Upon a further budget review, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has added an additional $54 million to the $84.7 million earmarked for arts organizations in the Californian metropolis.  The money will allow for major renovations to a number of LA Arts organizations and institutions. (more…)

The Centre Pomidou has announced that it will be opening a temporary pop-up location next year in the Spanish city of Málaga, the home town of Pablo Picasso, and will bring a series of exhibitions of works from the Pompidou Collection to the city.  In turn, Málaga will pay a fee of €2.1 million, which offsets the deficit currently faced by the Pompidou for its 2014 operating budget.  “The current financial situation is pushing us to be creative in ways we did not have to be before,” said president Alain Seban. (more…)

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome (Macro) is reportedly facing a financial crisis, after government officials slashed the museum budget from from €350,000 in 2013 to €61,000 this year.  “The exhibitions are programmed, and funded, until spring 2015… We spend very little on the shows as we have several sponsors,” says former president Alberta Campitelli. (more…)

The City of Detroit is nearing a pension cuts deal which may allow the Detroit Institute of Arts to spin off from city ownership, provided state funding, foundation contributions and Detroit Institute of Arts fund-raising would provide $816 million to reduce potential cuts to city pensions.  The city is sell engaged with talks with representatives from the city’s largest pension funds. (more…)

Hyperallergic reports on Congress’s 2014 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which was released yesterday with the National Endowment for the Arts seeing a funding amount of $146.02 million, only slightly down from last year’s $146.26 million. The funding amount comes after a fractious several months of negotiations, including a proposed cut of 49% to the NEA by the House last year.  The Arts in Education Program was also rewarded a similar amount of $25 million, which is up from last year’s $24.6 million. (more…)

A group of Detroit’s creditors are pushed for an independent valuation of the Detroit Institute of Arts collection, marking a tense escalation between the city and its debt collectors, with the embattled museum caught in the middle.  “This motion doesn’t compel a sale,” said Derek Donnelly of Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. “It just establishes a communal framework for addressing value maximization of the artwork.” (more…)

The Smithsonian Institution has tallied a total cost of $2.8 million caused by the government shut down this past month, including all gift shop and cafeteria revenues the museum normally takes in.  The museum was also forced to conclude a number of loans prematurely, including the rarely exhibited codexes of Leonardo Da Vinci.   (more…)

The ongoing dispute over the future of the Detroit Institute of Arts has the museum considering a transfer to state ownership.  As DIA’s collection is appraised at the behest of emergency manager Kevyn Orr, the museum is weighing options that would allow it to accept state funding while providing needed monetary support to the city, including through long-term leases of art works.  “I’m deferring to them to save themselves,” Orr said. (more…)

Emphasizing the recent vote by Michigan’s Oakland County to withdraw support for the museum if any works were to be sold, DIA Director Graham W. J. Beal has stated in the September museum newsletter that “selling any art would be tantamount to closing the museum.”  Beal continues by questioning the valuation of the museum’s assets, particularly the Tintoretto ceiling painting in its lobby.  “You may have read in the Detroit Free Pressthat an expert valued the painting at $100 million. This came as a surprise to us as, a couple of years ago, for insurance purposes, a different expert assessed the painting at $2 to $3 million.”  He writes.
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The Smithsonian Institution has announced a series of summer closures in order to make up for the current national budget sequester.  Beginning yesterday, the Institute closed several rooms at the Hirshhorn, the Smithsonian Castle, and the Museum of African Art as it cut back on security and maintenance during the summer.  The measures are scheduled to conclude on September 30th. (more…)

Beginning May 1st, The Smithsonian Institution will initiate rolling cuts to the hours of certain museum institutions, and will close other galleries to compensate for the sequestration budget cuts.  The cuts, which consisted of a 5% reduction of the total budget, has been handled by scaling back travel and training programs, but museum leaders warn that major sacrifices may be necessary if the reductions remain in place through 2014. (more…)

In the face of a $40 Million cut as a result of Congress’s budget stalemate, the Smithsonian Museums are prepared to maintain their normal hours, vowing to find their way around the cuts in more creative ways.  The museums will absorb the cuts through delays in maintenance and construction, as well as other internal adjustments.  “We think we have a plan that allows us to squeak through to the end of this fiscal year. But we can’t sustain this,” Said Dennis Kelly, Director of the National Zoo. “At the end of the fiscal year, if we’re still in this mode, the entire Smithsonian is going to have to rethink all of our priorities.” (more…)