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471 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 9 (1984)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0471 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE For the issue of The Annals dated July 1981, I wrote an article, The Effects of Inflation on the Arts. At that time, it was apparent that inflation had been taking its toll upon a field that has always been people-intensive and program-expansive. If there was any doubt about my gloomy conclusions, a recent study undertaken by eight major museums-the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts-Boston, Art Institute of Chicago, Toledo Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art-reveals that the impact of inflation has been severe. Despite a 17 percent increase in dollars in a six-year period, the purchasing power of the museums' endowments in 1981 was $122 million less than in 1975. As the inflationary rate slows, there are still signs that the cultural world remains fragile fiscally. The establishment institutions are having their share of troubles. The 1980 operating deficit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art was $686,557; the deficit for 1982 was $2,102,450. The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts-Boston, Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Metro- politan Museum have estimated deficits for 1983 ranging from $49 thousand to $1.5 million. The New York City Opera's deficit is more than $2 million, and a debilitat- ing strike, begun on the opening night of its summer-fall 1983 season, did not bode well for the company's future. The Civic Opera of Atlanta and the Central City Opera in Colorado canceled their 1982-83 seasons for lack of operating funds. Channel 13, the 20-year-old public television station, announced a deficit of $6 million in November 1982 due, according to its president John Jay Iselin, to a lack of reserve cash. Public television station KCET has been forced to sell its studio and stop production of several television programs. The estimated deficit for 1983 for National Public Radio has undergone revision upward almost weekly: in June 1983 it was $8.5 million; 140 staff members had been laid off; and the chairman and president had resigned. Cuts in the budgets of two federal agencies, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and reductions in city and state governmental support have been causes for concern. President Ronald Rea- gan has called upon the private sector to meet those needs of society that the government has not, cannot, or will never be able to fill; but hard times dictate tough choices, and the arts can hardly expect to be on top of a list that includes human services, community health programs, institutions of higher education, and other areas hit by the recession, unemployment, and federal budgetary cuts. The Exxon Corporation has shifted more than $3 million of its 1983 budget from arts and public television to health and social welfare. The BankAmerica Foundation now is concentrating its funds on health and human services. Urgent appeals from social service agencies are expected to affect other companies' patterns of giving as well. Not only arts institutions but individual artists are complaining. The boom in art sales is apparently over. The New York market-which includes 300-500 dealers in the area-is no longer thriving. Fewer artists are being shown, less work is being 9

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