Laguna Museum Puts Staff on ‘Furlough,’ Cancels Show

The Laguna Art Museum, which recently canceled a major exhibit as a cost-saving measure, has canceled a performance-art presentation next Saturday and has given the bulk of its staff most of this week off without pay.

The actions do not signal worsening financial problems, museum board President Jon R. Erickson said earlier this week.

Dan Kwong, a Los Angeles-based performance artist, was to have performed next Saturday in conjunction with “The Transparent Thread: Asian Philosophy in Recent American Art,” a 70-piece traveling show scheduled for October. The museum canceled “The Transparent Thread” in September after failing to find corporate or private underwriting.

Kwong said that he was told by the museum’s education curator that his performance was canceled because the museum was over budget. Museum administrators could not be reached for comment over the holiday weekend. Erickson said he was unaware of the cancellation.

The museum ended the 1990-91 fiscal year on Aug. 31 with a $14,000 surplus, Erickson said. The three-day unpaid staff “furlough” this week, which left phones unanswered at times though the museum remained open, was taken at the suggestion of the staff “as a contribution to (help ease) the problems that all arts organizations are having in today’s economy,” he said. In addition, Erickson said no staff layoffs are under consideration and that he is not aware of further program cuts or cancellations.

In the past, the museum has funded some exhibits without underwriters, but Erickson said that “we just do not want to be spending money in these recessionary times if we don’t have underwriting. What we’re trying to do is make sure we maintain the operations in a positive cash flow.”

Erickson characterized the present situation as “grave,” but said that museum officials are continuing to seek community support to underwrite exhibits.

“We don’t expect that this is going to have a serious impact on the exhibit schedule in the future,” he said.