Performers are scrambling across the nation, as symphonies, operas, theaters and ballet troupes struggle under the weight of shriveling donations, plummeting ticket sales and sagging endowments decimated by Wall Street.
From Baltimore to Detroit to Pasadena, venerable performing arts institutions are laying off performers, cutting programming, canceling seasons and doing without new sets and live music. Some are closing down completely.
Those on the brink face the difficult task of soliciting money from loyal donors who might be facing bankruptcy or unemployment themselves.
"You can't expect people to do something that they're not able to do," David DiChiera, general director of Michigan Opera Theater and the Detroit Opera House, says. "We're really functioning within a tsunami of economic and financial disasters, and we're just doing everything we have to do to get through."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090127/ap_en_mu/meltdown_arts