Met to Close Some Museum Shops

The NY Times is reporting that the Metropolitan Museum of Art will close some of its satellite museum stores and layoff some workers. The story shows that museums are eager to find way of reducing costs and lowering overhead. I would assume most of the stores closing are those that are under-performing and are not profitable. If that is the case, then it makes good business sense to close those shops. Good business sense is something that has not been an important part of many museums operations. But given the current economic climate, many museums and cultural institutions will have to learn how to run a more efficient institution, which, in the long run, is a good thing.

The shame of the closings is that we want to see more people enjoy the arts, and closing the stores only reduces exposure. The article is rather short, so I will take the liberty to post the complete article.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will close seven more of its satellite shops around the country, bringing to 15 the number it has closed in the last year, James R. Houghton, the chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, wrote in a letter posted on the institution’s Web site on Friday. A year ago the museum ran a total of 23 stores, but it has since closed 8, including three in California and one at the South Street Seaport Museum in Lower Manhattan. It now plans to close an additional seven and will instead concentrate on its online shop; it has recently redesigned its mail-order catalog. Citing the global financial crisis, Mr. Houghton said the museum had imposed a hiring freeze and is curtailing staff travel and entertainment as well as the use of temporary employees. He also said the Met was in the process of a museum-wide assessment of expenses to see how it can further reduce costs. Emily Rafferty, the Met’s president, said Monday that “we cannot eliminate the possibility of a head-count reduction.”