Seattle Art Museum to Close for 2 Weeks Due to Budget Concerns

Speaking of museum closings, the Seattle Art Museum announced yesterday it is closing its three principal buildings for two weeks next year, reducing its staff and instituting a two-week furlough in an effort to balance its budget.

Via The Seattle Times.

Seattle Art Museum to Close for 2 Weeks Due to Budget Concerns

Magnes Museum to Give Away Its Entire Collection of Prized Jewish Art

Better than deaccessioning? The Magnes, a Berkeley, Calif., museum, founded in 1962, doesn't have enough money to maintain the 10,000-piece collection, so it will turn the trove over to an unlikely rescuer: the University of California-Berkeley, part of California's public university system, which has experienced its own budget shortfall of $1 billion this past year.

Shelly Banjo of the WSJ explores this story as well as other art institutions that are struggling to stay afloat during these trying economic times.

Magnes Museum to Give Away Its Entire Collection of Prized Jewish Art

Michael Kaiser: Conventional Wisdoms I Fight Against

The Kennedy Center's Michael Kaiser was recently asked the following question:

Is there conventional wisdom amongst arts organizations that [you] disagree with and try to fight against?

His detailed answers here.

Michael Kaiser: Conventional Wisdoms I Fight Against

How to Donate to a For-Profit

How does a for-profit museum use a tax-exempt foundation to get donations? NY's Museum of Sex does it, through its own foundation. Via today's NY Times.

How to Donate to a For-Profit

Museums and Salaries

Via Donn Zaretsky:

The real issue with nonprofit compensation, I believe, lies not at the executive, but at the mid-management level, and at the lowest rungs of arts organizations.

Museums and Salaries

Michael Kaiser: "Over the last year I have noticed a change in the reactions by major donors"

During this recession, however, funders have taken a harder tone. "When there are well run organizations that are struggling to replace donors who have evaporated, why support those that have poor management, weak boards, and unrealistic plans and budgets," the funding community seems to be suggesting.

More, via the deteriorating Huffington Post.

Michael Kaiser: "Over the last year I have noticed a change in the reactions by major donors"

Charitable Gifts and Art Museum Deaccessioning

Erica Guyer, an associate at Withers LLP, has published an article on charitable gifts in relation to art museum deaccessioning practices.

Recent press regarding deaccessioning has raised some concerns among donors that their past or contemplated future donations could be sold by the donee institution. These concerns should not discourage charitable gifting, but should instead encourage donors to articulate their intentions with donee institutions and in clearly drafted gift agreements and testamentary instruments.

On the subject of the pending Brodsky Bill, Guyer adds, "a one-size- fits-all regulation undermines the diverse circumstances affecting cultural institutions considering deaccessioning." Guyer's entire article, Charitable Gifts in a Climate of Deaccessioning, can be viewed here via Martindale-Hubbell.com.

Charitable Gifts and Art Museum Deaccessioning