Feeling the pinch: museums and the recession
"Recession Art" by World of Good (www.flickr.com/photos/timrich26)
I could preface this post with all sorts of opining about the responsibilities of museums to their constituents and staffs in the face of the ethics crises many are confronting during our pervasive recession. But Artinfo.com just published a timeline of what drastic measures museums in the US (and at least one abroad) are taking, and the laundry list speaks volumes. Museum studies students, take cautionary note.
Case in point: “as part of a $6 million cut to its annual budget, [one museum] eliminates 20 percent of its staff — 56 full-time and seven part-time positions — and reduces operating costs by $1.6 million.”
Disclaimer: we have not fact-checked each bullet point, so read on with discretion.
2 Responses to “Feeling the pinch: museums and the recession”
[...] crises. Artinfo.com has created a handy timeline of Museums and the recession (this last via Art21 blog; but, as blogger Kelly Shindler points out, the stats in the timeline need [...]
[...] continues, reports of shrunken endowments, budget cuts, salary reductions, and layoffs pierce the headlines of museum news. The Brooklyn Museum is one of the most recent institutions to announce cutbacks in [...]