For the second year in a row, Brookside Museum in Ballston Spa will close for the month of January due to financial issues.
Brookside’s Board of Directors decided to close the museum again after it learned funding from both Saratoga County and the New York State Council of the Arts would be partially cut.
“Brookside operates on a shoestring budget,” said Brookside’s Executive Director Joy Houle in a statement. “To take a loss of 55 percent and 10 percent from two of our biggest funders calls for extreme measures.”
In early December, a proposed budget plan for Saratoga County called for a complete elimination of the funds usually provided to Brookside, home of the county’s historical society. Museum employees and members of the public were dismayed.
“The proposed cuts represent what it would take to run the museum’s utilities for a year,” said Jeanne Obermayer, president of the museum’s Board of Directors, at a public hearing on the budget on Dec.1. “It’s also comparable to a Native New York program, which serves a couple thousand kids each year.”
In the final version of the budget, $5,625 in funding was restored from the previously allotted $11,250. County Board Chairman and Town of Saratoga Supervisor Tom Wood said those organizations that had funding restored should not expect any money next year, due to the budget deficit the county will face.
Several days later, Brookside’s board of directors learned NYSCA would reduce the museum’s funding by 10 percent.
Obermayer said the board is thankful to the county supervisors for the restoration because it was not an easy decision to make.
Brookside’s board chose to close the museum in January because it’s the slowest month for visitors. It’s also the most expensive month to heat the facility. In previous years, no educational programs were held at the museum because of the low visitation numbers.
“So the good news is no educational programs will be affected,” said Houle.
Unlike last year, the decision to close will affect employees.
Obermayer said the museum employs two full-time workers (including Houle), two part-time employees and two county employees paid through a work grant separate from the museum’s budget. In 2011, Houle continued to work while the museum was closed, writing grants and planning programs, and the other employees took vacation time. This year, none of the employees will be paid for four weeks.
“Last year was more of a pilot run to see what would happen if we did have to close for a time,” said Obermayer.
The museum will reopen on Jan. 31.
“It just makes sense to close now when it will impact the least amount of people in the community,” said Houle.
Besides cuts to funding, Obermayer said revenue has been impacted because fewer schools are sending students to participate in education programs put on at Brookside. Typically, local schools can pay for the programs through arts and education grants, but more often schools are unable to pay the transportation fees to bus students to the museum. Instead, volunteers and employees have been offering to visit the schools so students will not miss out on the lessons.
“We’ve done a lot of fundraising over the summer, but still haven’t totally met our goals going into next year,” said Obermayer. “Not a one of us is a professional fund raiser, so we might need to find someone willing to help us in the future. We already write tons of grants, but often they are too narrowly focused on what the money can be used for.”
Unless the museum has to permanently close, Brookside’s board does not plan to close beyond the month of January in 2013.
Obermayer said if the museum was faced with permanent closure, the board would look to see how to staff the museum differently while still providing quality programming. In 2014, the board may look at consolidating educational programs with agencies that offer similar ones. It also may change the volunteer program to allow the helpers to step into more leadership roles.
“We have a very strong volunteer force with considerable knowledge and interests,” she said.
