National Gallery to Receive Emergency Funding

East Building's Support System Needs Repairs

The facade of the 31-year-old East Building of the National Gallery of Art needs an urgent $40 million facelift.

Exterior panels, made of Tennessee lavender-pink marble, are tilting outward, which the gallery says indicates problems with the support system. A consultant has recommended that the gallery remove all 16,200 panels and install new supports behind them.

President Obama is willing to help out, proposing $40 million in his 2010 budget for the East Building work. Because of the overall $56.2 million in repairs needed for the entire gallery, its budget jumped from $122.7 million in 2009 to a proposed $165.2 million.

Obama again signaled strong support of the arts and humanities by giving sizable increases to the national endowments in the 2010 budget proposal he sent to Congress yesterday.

Designed by the lauded architect I.M. Pei and opened to the public in 1978, the East Building is one of Washington's cultural landmarks with its signature angled facade and huge atrium with its Alexander Calder mobile.

The gallery received the engineering report about the need for the major repairs last month and the work will begin as soon as the funding is appropriated, according to a gallery spokeswoman. In the meantime, the gallery has installed a buffer zone around the building with a canopy over the entrance on Fourth Street NW. "At this point we are not planning to close any part of the building," said Deborah Ziska, the gallery's chief spokeswoman. The tilting was noticed "on close inspection," and Ziska said it posed no danger to the public or staff.

The Smithsonian, the largest recipient of cultural funding, is scheduled to receive $759 million, compared with $731.4 million in the final 2009 budget. This amount also includes funds for repairs to the Arts and Industries Building and the design of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Despite budget-cutting in many areas, the president asked Congress yesterday to give the National Endowment for the Arts $161.3 million, which, if approved, would be its highest level of funding since 1992. The administration also requested $171 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities. If approved, that would also be the humanities office's highest appropriation since 1995, when congressional Republicans decimated the endowments' budgets.

"The administration's fiscal 2010 budget proposal to increase support for the National Endowment for the Arts provides another encouraging nod of confidence in the role the arts play in America's future," said Robert L. Lynch, the president of Americans for the Arts, a prominent lobbying group. "We hope that Congress will build on these initial budget requests to secure even higher funding levels to address the needs of the arts and arts education community."

Arts organizations across the country from symphonies to theaters, have been hurt by the economic downturn. Arts executives have been heartened by the administration's inclusion of $50 million for the NEA in the stimulus package earlier this year.

In Obama's budget, the administration transferred a critical source of funding for District arts groups, proposed at $10 million, back to the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs program, which Congress established in 1985, provides general operating support for the city's nonprofit arts groups that have income of at least $1 million per year. For 22 years it has been administered by the Commission of Fine Arts. With the change, the NEH will institute a competitive program for arts, historical and cultural groups. Thomas Luebke, the commission's secretary, said the revamped program would be "beyond our capacity to administrate." Yesterday's budget earmarked $2 million for the commission, the same amount as last year.

The Kennedy Center will see a slight increase with a proposed $39.9 million in 2010, up from $36.3 million in 2009. The administration asked for $35 million to support the museum portion of the Institute for Museum and Library Services. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is set to receive a $1.3 million increase in its 2010 budget to $48.5 million.