What Funding Cuts for the Arts Buys the Military Wall Street Journal

Museums, theaters and operas, already reeling from the recession, are having a tough fourth dimension alluring support amid perceptions that vital services like soup kitchens and homeless shelters should receive funds kickoff.

Arts organization are retrenching, and in some cases endmost, as a consequence of fewer sales of tickets and trade, arts leaders say. They're also seeing fewer donations from individuals and corporations, and cutbacks in authorities funding. About 10,000 arts organizations, or 10% of the U.S. total, are at take chances of folding, according to Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit lobbying group in Washington, D.C.

The Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul closed indefinitely in January. The museum had existed in various forms since 1927.

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I reason for the struggles: Some people "recall of arts every bit an unnecessary frill," and disbelieve arts groups' economic and educational contributions to society, says Lester Salamon, managing director of the Eye for Civil Gild Studies at Johns Hopkins University. That sentiment was front and middle during recent debate over the giant federal economic-stimulus package, when arts funding met opposition.

Arts groups garner almost twoscore% of their income -- far more than other nonprofits -- from private donations, Mr. Salamon says. But private donors have cutting dorsum, and they tend to shift their money to human-services outfits during recessions, he says. "It'south a double whammy."

Some cultural institutions have already folded. The Baltimore Opera'southward board voted to liquidate the organisation terminal week. Brandeis University officials are mired in controversy over a decision to sell parts of its Rose Art Museum collection. In January, the Minnesota Museum of American Fine art in St. Paul, which had existed in various forms since 1927, airtight indefinitely. The Milwaukee Shakespeare theater visitor shuttered in October, after its main funder, a local foundation, dropped support.

Many arts organizations are tightening their belts. In New York, where Wall Street banks take collapsed, the Metropolitan Museum of Art just cut 74 positions and warned it could slash another x% of its piece of work force past July. In Detroit, where General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC are on the verge of bankruptcy, the Detroit Institute of Arts reduced 20% of its staff as part of a $6 one thousand thousand budget cut, and the Detroit Opera canceled a spring production.

In suburban Maryland, Imagination Stage, ane of the U.S.'s largest children'south theaters, expects its $5.1 1000000 budget for fiscal 2009 to shrink 5%, said Brett Crawford, the theater'due south managing manager. Amid state upkeep cuts and fewer corporate and private donations, the theater has started furloughs and cut some productions at its camps.

"Information technology's tough out there," Ms. Crawford says. "The arts are...that matter that can exist cut, considering we need our police officers, nosotros need our soup kitchens."

Arts organizations have responded by trumpeting their teaching initiatives every bit examples of how they give back to society and warrant additional money. The Washington Performing Arts Society sponsors a gospel choir for inner-urban center youth that recently performed for President Barack Obama at the national prayer service the twenty-four hour period after his inauguration. The Indianapolis Museum of Fine art supports art teaching for third graders in city public schools, and then invites classes to tour the museum.

In their bid to rally support, arts leaders have focused nigh on economic arguments. Cultural institutions generate $166.2 billion in almanac economic activity through spending by organizations and consumers patronizing their events, says Americans for the Arts. The sector accounts for 5.7 meg jobs and nearly $thirty billion in federal, state and local tax revenue.

That argument encountered an uphill battle during congressional debate over the stimulus package. When the Senate passed its version of the stimulus, it contained a provision barring any money from going to museums, theaters and arts centers -- grouping those organizations with casinos and golf courses. It likewise stripped funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Subsequently some political wrangling, the restrictive language was removed, and the NEA got $50 million. Some arts advocates championed the funding, noting it represented a third of the NEA'southward typical annual budget. But others found it lacking among the severe recession.

In the $787 billion stimulus package, funding for the arts is a "driblet in the bucket," says philanthropist Eli Broad, the founder of home architect KB Homes and fiscal titan SunAmerica, and a big art donor.

If arts groups want more than money, they need to intensify outreach efforts, so audiences reflect an area's diverse population, Mr. Broad says. Arts organizations must "cater to a much broader audition that represents our demographics today and tomorrow, not what information technology used to be 30 years ago," he says. "You've got to democratize the arts if you lot look to become the kind of financial support [desired] from individuals, foundations and government."

Write to Mike Spector at mike.spector@wsj.com

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