The Culture Crunch

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The Great Recession may be slowly, slowly lifting — we hope — but most museums still find themselves in a serious pinch, and some of them in something worse. Las Vegas Art Museum: R.I.P.

If anything the hard times have been even harder in the performing arts, the theaters, orchestras, dance companies and so on that depend more heavily than museums on ticket sales for overall revenue. This is especially true for medium-sized operations that have high fixed coats — their own theaters, maybe, or a permanent performing troupe — but no endowment to see them through downturns. Baltimore Opera: R.I.P.

So in Time this week I took a look at the entire universe of struggling arts organizations and how they’re coping.