Attendance at the Guggenheim, which normally attracts many out-of-town visitors, is down about 50 percent since the attacks, and attendance at its recently opened satellites in Las Vegas [see "Front Page," Dec. `01], one of which is a joint project with the Hermitage, have fallen short of expectations, largely due to the worldwide decrease in tourism. Perceived as wealthy and stable, with other branches in Venice, Berlin and Bilbao, and rumors of planned locations (Johannesburg, China, Brazil ...) constantly circulating, the Guggenheim seemed better prepared than most to endure hard times, so the early announcement of substantial staff cuts came as a surprise. Deputy director and chief curator Lisa Dennison told A.i.A. that the museum's plans to build an ambitious new facility in Lower Manhattan [see "Front Page," Jan. '99] are still in place, though the project is eight years away, and she suggested that the museum could play a critical role in rebuilding the downtown area.

Perhaps even more surprising was the news, reported in the New York Times, that over the past two years the Guggenheim Foundation, which runs all the museums, has shifted $23.3 million from its endowment to cover operating costs and reduce outstanding debt. Director Thomas Krens told the Times that the endowment stands at $58 million, but included in that figure is a $10.5-million donation for acquisitions, along with other gifts that also have restricted use. The Times noted that the foundation's financial statement as of Dec. 31, 2000, put the endowment at $37 million. Jane Debevoise, deputy director for program administration and operations, told A.i.A. that the endowment is still strong and that paying down the museum's long-term debt--which includes an $80-million bond issue dating back to the 1989-91 expansion--is a positive move. She said that a donor who recently made a large contribution gave permission for the funds to be directed toward retiring a large portion of the debt.

On Dec. 1, just a few weeks after the Guggenheim's belt-tightening announcement, the Times reported that the Whitney Museum of American Art was also cutting its staff and exhibitions roster in an effort to save about $1 million in its $23-million budget for 2001-02; a deficit was already expected at the start of the fiscal year in July 2001. Fourteen employees, two of whom were part-time, from the 210-member staff were laid off, including one curatorial assistant. The other staff cuts affected administrative or support positions, as well as Web site employees. The site is now being managed by an outside company.

The Whitney has also canceled the long-awaited Eva Hesse retrospective, organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum Wiesbaden in Germany, originally scheduled to open in New York in November 2002. A show of works by Michal Rovner has been postponed. Like the Guggenheim, the Whitney gets about half of its admissions revenue from visitors outside the New York City area. Paid admissions, which account for 11.4 percent of the museum's operating budget, are down by 40 percent. Director Maxwell Anderson told the Times that attendance is actually up, but that many visitors coming to the museum, such as students and members, qualify for discounted entry fees. On a brighter note, the museum has received a three-year, $4.5-million grant from Tyco International Ltd. to help support special traveling shows from its collection.

Though the Brooklyn Museum of Art has managed to avoid staff lay-offs, it has implemented salary cuts retroactive to the start of the fiscal year in July 2001. The salary cuts were implemented on a sliding-scale basis, and only affect nonunion members with incomes above a certain undisclosed amount. Employees could either write a check to the museum for the full amount, or have extra money deducted from their paychecks for the remainder of the fiscal year. Museum spokesperson Sally Williams said that the move was a result of the 15-percent city-wide cuts that Mayor Giuliani has requested to compensate for a large budget deficit mostly caused by the terrorist attacks. She said that the museum, largely a community-based institution, has been relatively fortunate. It was able to reopen on Sept. 12 and since it is less dependent on tourism than Manhattan's major museums, has suffered less from a drop in attendance, which is down about 20 to 30 percent.