What's Good for the Getty?

The Getty Museum, the art museum with the largest budget around, has not been immune to the economic woes shaking the US and the global marketplace. The LA Times recently published an article detailing the budget issues at the museum, along with the staff’s reaction to the changes being made to deal with the crisis. The museum relies heavily on profits from its investments to expand, but the investments have taken a huge hit, losing $2 billion since mid-2007. Layoffs, pay cuts, and the deferment of future purchases are a few of the ways the foundation is dealing with the current crisis. The article also references the Silence Dogetty blog, a blog forum for Getty employees to anonymously comment on conditions at the Getty.

The arts are an important staple to Los Angeles, and the struggles going on at The Getty mean that other venues will be having difficulties as well. This probably isn’t a huge surprise’ during tough economic times, donations drastically drop. This is especially true for the arts. When wallets start getting thinner, supporting the arts becomes a lower priority. For this reason, venues around LA are struggling to keep their operations at the usual high level.

Not just the fine arts are taking a hit; in November, the Music Center in Los Angeles announced cancellations for its summer schedule due to a lack of funds. The Nederlands Dance Theater I will have to wait until the economy improves before they can play Los Angeles.

Film Festivals, which have been growing in popularity in my recent memory, have been closing. Although it may be partially due to the recent overabundance of festivals (note my reference to their rising popularity), the process of weeding out the unecessaries (like New Jersey's Wildwood by the Sea Film Festival) has certainly been sped up by the lack of extra capital floating around.

A quick read of the Silence Dogetty blog shows what the typical US worker feels about reductions in their own workplace. After a first round of layoffs last year, accompanied by a December email expressing the intention of future layoffs, a group of employees created this anonymous forum to articulate their feelings on the unfair working conditions at the Getty. According to James M. Wood, the Getty Trust’s President, the cuts were not a money saving measure but an effort to “reallocate” resources.

So what are the money saving measures? The chief investment officer is focusing on liquidity, lowering investment in expensive projects and neglecting to purchase assets that will be hard to move out later. Basically, this comes down to a minimization on temporary exhibitions and fewer additions to the museum.

Silence Dogetty has another suggestion: lowering the salaries of its highest executives. The newest poll shows that the voters agree,

20% on $500k plus, 15% for $300 - 499K, 10% on $100 - 299K: 81 (67%)
10% on all exempt salaries only: 8 (6%)
5% on all non-exempt and exempt salaries: 11 (9%)
No salary reductions: 20 (16%)

Considering that those who visit the blog are most likely sensitive to staff cuts at the Getty, these results are not surprising. It is even less surprising in the context of the US right now; the trend seems to be toward a redistribution of wealth.

One thing I love about the way the Getty and its staff are dealing with the crisis is never once suggesting a raise in prices. Though visiting the Getty Villa is currently free of charge, no one has yet brought up the possibility of a new entrance fee. The admission fee at the Getty Museum has never been mentioned as flexible. In these times, it is more important than ever to include those from all walks of life in the arts.

Despite the downturn in the economy, art fairs and promotions continue on. Three SoCal art fairs occurred in January alone. The feel of these events may be moving a bit from buying to speculating, but attendance remains high. According to Stephen Cohen, an L.A. Photography dealer, "It's a buyer's market. We expect a big turnout, but it might be that a lot of people are looking, holding on to their money or getting an idea of what to buy when they have some to spend."

Film festivals aren’t dying out either. Despite cutbacks, all sponsors will be returning to this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival. The Los Angeles Music Center received the largest ever donation to support dance in the US. Although the economy has lowered the importance of the arts on the priority lists of many, the donor, Ms. Glorya Kaufman, found inspiration in our situation for her donation. "It's the perfect time," Kaufman said, "because everyone is starting to get into the doldrums. They're not spending money, not doing this, not doing that. What this does is, we can have music on the Music Center courtyard, we can have little bands and people learning to dance. . . . Everyone is happy dancing."

This is a very interesting approach to the recession. It’s hard for me to decide how I feel about it- on the one hand, $20 million could go pretty far in providing jobs, feeding the hungry, or other stereotypically noble pursuits. On the other hand, I have to agree that the recession will be much easier to weather if people are dancing.