BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART TO FURLOUGH STAFF
About half of the Baltimore Museum of Art’s 157 employees will be furloughed for two weeks, under a cost-cutting plan announced today by museum officials, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The furloughs and other measures, including leaving six vacant positions unfilled and cutting back on some smaller exhibitions, will trim the BMA’s budget by 6.5 percent, or just under nine hundred thousand dollars. The BMA is also canceling the three-year-old ArtBlast festival, part of Free Fall Baltimore, and continuing a pay freeze and partial hiring freeze. The coming year will also see fewer “focus” exhibitions, temporary exhibits culled largely from the BMA’s collection.
“There are going to be sacrifices on all sides,” said museum director Doreen Bolger. “There are many things we would like to do but won’t be doing.” The reductions will leave the museum with an operating budget of $12.7 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
