Recession Puts Brakes on America’s Arts Boom

The recession has slammed the brakes on the surge in artistic activity across America in recent years, declares The Washington Post in an overview of the rash of shutdowns, layoffs, and budget cuts enacted by cultural institutions nationwide.

Organizations that thrived through other recessions and the recent mini-downturns following the 2001 terrorist attacks and the bursting of the dot-com bubble now find themselves reeling from a combination of shrinking investment portfolios, reduced government and corporate support, and plunging private donations and ticket sales.

“I have never seen a situation like this in my 25 years in the business,” Michael M. Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, told the newspaper.

See The Chronicle article, in the issue posted online today, outlining the creative responses that big arts groups have taken as the financial crisis has cut into their budgets.

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