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Institutions Brace for Cuts by the City

January 16, 2002

By ROBIN POGREBIN




Late last week the city's new budget director, Mark Page,
sent a memo to the Department of Cultural Affairs, along
with all the other city agencies, asking them for cuts of
25 percent in their building plans over the next four
years.

This notice, coupled with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's
recent warning that Lincoln Center's $1.2 billion
redevelopment may have to be put off, has left institutions
as internationally renowned as the Metropolitan Museum of
Art and as community-focused as the Queens Museum of Art
girding for cutbacks.

The cultural institutions with the most to lose - that is,
those with the highest capital commitments from the city
between now and 2005 - are the Met, which has been promised
$26.2 million to nearly double its exhibition space,
including new areas for education and research; the New
York Botanical Garden, which is expecting $31.3 million for
various projects, including roof repairs and repaving; the
Museum of Modern Art, which is awaiting $30 million to help
increase its space and build temporary quarters in Long
Island City, Queens; Queens Museum of Art, due for $23.7
million to double its space; the Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, promised $24 million (and another $8.8 million in
2006 and 2007) for a new downtown site; and the Aquarium in
Coney Island, which is expecting $31.4 million for
refurbishment of its main hall and other repairs.

Now, because of Sept. 11 and the softened economy, all of
these projects could be derailed or at least delayed,
depending on how far along they are. The mayor is due to
announce a complete preliminary budget on Feb. 14, said his
spokesman, Edward Skyler.

In the memo, Mr. Page, director of the Office of Management
and Budget, asked agencies to submit their proposals for
cuts in fiscal years 2002 to 2005 by tomorrow to assist in
closing the budget gap and reducing the city's debt,
"effectively extending your four-year capital program to
five years." The agencies are already coping with cuts of
up to 15 percent in their expense budgets.

"My guess is, when they get to capital, they will focus on
what they have to do with transportation and building
efforts having to do with the city's survival," said Norma
P. Munn, chairwoman of the New York City Arts Coalition, a
citywide arts advocacy group. "Since no one wants to go
back to the days when they didn't paint the bridges,
cultural projects will be at the bottom of the list. And
when they get to the bottom of the list, there's going to
be nothing left."

More than any other recent mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani
allocated money for capital projects for arts groups.
During his eight years in office, Mr. Giuliani committed
$484.7 million from the capital budget to cultural affairs,
compared to $223.7 million in Mayor David N. Dinkins's
single term and $126.3 million during the last term of
Mayor Edward I. Koch. Allocating this money does not
necessarily mean awarding it, however, and the strong
economy allowed Mr. Giuliani not only to commit more to
capital projects, but also to come through on more of his
pledges than other mayors had in the past.

In 2001, the city's commitment to capital spending on
cultural institutions jumped to $162.4 million from $20.9
million the year before. And the city's capital commitment
was to increase hugely in 2002 - to $599.7 million,
according to the Independent Budget Office, the city's
nonpartisan fiscal watchdog agency, which relies for its
numbers on the city's Office of Management and Budget.

Can the city make good on all these allocations? Mr. Skyler
said, "No decisions have been made regarding that." But
every indication from the mayor and New York's economic
indicators makes it seem unlikely.

The day after his inauguration, Mr. Bloomberg said Lincoln
Center's redevelopment and projects like it might have to
be put off. "It, like everything else, is going to have to
be put in line, and we'll see when we add up what's
possible what we can afford this year," he said at a news
conference on Jan. 2. "I think that most institutions
understand that, given the rough economic times where the
city doesn't have enough money and fund-raising from
private donors for organizations like that is probably
harder, some of these things are just going to get
postponed."

Under Mr. Giuliani, the city agreed to provide Lincoln
Center with $240 million over the redevelopment project's
10-year span. Mr. Bloomberg has expressed the hope that
when the city's economy improves, financing for capital
projects can be resumed.

In most capital projects, city money does not make up the
bulk of the budget; arts groups know they have to raise
most of their money from a combination of other sources,
including individuals, foundations and state government.

Nevertheless, city money matters a lot, not only
financially but also as an important commitment that helps
draw other contributors.

Organizations like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is
well into a $650-million capital project to which the city
already gave $20.7 million between 1997 and 2001, cannot
help but be concerned, even though Met officials say the
museum has raised more than $580 million of its goal so
far. "We are nervous," said David E. McKinney, president of
the Met. "We're working as we speak on a new central
kitchen and we're counting on $5 million from the city, and
if we don't get that, we've got a problem." The new kitchen
will allow the Met to return its current kitchen area to
use as a sculpture court and to create new cafeterias for
the public and the staff.

Nevertheless, Ms. Munn of the New York City Arts Coalition
said she suspected there wouldn't be a total shut-off of
the spigot, that the mayor might allow some continued
financial support for planning and design. "I don't think
anyone wants to stop building the cultural infrastructure
of the city," Ms. Munn said. "It's a very real asset."

Some large capital projects are moving along in the face of
the uncertainty from the city. The Museum of Modern Art,
for example, plans to open MOMA QNS, its new 160,000-
square-foot temporary exhibition and storage space in Long
Island City, in June. Its director, Glenn D. Lowry, said
the foundations were being poured for the expansion of its
Manhattan home on 53rd Street, with structural steel soon
to follow, and that $520 million of its $650 million
fund-raising goal had been reached. Mr. Lowry said the
museum was even likely to increase its goal to $800 million
over the next seven years. The Modern has already received
$35 million from the city, and another $30 million has been
committed over the next four years.

Nevertheless, Mr. Lowry said the museum now plans to pull
back from a gut renovation and reduce the degree of work in
the nonpublic areas. In addition, Mr. Lowry said, the
Modern may cut costs in some areas and delay its completion
(the renovated museum is due to open in 2005). "We're still
in the review process," he said.

Construction on the new $115 million home at Columbus
Circle for Jazz at Lincoln Center is well under way, though
the project is still short $33 million of its fund-raising
goal. Of the $25 million pledged by the city, Jazz has so
far received $5.7 million.

Several arts executives with longtime dealings with the
city predicted that projects on which construction hadn't
begun would be the main casualties. Said one, "Any cultural
institution that doesn't have a hole in the ground or a
building partly up is going to find itself out of this
budget."

The Queens Museum of Art, for example, only just selected
an architect, Eric Owen Moss of Los Angeles, to design an
expansion that would double its space; preliminary models
have been on view at the Architectural League of New York
in Manhattan. The bulk of financing for the project, which
is being managed by the city's Department of Design and
Construction and the Department of Cultural Affairs, comes
from the city. "It all looks uphill now, but I'm certain it
will move forward," said Carma Fauntleroy, the interim
executive director.

In this climate, many say the idea of a new Frank Gehry
$900 million, 500,000-square-foot Guggenheim Museum rising
on the East River in Lower Manhattan seems like a pipe
dream. Mr. Gehry was traveling and could not be reached for
comment.

Apart from the uncertainty of city financing, the
Guggenheim is retrenching, having laid off staff members,
reduced its number of exhibitions and sought new board
members in response to tough economic times.

Nevertheless, the museum says it is moving ahead. Laurie
Beckelman, the Guggenheim's deputy director for special
projects, said the museum had recently signed a memorandum
of understanding with the city to build at the downtown
site.

"It took 16 years to build Frank Lloyd Wright's uptown
Guggenheim, and this is long term," Ms. Beckelman said.

"We've got time and we're patient," she added. "We have to
be."

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/16/arts/design/16CUTS.html?ex=1012173741&ei=1&en=54d3bad494852f5e



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