The Guardian reports that London’s Institute for Contemporary Art founded in 1947 by once-famous art critic and writer Herbert Read:

Staff members have been told that a financial deficit currently at around £600,000 might rise to £1.2m and if radical steps are not taken the ICA could be closed by May. Minutes of a sometimes bad-tempered staff meeting held last month have been seen by the Guardian. […] The meeting saw ICA director Ekow Eshun explain that a staff bill of £2.5m will have to be reduced by £1m for the organisation to survive. Without a wholesale restructuring, he argued, the ICA could be the first major British cultural organisation to fall victim to the recession.

The Telegraph‘s Rupert Christiansen explains why and roots for its demise:

There are no more battles to be fought against fuddy-duddy Establishment traditionalists on behalf of the new. There’s been an explosion of wonderful spaces for both performance and exhibition in London, and every organisation in town, from Tate Modern to the Royal Opera House, is busily organizing seminars and lectures and eagerly embracing experiment and collaboration across art forms. So the ICA no longer fills a clear function or need, and as its budget shrinks, it is less and less able to compete to present the most exciting artifacts and phenomena.

ICA Warns Staff It Could Close by May (Guardian)

Time for the ICA to Shut Up Shop? (Telegraph)