Fine Arts Are in Survival Mode as Funds Dry Up

A few blocks away, at the Walters Art Museum, director Gary Vikan is taking a one-month unpaid furlough after a 27% drop in endowment funds forced him to lay off seven of 150 employees, freeze salaries and hiring and cancel an exhibit on French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Vikan and the Baltimore Museum of Art's Bolger are determined to preserve free admission, which began three years ago with a local government grant that runs out in October. Since 2006, they say, the number of minorities, children and first-time visitors has soared.