Jazz Cafe to Swing Through September

The Smithsonian Jazz Cafe received a temporary reprieve yesterday and will operate at least through September.

The Jazz Cafe, a Friday night cabaret series at the National Museum of Natural History that draws hundreds of people each week, was on the endangered-species list a few weeks ago because it was losing money.

It looked as if the program would die June 29. But Smithsonian officials announced yesterday that it would continue to the fall. By that time, the museum hopes to secure outside sponsors for the event.

"They will operate through September and after that will become a public program of the museum," said Linda St. Thomas, the Smithsonian's director of media relations. "There is a great willingness at the Smithsonian to continue the program."

Since the cafe opened six years ago, it operated as part of Smithsonian Business Ventures, the moneymaking division of the Smithsonian that oversees the museums' cafes, theaters and gift shops. St. Thomas said the jazz cabaret, presented in the first-floor cafe run by contractor Restaurant Associates, was evaluated "as part of a package of other services but now will be looked at separately."

Initially the Jazz Cafe was free, but a year ago the Smithsonian instituted a $10 cover charge. That did help reduce the amount the cafe was losing -- from $38,000 in fiscal 2006 to an expected $26,000 in the current fiscal year.

"We are hopeful that additional support will be secured to make it possible to keep the cafe open on a permanent basis," said Randall Kremer, the Natural History Museum publicist who hosts the jazz cafe.

The possibility that the Jazz Cafe would close angered many of its supporters. "What is special about the Jazz Cafe is that it reached people you don't see other places. And the best thing is that they are going to get it out of this business budget and make it a public program," said Rusty Hassan, the host of a jazz program on WPFW-FM.

Myrna Sislen, the owner of Middle C Music on Wisconsin Avenue NW, said she has collected 1,000 signatures in support of the Jazz Cafe.

"Every single citizen who has signed this petition has been shocked, and there have been a good number of comments around the fact that they must be closing it down because of other financial problems -- wink, wink," said Sislen, who said she wasn't appeased by yesterday's announcement. "So now they are going to ask the public to pay for a publicly run program. They are pushing the edge of that envelope."