Visitorship Up, Revenue Down

More good news! Despite the Getty's financial woes due to the stock market, their visitorship is up--yay! That still doesn't help those who are being/will be laid off, and more admissions to the Getty doesn't necessarily translate into more revenue coming in since the admission price is well, free, but it does show that museums can maintain or even increase the number of people coming through the doors during these trying times.

Couple of thoughts, however. First is, the Getty's visitorship is up and their admission is free. Is that a point in favor of my argument that museums right now should be *lowering* their admission prices rather than *raising* them in order to increase the number of visitors?

Second, does anyone out there have any stats on how the economy is affecting *virtual* museum visits? Are more people going to museum websites? If so, are they stopping there, or are they translating into actual visits to the physical plant?

Losses for the Getty

Uh-oh. I mean, I guess it was bound to happen. *Everyone* has been hit hard in the financial portfolio--why not the Getty, too? But the Getty Trust tightening its belt could have far-reaching consequences, not just for its own staff, but for the museum world at large. The Getty Trust supports many other museums and arts organizations through grants and programs. If the Getty is hit too hard, I fear for what could happen to some of its smaller brethren as a result...

Meanwhile, the head of the Getty Trust announced definitively that with the operations budget cuts would come staff cuts. The result is this underground blog: http://www.silencedogetty.blogspot.com/ posted by anonymous employees of the Getty looking to be heard by an administration that they feel is looking in all the wrong places to cut costs. For me, perhaps one of the most cogent sentiments expressed on this blog was from a comment left by an anonymous reader stating that it made him/her sad that while "the getty has a staff that is worth more than all that money and art" that same staff was now in danger of being laid off. What I find sad is that the same could be said for almost any museum--the most valuable assets of the museum world are the most overlooked and undervalued--the unsung staff members.

Similarly, the Met in New York, another museum with an endowment numbering in the billions, has also announced lay-offs. I hope that those whom I have known there will all be okay...