DETROIT — The Detroit Institute of Arts is working to persuade voters to authorize a regional tax to support the cultural institution, promising free admission and expanded programing if it passes while raising the possibility that the museum would be a shadow of its current self if it’s rejected.
The Aug. 7 vote follows last year’s shuttering of the Detroit Science Center after the educational attraction’s appeal for a cash infusion fell flat and comes as museums across the country learn to survive without support from state or local government budgets.
The Detroit Institute of Arts is asking voters to approve a 10-year property tax that works out to $20 per year on a home worth $200,000. It would raise an estimated $23 million a year, nearly as much as the museum’s annual operating budget.
“The DIA will have the kind of financial stability it hasn’t had for 40 years,” said Graham W.J. Beal, the museum’s director.
The museum would get a decade to focus fundraising efforts on building its endowment, Beal said, with the long-term goal of becoming financially independent. If the proposal fails, however, he said the museum would be forced to cut its hours, opening only two or three days a week. Some galleries would close to the public, and the museum would no longer have special exhibitions that routinely draw big crowds.
The museum was funded by the city of Detroit until the 1970s, when state support replaced local funding. That backing has since disappeared. In 2009, the museum cut its budget from $34 million to about $25 million and shed nearly 20 percent of its employees, but it says the high cost of maintaining its facilities and protecting its collection make further cuts unworkable.
— Associated Press
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