PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center will close for the first three weeks of the new year so its staff and board can focus on fixing its financial troubles.
The arts center, a showcase for Pacific Northwest artists including many from across the North Olympic Peninsula, is a city-owned facility but is funded mostly through donations and a trust account.
Neither source is proving sustainable, particularly with the struggling stock market, said Executive Director Jake Seniuk.
He said the arts center, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, is facing a $40,000 shortfall next year.
That’s about 23 percent of its $175,000 annual budget.
As a result, Vicci Rudin, board of trustees chairwoman, said the facility at 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd. will “go dark,” for three weeks with no shows or museum access to “give staff and board members time to really focus on grant writing and making plans for balancing” the 2012 budget.
Rudin said it likely will be the longest time the arts center has been closed since it began exhibiting contemporary art in 1986.
The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center is the Olympic Peninsula’s contemporary art museum, built on land bequested by Esther Barrows Webster, the late owner of the Port Angeles Evening News that later became the Peninsula Daily News.
Webster gave the property to the city.
Her legacy also includes Webster’s Woods, a five-acre “museum without walls” around the semi-circular Webster House on the crest of Beaver Hill that houses the art gallery.
Since its inception in 2000, more than 175 works have been placed in Webster’s Woods through the annual renewals of Art Outside, while the gallery which is open for several days of each week of the year, has presented more than 125 gallery exhibitions.
Works by more than 500 artists, principally from the Northwest, have been featured in the exhibitions.
The facility now receives some support from the city, but whether it will be able to keep it on its feet remains to be determined.
City Manager Kent Myers said a committee of city and arts center representatives will likely be formed in January to develop a long-term plan for keeping it open.
Myers said the arts center “has a real cultural impact on our community” but added it’s too early to tell whether any more city funds can be dedicated.
City Hall is contributing about $38,750 in 2012, which is $14,000 more than 2011.
Seniuk said the additional funds will help keep the arts center open through the first half of the year.
The increase came at the request of City Council Member Max Mania who noted at a council meeting last month that the arts center is struggling.
Mania, an arts center member, said Friday he is interested in serving on the joint committee.
He noted it’s the only city facility not guaranteed funding and he believes it could use more help from City Hall.
“It’s a city facility that the city has never been fully embraced or funded,” Mania said.
“It puts it at a disadvantage.”
The arts center, which has two employees, was self-sustaining until 2004 when it received $15,000 from the city, Seniuk said.
It received the same amount annually until 2007 when the allocation increased to $55,000.
That was cut in half in 2008 and by another 10 percent in 2009 when the contribution dropped to $24,750.
The funding has been used to offset low returns on the trust account, which will provide $35,000 for 2012, Rudin said.
That’s down from as much as $120,000 a year in the 1990s, she said.
“When any expenses had to be met it always came from the trust,” Rudin said.
Seniuk, who plans to retire in June after acting as the director and curator for 23 years, said the arts center is operating with a bare-bones budget and has no place to cut but staff pay.
But he thinks the facility is worth investing in.
“It’s the top art park in the Northwest,” Seniuk said.
“It can’t be anything but good for Port Angeles.”
Admission is free to the center, which is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
