Uh oh.
A plunging stock market, shrinking endowments, disappearing visitors, evaporating donations, long-term declines in audiences… things are looking bleak for a lot of American cultural institutions. James Panero writes in City Journal that New York City arts organizations are only beginning to feel the punishing effects of the the Great Recession. Overly risky investments and poor management may also be factors. Even the wealthiest museums are barely keeping afloat. Quite a few of these centuries-old institutions may not survive:
To understand the current condition of arts organizations in New York City, visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There, you will find one of Winslow Homer’s most famous works, The Gulf Stream. Painted in 1899, the canvas depicts a solitary sailor lashed to his boat on a storm-tossed sea. The mast and bowsprit have snapped, the tiller and rudder are gone, and a school of sharks circles the boat in blood-red water. On the horizon are two images. On the left, through the fog, is the silhouette of a ship under full sail: a possible rescue. On the right, a looming waterspout presents a far more ominous outcome.Homer was no allegorist, but his work serves, unfortunately, as an all-too-appropriate metaphor. Just as the storm has knocked out the boat’s propulsion and steering, an initial wave—the downturn in the financial markets—has smashed the endowments of arts organizations. Now a second threat, the indirect effects of the downturn, is appearing on the horizon like the waterspout. Its full force will be felt by arts organizations in the months and years ahead.
The rest of Panero’s troubling story can be read here at City Journal (via Arts & Letters Daily).
As word got out about a free lending library on the premises, more employees began to visit. Sometimes they’d stand there, just staring in awe at the quantity of books and magazines stacked in tall towers or shelved by interest in metal bookcases.
I’m often asked how long they can be checked out or how much I charge. When I explain that it’s free and there’s no limit to the number of books or the length of time they are borrowed, there’s a sense of incredulity. Really? Free? In this world?
A nice little tale of an office worker who decided to set up an unauthorized lending library in an empty cubicle… [read on]
No surprise here, but the arts and culture sector has been particularly decimated in recent months.
The downturn walloping the entire economy has hit non-profit arts organizations especially hard. With millions of people scrambling to pay for food and other basics, a night at the opera can seem frivolous. So museums, symphonies, theaters, ballet companies and opera companies have cut staff, canceled performances, shortened seasons and, in some cases, shut down.
The worst may be yet to come.
Disturbing details continue here. Whether these institutions belong among the beneficiaries of federal stimulus largesse is an open question (though the $50 million set aside for the National Endowment for the Arts seems sub-trivial in these “trillion here, trillion there” times).
Regardless of one’s position on the stimulus spending, everyone could agree that we should at least encourage private donations to museums, dance companies, historic sites, etc. in these dark times. But the Obama administration’s new budget calls for scaling back tax deductions for charitable giving. Billions in annual donations may be at risk.
In addition to our commercial entertainment industry, cultural expression in America has thrived because of our decentralized system based on the voluntary support of foundations and individuals. Philanthropic donations to non-profit arts and education programs have been the lifeblood of our vibrant cultural scene, especially for those art forms that don’t enjoy mass appeal.
A measure that would have a negligible effect on the federal budget might have a catastrophic effect on the non-profit world.
