Dark Days Arrive at LACMA : Funding: Faced with $4.2 million more in county budget cuts, the museum will close its doors an additional day each week.

As Los Angeles County officials struggle to deal with an unprecedented $1.6 billion in cuts, museums that derive a substantial portion of their support from the county are taking drastic action. Reeling from last year’s $2-million cutback in county funds and anticipating a further reduction of $4.2 million this year, the County Museum of Art will close its doors an additional day of the week. Beginning Sept. 7, the museum will be dark on Tuesdays as well as on Mondays.

Officials of the Natural History Museum haven’t determined how to deal with the museum’s expected $3.1-million cut, recommended by County Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford, but the decision is likely to be “much more devastating” than LACMA’s change of hours, according to Catherine Krell, deputy director of marketing and public affairs.

“We are looking at everything,” Krell said. “We are already running extremely lean, but we will probably be forced to make even more drastic cuts in staffing.”

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The museum will probably not close during the week because that wouldn’t save enough money and it would hurt fund-raising in the long run, she said.

LACMA Director Michael Shapiro said that the Museum of Art is implementing the Tuesday closure “with great regret” and with hope that the change will be short-lived. “Obviously our mission is to show our works of art to the greatest number of people for the greatest period of time. But budgetary losses this severe require dramatic and visual responses on our part,” he said.

Letters to museum members announcing the change were mailed last week, Shapiro said. The museum’s free admission day will be changed from the second Tuesday of each month to the second Wednesday.

The art museum’s budget fell from an all-time high of $31.5 million in 1991-92 to about $28 million in 1992-93, reflecting a loss of $2 million in county support (down from about $17.8 million to $15.8 million) and a $1.6-million loss in membership revenues. LACMA’s budget is expected to plummet again this year with an additional $4.2 million in projected cuts in county funds, dropping the county’s contribution to $11.6 million.

The museum has not projected its private-side losses for 1993-94.

The museum will save about $230,000 a year by closing an extra day each week, Shapiro said. LACMA has already trimmed $100,000 from its budget by closing some galleries on an alternating basis.

During the last round of cuts, the museum reduced its county-paid staff by about 40 with a combination of layoffs, transfers and frozen positions. No additional layoffs in the roughly 300-member staff are presently in the works, Shapiro said.

Attempting to portray the Tuesday closure in a positive light, Shapiro said the change is “a symbol of the present fiscal environment, but at the same time it is an opportunity to change the environment.” The closure is “a matter of dollars, and we know the dollars are out there,” he said.

“Clearly, while in the near term we are forced to make adjustments in our hours and programs to respond to the county budget, our intention is to raise funds for the long term to build a substantial operating endowment and an endowment for acquisitions,” Shapiro said. “We will be going to the private sector--to foundations, corporations and individuals to ensure the future of one of the great cultural resources in our community.”

A capital campaign is being planned for LACMA, but a kick-off date has not been established, he said.

LACMA is not the only major art museum to cut its hours in response to fiscal problems. The Brooklyn Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts have both been closed on Mondays and Tuesdays since 1991.

Both museums, along with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, rotate gallery closures as a cost-saving measure as well.