Bare-Bones Blanton

Artist's conception of what the completed new Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas will look like

With the way things are, economically speaking, both in Austin and the world of museums, it's not surprising that UT's Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art last month laid off four members of its staff of around 30. Nor is it surprising to hear complaints about the museum's decision. "It's always hard because of the human aspect," says Blanton Director Jessie Otto Hite, "but it's what museums do when they're in transition."

What Hite's detractors find offensive is that she laid off longtime staff in collection management positions -- conservation, exhibit installation, etc. -- but not in administrative, marketing, or public relations positions. Hite's decisions were "grossly uninformed," says one anonymous critic, showing that she has "no clue about collections care and maintenance, the primary function of any museum."

"Primary" in Utopia, perhaps, or when the university first opened its art museum in 1963.

"I looked at many ways of doing this," Hite says, noting that the Blanton, as it focuses on building and occupying its new facility (slated to open in 2005), has cut back from mounting eight to 12 shows a year to only four. "Money is hard to find right now, and the money we're raising is going toward the new buildings." The Blanton, which used to operate out of three separate UT locations, is now biding time in its cramped quarters in the UT Art Building, due to the ongoing renovation of the Harry Ransom Center.

Hite says she handled the layoffs "as instructed by the dean's office and the HR office on campus," and that her decisions "had nothing to do with people, and everything to do with how to sustain our level of operations. How do we allocate our resources? I could not, in good conscience, maintain the staff resources to do things that we're not doing, [when] I can contract out for those functions. But when you're raising $20 million, you can't lay off development people. When you're doing fewer shows, you don't lay off PR people because you need to keep awareness up."

The Blanton is hardly alone in facing a shrinking budget. Across the country, major museums -- including the Seattle Art Museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the Whitney and Guggenheim Museums in New York -- have significantly cut their staffs, and many more have instituted hiring freezes. (Some university museums, including respected collections at the University of South Carolina and the College of William and Mary, are facing outright closure.) Between the bust's impact on wealthy donors' fortunes, the decline in tourism after Sept. 11, and the parlous state of most state and local governments, it's not a great time to run an art museum.

And while other institutions (with larger staffs) have spread the pain out among departments more than Hite has, they've also kept intact or expanded their marketing and development functions. The U.S. is in the midst of the greatest museum building boom in a century, with dozens of institutions -- including not only the Blanton but the Austin Museum of Art -- working on new and expanded facilities conceived during the salad days of the 1990s bull market. Because post-boom fundraising for the Blanton was not keeping pace with the $59 million project's needs, and because the project is already behind schedule after its much-publicized change of architects, UT System regents agreed in May to allocate $26.5 million to avoid further delays. (The $25 million art education building next door will still be paid for solely by donations, including $1 million from Jack S. Blanton himself, bringing his grand total to $7 million -- not counting the $12 million ponied up in his name by the Houston Endowment.)

Some museum consultants are recommending their clients scale back their expansion plans, saying they'll face even greater financial and staffing problems once they have to service larger spaces and new programming. That's what seems to be happening at Texas' largest art museum, the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston, where (according to a recent Houston Press report) experienced, specialized staff are leaving in droves because their already-pitiful salaries haven't kept up with the increased workload of the expanded institution. (It doesn't help that MFAH Director Peter Marzio got a $1.7 million bonus.)

But few museums have even contemplated not going forward with their new projects, and the Blanton -- which describes itself as "the cornerstone of Austin's cultural renaissance" is no exception. "I fully intend to hire back the people who were laid off when the need arises," Hite says, "and as we move into the new building."