DIA chops 20% of staff in attempt to cut budget by $6 million
BY ERIN CHAN DING and BRIAN McCOLLUM • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • February 24, 2009In the most sobering news yet this year for the city's arts and culture scene, the Detroit Institute of Arts
announced Monday that it is laying off about 20% of its staff -- or 63 of its 301 employees.
The cuts come as part of an effort by the DIA to trim $6 million from its $34-million annual operating budget. The layoffs involve 56 full-time employees and seven part-time workers and come from departments including curatorial, conservation, learning and interpretation, building operations, communications and marketing and accounting.
DIA Director Graham Beal said Monday afternoon that a half-dozen positions would be eliminated from the curatorial department, one of the most visible to visitors.
DIA employees were notified of the layoffs at a staff meeting Monday morning and then told the fate of their specific positions.
"People are stunned," said Beal. "Some people are in a state of shock."
Without actually doing away with storytelling workshops and monthly features like "Brunch with Bach," the DIA does plan to hold fewer of them. Already it has cut back on traveling exhibitions previously set to arrive this year, canceling one on the Baroque period, another on Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Jim Dine, and another on prints and drawings related to books.
"It's our intention to make the DIA continue to look exactly as it does now, with the same range of programs," he said. "But there will inevitably be less activity."
Despite a $160-million expansion that opened 15 months ago and a spike in attendance from roughly 400,000 to 600,000 visitors annually, the DIA has been struggling with its finances for most of this decade.
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Meanwhile, fat-cat CCS is opening a Grad School. What the Fuck is that? NO SENSE OF COMMUNITY! Detroits creative infrastructure needs get their shit straight.
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