CALIFORNIA ART INSTITUTIONS STRUGGLING; SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM DELAYS EXPANSION
Diane Haithman from the Los Angeles Times reports that arts organizations throughout Southern California are scrambling in the face of declining ticket sales and donor contributions. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, will close the Geffen Contemporary, a warehouselike annex in Little Tokyo, for six months beginning January 6. A large exhibition of Dan Graham’s work that was to open at the Geffen center will be moved to the museum’s Grand Avenue building; the exhibition will still open as scheduled in February 2009, before traveling to the Whitney Museum in June 2009. Three shows planned for the Grand Avenue site—featuring the work of artists Luisa Lambri, Drew Heitzler, and the architectural firm Morphosis—will be postponed.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which operates on an annual budget of about sixty million dollars from public and private sources, enacted a hiring freeze approximately three weeks ago. However, attendance is increasing, thanks in part to a popular exhibition of photographic portraits from Vanity Fair magazine. But revenue from membership fees has fallen about $500,000 short of the $8.6 million goal for the current fiscal year. With donations down more than 10 percent, the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach has cut its budget from $4.5 million to $4 million and has reduced its staff. The museum has also eliminated “Orange Crush,” a monthly indie-rock concert program at the museum.
In other news, Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times_ reports that the Saint Louis Art Museum announced that it would delay the start of a $125 million expansion project, citing the declining state of the economy. The expansion, designed by the architect David Chipperfield, would provide the museum with new galleries and public spaces, as well as a belowground parking garage and a new entrance. The work was originally scheduled to begin later this year. “We will set a date for our groundbreaking once the market stabilizes,” said John D. Weil, the president of the museum’s board of commissioners, in a press release.
