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The museum has reduced its professional staff from 35 to 32, cut departmental budget costs, implemented a "selective hiring and salary freeze," required a one-week furlough for all full-time staff, and reduced senior management's salaries by 5 percent.

The museum has also reduced the number of planned temporary exhibitions and trimmed the costs of storing its permanent collection.

In a statement issued by the museum, Director Terence Riley emphasized the effort to cut costs "without diminishing the key programs which serve our community.”

The institution is, however, continuing with plans for a new home, scheduled to break ground later this year, though it is looking for "cost-saving measures" to reduce the project's price tag, previously listed as $220 million.

“We are fortunate to have strong annual financial support from our local governments in addition to the $100 million bond for the building from Miami-Dade County and the waterfront site on Biscayne Bay given by the City of Miami,” Riley said in the statement. “Combining public and private sources, we’re now equipped to fully fund construction of the new building, which is scheduled for completion in 2012.”

“This new building is an investment in Miami’s civic infrastructure, and will serve as an economic and educational stimulus for decades to come,“ Riley said.