photo by: Bremen Keasey

The Lawrence Arts Center at 940 New Hampshire St. in downtown Lawrence pictured on Dec. 18, 2024.

The Lawrence Arts Center, which recently sent a desperate fundraising plea to the community, has laid off a number of employees, according to the center’s board chair.

Meredith Lang, the chair, told the Journal-World Friday evening that the center had recently “reduced salaried staff by seven individuals.” Though she declined to name the positions held by those employees, she said that they all had worked between three-quarter and full-time and were centered in operational/administrative staff.

Lang did not have a ready number of remaining personnel, noting that the center employed a wide range of people from varying levels of part-time to full-time personnel.

The Arts Center in December sent out a fundraising email that said the center was facing an “unprecedented financial challenge” from such factors as inflation and lingering effects of the COVID pandemic. The email indicated that the center’s very future was “at risk.”

According to data from the news nonprofit ProPublica, the Arts Center last year reported $3.86 million in expenses and $2.94 million in revenues — a gap of $920,000.

Lang indicated Friday that no additional layoffs were on the horizon.

“This is it,” she said, indicating that the board had made the decision in consultation with auditors and an external financial service, which advised on where efficiencies could be had. “We’ve gotten the budget down to a number that we can go forward.”

Lang said that the Arts Center still planned to offer all the courses listed in its published catalog, and she encouraged people to attend Saturday’s Souper Bowl event, an annual crowd-pleaser at which handmade bowls are sold to support the center’s visual arts education program. She also indicated that the upcoming performance of “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical” had generated record interest and would open Feb. 21 as planned.

“We invite people to continue to come out … and to donate to the things about the Arts Center that they love,” said Lang, adding that the center has always relied on and been grateful for the community’s support.

The Arts Center celebrated it 50th anniversary in May 2024. It has been at its current 40,000-square-foot location at 940 New Hampshire St. since 2002. Before that, it was housed in the Carnegie Building at 200 W. Ninth St., in a space one-quarter the size. The Arts Center runs the building, which cost $7.25 million, but the city owns it. The city contributed $4.25 million of the building cost, and the Arts Center fund-raised the remaining $3 million. The city gives $30,000 a year in direct support to the center and foots its utility bills, Lang said.

The Arts Center’s interim executive director, Tom Huang, who took over after Executive Director Margaret Weisbrod Morris suddenly resigned in August 2024, told the Journal-World in December that the center was doing everything in its power to remain a prominent cultural force in Lawrence.

“We want to continue to be the place where joy, creativity, and connection are experienced on a daily basis,” he said.