Smaller US museums seeking bailouts!

An interesting news report in The Wall Street Journal brings out how many smaller museums, hit hard by the recent downturn, are seeking excessive bailouts in an effort to survive. They are looking to forge partnerships with interested universities to cover deficits. Writer Shelly Banjo puts the spotlight on their last-ditch efforts to keep their creaking doors open and their rich collections intact. The insightful report explains:

“Tottering under years of deficits, accumulated debt and declining donations, several of the small and medium-size museums in the US have been turning to the art-world equivalent of a bailout.”

The Berkeley, Calif., museum, for example, lacks money to maintain its 10,000-piece collection, so it’s turning the trove over to a rescuer to oversee the collection. The Museum of Contemporary Craft, based in In Portland, Ore. is among the oldest nonprofit art galleries. It managed to avoid collapse thanks to a $1.4 million donation from the Pacific Northwest College of Art, last year, which helped it pay off the debts.

In Berkeley, the Magnes has been forced to relocate to a former printing plant following an intense financial arising out of ambitious expansions and far-reaching, albeit failed real-estate investments. The Gulf Coast Museum of Art based in Largo, Fla. gave its contemporary Florida art collection to St. Petersburg College. The WSJ reveals:

“Many museums took on debt to finance these activities—only to have the floor fall out from under their endowments in 2008 when the market crashed. Financial emergencies represent difficult dilemmas for museum donors. If they continue to write checks to keep a museum afloat, it might fail anyway. If they support a partnership or change-in-control, it might infringe on the institution's unique character.”

The crisis has deepened with both arts and higher education hit by the sharp economic downturn that resulted in shrinking donations to education organizations and arts institutions. However, a few well-managed museums have managed to hold out, hoping that with economic recovery looming on the horizon, things will finally change for the better...