By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – The Albright Knox Art Gallery Friday announced it will close for one week and scale back hours and programming to help close a roughly half million dollar gap projected this year.
The entire staff will be on unpaid furlough from May 18th through the 24th. Effective immediately the Gallery will eliminate Thursday evening hours. Free Fridays will continue, but with modified programming.
Gallery Director Louis Grachos says these are temporary measures to offset the impact of the poor economy and protect the future of the institution.
"This time of year, especially around the Memorial Day holiday, is traditionally one of our more lightly visited periods," Grachos said. "We hope this measure will be the least disruptive for our patrons and at the same time will allow us to capture some essential savings for our budget."
Grachos says the Gallery has suffered a 20 percent drop in charitable giving and a 21 percent loss of value in the operating endowment. He says he believes this is the first time in the Gallery's history that it's had to close for fiscal reasons.