“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s hyperactive chief of staff likes to say. By that measure, art museums may have been handed a historic opportunity.

As we all know, the Great Recession has been tough on museums, especially American ones. Layoffs, furloughs and hiring freezes have become common. Endowments shrank by up to a third during the worst of the market swoon—the larger the institution, the steeper the losses. According to a 2009 survey of North American museums by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), three out of five institutions lost revenue in 2008. The first half of 2009 was especially scary. Institutions that entered the downturn with shaky finances, like MoCA in Los Angeles, had near-death episodes. Others, most notably the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, flirted with art sales and closure.

Endowments are now creeping back, but confidence isn’t. Private donors remain skittish. Corporate support is hard to find and ever more tightly tethered to marketing priorities. Public funding is jeopardised by imploding budgets and competing needs. Foundations, too, are smarting from losses. Some are rethinking their support for culture altogether. Venerable charities like the Ford and Rockefeller foundations no longer have divisions with “art” in their names. Museum income from tourists, members, publications, shops, rentals and restaurants is stagnant. It has been a perfect storm.

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