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January 09, 2009

Arts Groups Face Spending Squeeze

Indianapolis arts groups, hurting from plummeting endowments, are taking steps to save money and attract new audiences, reports The Indianapolis Star.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art, which saw a drop of $57-million in its endowment so far, will be delaying until 2010 the opening of an art and nature park that had been scheduled to open this year, and plans to host only two special exhibitions instead of three. The Indianapolis Opera will rework traditional favorites into its schedule in an effort to have a broader appeal, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will increase its marketing efforts and has scheduled a “a balanced season of music — between classical and pop, between Beethoven and the Beatles,” said a spokesman.

Also: A drop of $95-million in the Chicago Field Museum’s endowment has caused staff cuts and a delay in exhibiting Lucy, a 3.2 million-year-old fossil of an ape-man species that was to debut there this fall, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. The museum’s director, John McCarter, will take a 20 percent pay cut, and 23 employees have taken buyouts. Since August, 14 employees have been or will be laid off, reports the newspaper.

Also: The Spoleto Festival USA, an international arts festival featuring music, dance, opera, and theater, will be a more modest production in 2009, with a budget of $6.2-million, a drop of more than 25 percent from 2008, reports the Associated Press.

(Free registration is required to view the AP article on the Boston Globe site.)

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