Budget Ax Falls on County’s Arts Programs : Recession: LACMA will sustain a cut of $1.03 million; Natural History Museum’s $13-million budget appears to have been slashed by $722,000.

Although several departments were spared threatened cuts when the County Board of Supervisors approved its 1992-93 budget Tuesday, it appears that county arts programs must bite the bullet immediately.

Details of the $13-billion budget are still unclear, even to staff in the Chief Administrator’s office, but arts programs were not listed among the departments that had funds temporarily restored.

As expected, it appears that the County Museum of Art will sustain a cut of $1.03 million to its $18-million county budget, requiring the elimination of 20 positions. Also as predicted, the Museum of Natural History’s $13-million budget appears to have been slashed by $722,000, requiring the loss of 18 positions. Both museums were told to make additional staff cuts this past summer, but most of the losses are expected to come from an early-retirement program rather than layoffs.

Museum budget reductions appear to have been part of $250 million in cuts made in a variety of programs as supervisors struggled to cope with a $588-million shortfall, largely resulting from the state’s fiscal crisis.

County museums haven’t determined the full effect of the cuts, but several programs are expected to suffer. Proposed cuts at LACMA include reduction of educational programs--such as lectures, classes and workshops--a reduced exhibition schedule and lower maintenance standards.

At the Natural History Museum, the budget cut is likely to result in curtailed maintenance of exhibitions and collections. To preserve the collection, some objects may have to be put on long-term loan to other museums around the country. In addition, the Natural History Museum may be forced to discontinue school tours on Mondays, when the facility is closed to the public.

Meanwhile, the county Music & Performing Arts Commission took a reduction of $121,000, leaving its county budget at $810,000. Commission executive director Laura Zucker said she would seek alternate sources to make up for the reductions. The commission also receives revenues from state and federal sources, along with private contributions, bringing its total 1992-93 budget to about $1.1 million.

The commission runs three grant programs, but because all other funds are already committed, the reductions must come from the $593,000 in recommendations for Organizational Support Grants, which go to performing groups of all sizes. And because smaller organizations have already been told of their recommended grant amounts, Zucker said cuts are expected to come at the expense of groups with budgets of more than $1 million--including the L.A. Philharmonic, Long Beach Symphony, L.A. Chamber Orchestra, Music Center Opera, L.A. Master Chorale, L.A. Classical Ballet and Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. The commission is scheduled to meet Monday to determine the exact reductions.

Los Angeles’ state-financed museums also have been hit hard by the current fiscal crisis. The California Afro-American Museum and the California Museum of Science and Industry in Exposition Park each must absorb a 15% cut in their operating budgets.

“It’s a little demoralizing. We’re trying to create miracles here,” said Terrie Rouse, director of the Afro-American Museum. The recently ordered reduction follows a crippling 14% cut last year, she noted. The museum’s budget fell from $1.3 million in 1990-91 to $1.1 million in 1991-92. This year’s slash reduces the budget to about $953,000.

Finding additional places to cut corners is “a challenge,” Rouse said. Expenses such as the museum’s utility bills are fixed costs. Staff reductions are impractical, she said. Three major positions--an educator, a librarian and a curator--are currently open due to resignations, and the remaining 11 employees are already struggling to take up the slack. Money has been saved by not filling these positions promptly, but according to civil service regulations they must be filled by the end of the year or the jobs will be eliminated, she said.

“Programs are the only thing left, but that’s how we present the museum to the public,” Rouse said. The museum has already canceled plans for traveling shows and substituted less expensive exhibitions from local collections. “To offer a program that will continue to serve the community, we will have to look at this as an opportunity to solicit support that we know is out there,” she said.

At the nearby California Museum of Science and Industry, the general operating budget has been slashed from $6.3 million in 1991-92 to $5.3 million in 1992-93, but that is only one step in a decade-long decline, according to Bob Campbell, the museum’s deputy director of administration. The state-supported institution has sustained cuts ranging from 1% to 18% every year during the last decade, diminishing its budget from about $10 million in the early 1980s to a little over half that amount in 1992-93.

Throughout the period of perpetual belt-tightening, the museum has kept its doors open 362 days a year and has not charged an admission fee, Campbell noted.

Visitors complain that restrooms and grounds are not maintained, but reduced service is the inevitable result of diminishing the staff from 190 to the current total of 140 state employees, he said. Eleven people--including the museum’s chief public safety officer, a personnel officer, the air-quality manager, parking attendants and painters--have taken early retirement during the past year. Their positions have not been filled, making it difficult if not impossible to comply with state-mandated regulations, Campbell said.