Newport Museum Confirms Layoffs : Art: All departments face budget cuts and an uncertain future as the venue struggles with its deficit.

NEWPORT BEACH —  A Newport Harbor Art Museum official confirmed Wednesday that three senior staff members have been laid off, and that all departments have been asked to trim their budgets by 15% to contend with an accumulated deficit of more than $700,000.

Ellen Breitman, the museum’s director of education, said there are no plans to reduce operating hours or increase admission fees or extend the duration of exhibits.

Kathleen D. Costello, associate director of development, was given notice earlier this week, along with accountant Karen Ables and museum editor Sue Henger. Costello is an eight-year employee of the museum. Ables was employed for 11 years, and Henger--who edits museum catalogues and brochures--has worked at the museum for 15 years.

Breitman said the layoffs are expected to save “in the neighborhood of” $150,000. Museum director Michael Botwinick was out of town and unavailable for comment Wednesday.

In February, the museum eliminated four full-time and two part-time positions--nearly one-fifth of its professional and support staff--to save $160,000.

The museum’s current budget is $2 million. Breitman said a reduced budget for the new fiscal year beginning Oct. 1--which she would not specify--awaits approval by the museum board at its Sept. 24 meeting.

Breitman would not comment on whether staff would be further reduced if the museum’s financial picture worsens. Before February, Newport Harbor had 28 full-time and nine part-time employees.

The latest round of cuts leaves the development (fund-raising) staff with a director, a membership coordinator, a public relations officer and a secretary who is shared with the two-person education staff.

Exhibitions will not be presented “unless they are funded in advance,” Breitman said. Except for “Both Art and Life: Gemini at 25,” co-curated by Botwinick--which opens Sept. 22--and smaller shows in the New California Art series, the museum will not be organizing its own exhibitions in the next fiscal year.

The Contemporary Culture series of music, dance and interdisciplinary performances--dormant since April, 1991--will be suspended indefinitely, Breitman said. Future performances and lecture series would have to be related to funded exhibitions that can absorb the additional costs.

The education department will retain its Tuesday noon lecture series and the “Partners” program for elementary students (which includes museum tours, classroom orientation sessions, teachers’ instruction packets and partial reimbursement of bus transportation to the museum). Breitman said proposed money-saving measures include having more talks given by staff or by visitors who waive or reduce their fees.

“I don’t understand what the future of the museum will be,” Henger said Tuesday. “It’s sad that it has gone from such a vibrant place to . . . who knows what it’s going to become.”

The staff cuts represent one more setback in a grim year for the 30-year-old museum.

In January, the trustees announced the indefinite postponement of a $40-million building campaign because of the economic downturn. They also revealed that the museum had borrowed $600,000 from its own endowment fund last summer to pay off the accumulated deficit.

In June, a review panel at the California Arts Council lowered Newport Harbor’s ranking to 2+, endangering its chances of receiving a state council grant for operational expenses this year.

Newport Harbor has applied for a $109,289 grant, but 3- is normally the cutoff for funding on the council’s 4-point scale, based on artistic and organizational strengths and community outreach. But the full council could raise the museum’s rankings when it meets later this month to vote on the panel recommendations.

Three years ago, under former director Kevin Consey, Newport Harbor museum was ranked 4 for artistic accomplishment and managerial skill, and 3 for outreach programs. The museum received $60,000, the second highest arts council grant in Orange County that year.