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Allentown Art Museum works with smaller funding canvas: Cuts staff and salaries, to close on Tuesdays.(Morning Call, The (Allentown, PA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Feb. 27--The economic virus has hit the Allentown Art Museum, forcing it to close to the public on Tuesdays starting March 10. In addition to cutting visitor days from six to five, the museum has reduced all staff salaries, eliminated the position of curator of collections and exhibitions and sliced $223,000 from the $2.7 million annual operating budget. The reductions are a serious response to serious shortfalls. Corporate donations to the museum have dropped 17 percent. Individual donations are down 30 percent. The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts is giving 11 percent less, and later than usual. Because of non-renewals and late contributions, there is nearly $72,000 less in the kitty of the Kress Society, open to donors of at least $1,000. "Everybody's stock portfolios are down by 50 percent and companies are laying people off and we have to respond accordingly," said Gregory Perry, the museum's executive director. "Many museums are open five days a week; that emboldened our decision. We want to maintain as much programming, staffing and public functioning as we can." According to Perry, the museum chose to close on Tuesdays because that day has the lowest traffic, with 16 percent fewer visitors than the five other public days. The museum, which is closed to the public on Mondays, will remain open on Tuesdays for school groups and art education events. Perry expects the museum to be closed on Tuesdays for at least the rest of the year. He said it is too soon to look for a benefactor to restore Tuesday hours by underwriting free admission; the museum's Society of the Arts currently supports free admission on Sundays. "When things get better, it's something we would seriously consider," he said. The museum shares a leaky boat with other regional art institutions. Over a year the Reading Public Museum has eliminated 20 percent of its staff, frozen salaries and adopted a no-growth budget. This week the Philadelphia Museum of Art announced it would eliminate 30 jobs and slash its budget by nearly $1.7 million to compensate for a $600,000 reduction from the city of Philadelphia and a loss of more than $90 million in endowment. Coincidentally, all three museums are cutting budgets while presenting extremely popular exhibits. The Reading Museum added two months to the run of "Born to Be Wild," a show of 45 classic and crazy motorcycles. On Thursday the Philadelphia Museum opened "Cezanne and Beyond," a blockbuster of nearly 150 works by Paul Cezanne and 18 of his fans, including Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Visitors have flocked to the Allentown Art Museum's "Monet to Matisse," a collection of 30 pictures by French masters. In four weeks it's drawn roughly the same number of viewers as the museum's record-setting Andy Warhol and Linda McCartney shows drew in their first month. Visitorship has increased by 23 percent on Tuesdays, largely because local residents rarely get to see a Degas or a Toulouse-Lautrec up close in their backyard. The museum is campaigning for bigger, newer audiences. On Tuesday it began offering two-for-one admission as part of a discount card program with five other Allentown cultural organizations. Some of those groups have their own financial challenges. The Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum recently eliminated two positions, including director of special projects. The Allentown Symphony Association's 2009 ball, a key benefit, earned 23 percent less than the 2008 edition. America on Wheels, the transportation museum that opened last April, lowered its projection for first-year attendance from 55,000 to 45,000. The art museum has other plans to raise revenue. Theodore Rosenberger, the museum's president, wants to increase the minimum donation to the Kress Society and to ask every member to bring a newcomer. Perry wants more cross-marketing collaborations. This spring, the 19th Street Film Series will begin showing movies that contain period costumes displayed in the museum's exhibit "Fashion in Film." To see more of The Morning Call, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.mcall.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |