It's Monday, when New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is closed to the public. But Barbara Klett and Dianne Millington, along with about 20 others, have just toured the Leonardo da Vinci show.

While most visitors had to wait for at least an hour before being quickly herded through the exhibit, Ms. Klett and Ms. Millington walked right in - and then examined and discussed each work for two hours.

"It was divine," says Klett, smiling.

For the first time ever, the Met has opened its doors on Mondays to members to let them peruse blockbuster shows in near solitude for $50. Offering the privilege is just one way the Met is trying to curtail its $5 million deficit while showing appreciation to members. The museum has also raised ticket prices and laid off employees.

The Met is hardly the only artistic center grappling with tough financial times. Symphonies, ballets, theaters, and museums across the country are slashing programs, cutting back their staff and, in the cases of the Tulsa and San Jose symphonies, disappearing completely.

Overall, state funding for the arts plunged 13 percent between 2002 and 2003, the first time it had decreased in 10 years, according to The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Some states, such as California and Massachusetts, slashed their arts budgets by more than 50 percent. Others, including New Jersey, Missouri, and Arizona, are threatening to cut art agencies entirely.

Faced with a precarious combination of terrorism-wary travelers and increasingly thrifty patrons, cultural institutions are grappling with the worst economic situation in recent history.

"These organizations are like farm animals in the 1930s dust belt," says Randall Bourscheidt, president of the Alliance for the Arts in New York. "They have less and less to sustain them."

To survive, cultural establishments nationwide are pooling resources, taking artistic risks, and stepping up outreach - rethinking everything from fundraising tactics to show times to get people back to the box office. In a time of financial famine, the arts are getting creative.

Take Broadway, where ticket sales dropped 10 percent after Sept. 11 as travelers all but disappeared. So the grande dame of entertainment went online. At ilovenytheatre.com, visitors can buy discounted tickets, make dinner reservations, and explore nearby activities. "The response has been phenomenal," says Patricia Haubner with the League of American Theatres and Producers. "It makes Broadway seem accessible."

Theaters on and off Broadway have also pushed back curtain times to 7 p.m. to accommodate local professionals.

Convenience is a major concern at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. With 95 percent of its 400,000 annual visitors traveling more than 100 miles by car, the festival has faced the problem of a public less inclined to plan in advance. In response, Ashland now offers a 20 percent discount to visitors who book early.

It also has revamped its advertising strategy. "We run smaller ads more frequently in newspapers, hoping to build awareness," says Paul Nicholson, the executive director. "The fact people aren't making reservations three to six months out changes the way we try to reach them."

Another solution that cash-strapped institutions are trying is collaborating with former rivals - a practice shunned in sunnier economic times because it was less effective in advancing an institution's name.

"Worrying about the brand of our companies now is counterproductive," says Melanie Joseph, artistic director for the Foundry Theatre in New York, which is producing a play with another local theater.

"Since there is no money, we need to be able to work together with a different kind of ego. It's not about the identity of the producers. It's about the work."

For its artistically daring Next Wave Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music is teaming up with the Brooklyn Museum of Art, a local National Public Radio affiliate, and the Japan Society.

"We have everybody talking about everybody else," says Karen Books Hopkins, director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. "As a result, all boats rise."

Such symbiosis is also helping to sustain companies in small and mid-size cities, where pooling resources means maximizing performance quality and fundraising opportunities. For example, Ballet Idaho has partnered with The Eugene Ballet Company, and the two swap dancers, costumes, and artistic directors.

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