Washington Museums Struggle with Budget Cuts SPOKANE, WA (N3) - Washington's state-funded museums are experiencing the same budget cuts that are hitting other state agencies. Spokane's Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture recently laid off staff. Now, business leaders there have started a campaign to increase the museum's membership base. KPLU's Doug Nadvornick reports.

A spokeswoman with the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma says her agency is also hit hard by budget cuts. It has lost about eight employees.

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These are trying times for Spokane's primary museum for history and art.

Executive Director Ron Rector says the museum took a 22-percent cut in its funding from the state. Add in slower-than-usual private donations and he says the facility will have three-quarters of a million dollars less to spend next year. He's already let 15 employees go. The museum will open only four days a week, instead of six. And, Rector says, rather than bringing in swanky exhibits from the outside, it will showcase its own holdings.



Ron Rector: "This is from our American Indian collection."



SOUND: keys opening a door



Ron Rector: "I suspect our cuts are permanent. You do with what you got and you go from there. It's that easy."



Meanwhile, the head of Spokane's Convention and Visitors' Bureau recently put out a plea to his employees: help save the museum by becoming a member. Sixty-percent have done so.

I'm Doug Nadvornick in Spokane.
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