In the Arts: New Miss. Museum Nearly Broke; Big Donor Drawn into Philly Music Fight

Nine months after it opened with hopes of luring tourists back to the recession- and disaster-battered Gulf Coast, the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, in Biloxi, Miss., is almost out of money, according to The New York Times.

Started in November with financial support from local casinos, the Frank Gehry-designed facility has struggled with a shortage of visitors and higher-than-expected operating costs.

“We’ll need some intervention within a matter of weeks or we will be totally out of funds,” said the museum’s board president, Larry Clark.

The Ohr-O’Keefe has cut back hours and negotiated down its insurance costs, which are exceptionally high due to its location a few yards from the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Clark said the museum will seek to tap donors, and it tried to get more money from the city government, but city officials say it has no funds to spare.

In other arts news, a new front in the legal fight over the Philadelphia Orchestra’s bankruptcy threatens to bring the organization’s biggest donor into the fray, The Philadelphia Inquirer says.

The Philly Pops, which has been involved in contentious separation talks with the orchestra since before it filed for bankruptcy in April, sought court permission to examine financial details of the orchestra’s relationship with the Annenberg Foundation.

The Pops contends its 2005 merger with the orchestra stemmed from the requirements of Annenberg’s $50-million gift to the orchestra two years earlier and that it needs information from the foundation to “understand and protect [its] rights” as it negotiates a financial settlement with the other ensemble.

David Ulich, a lawyer who represents the Annenberg Foundation, said the organization “is being inappropriately pressured in a two-party dispute” in which it is not directly involved.