Exhibit

Faced with a 27 percent drop in the value of its endowment funds and expected cuts in state and local government grants, the Walters Art Museum announced yesterday a restructuring plan that includes laying off seven of its 150 employees, imposing a salary and limited hiring freeze and staff furloughs, and canceling an exhibition that was to have had the museum collaborating with the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and the Getty in Los Angeles. Earlier this year, Hackerman House, where the Walters' Asian art collection is displayed, was closed weekdays in a cost-cutting move.

Takes the cake The lowdown -- Consider it a perfect storm of the city's avant-garde scene. This weekend, Load of Fun Gallery plays host to MakeBakeFakeCake. The event is a combination art exhibit and live performance showcase featuring Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey, Greggy Glitterati and the Milkmaids and members of the Wham City collective. Each piece in the exhibition must have some part that is edible. If you go -- The performances, live auction and awards start at 8 p.m. today.

Art Pissarro exhibit The Baltimore Museum of Art's newest exhibit, Pissarro: Creating the Impressionist Landscape, highlights the work of painter Camille Pissarro with a collection of 45 pieces that reveals his transformation from traditional landscapes to more bold works. The exhibit is at the BMA, Art Museum Drive at North Charles and 31st streets, through May 13. Go to artbma. org or call 443-573-1700 for information.

African-American photo exhibit Learn about the African-Americans who settled in Howard County in the exhibit Native African American Families of Howard County, Maryland: 1875-1950, at James Clark Library, Howard Community College, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia. The exhibit, which includes more than 300 photos, is based on photos and information submitted by families in the area. Library hours today are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Free. Information: www.hccaacres.org. FYI Sun art critic Glenn McNatt is on assignment.

INSIDE TODAY WHAT THEY'RE SAYING TODAY'S SUN COLUMNISTS Listen up, high school students If you're proficient at math, like machines and don't feel like beginning your career with $30,000 or $60,000 in college debt, some vocational career tracks will take you further in Maryland than you think. Business baltimoresun.com/hancock Impact of Lewis criticism Ray Lewis' criticism of coach Brian Billick shows the Ravens to be in a precarious position, where their season could fall apart.

As one of a small group of black students at the Naval Academy in the early 1970s, Jim Jackson said he felt isolated at times, with little access to some of the cultural underpinnings he valued growing up in a community of African-Americans. On Sundays, he initially attended mandatory chapel among a sea of white parishioners at a worship service he found unfamiliar and staid. And when Saturdays finally came, there weren't any venues in the community "where you could go to hear good soul music like James Brown."

Janet Dodd was impressed yesterday with the elegant decor of the National Museum of Dentistry. Then she found the saliva room. On a pedestal in the center of the room stood a beaker filled with a murky gel. It was meant to simulate the 600 milliliters of saliva a person produces in a single day - enough to fill a soda bottle from a vending machine. Dodd winced in disgust at the sight of the beaker's contents. "I have no interest in this," she said, exiting the room quickly. The display is part of an exhibit titled Saliva: A Remarkable Fluid.

Youth exhibit -- The Anne Arundel County Circuit Courthouse is exhibiting Insights: The Identity Project through August at 7 Church Circle, Annapolis. The photographs and writings are by participants from the Juvenile Treatment Court, which treats substance abusers. 410-222-1901.

Drawings by 10 artists constitute Maryland Art Place's new exhibit, Between the Lines. The works explore lines, marks and shapes and the ways they are used to build visual imagery. Between the Lines is also one of the gallery's first large-scale exhibitions in some time. Between the Lines opens Tuesday and runs through Feb. 10 at Maryland Art Place, 8 Market Place in Power Plant Live. There will be a gallery talk and reception starting at 6 p.m. Feb. 2. Hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays.

NEW YORK -- As the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks approaches, some Americans question how long these yearly observances should continue. But those in charge of the largest cultural repository of artifacts and images from that bloody day have no doubt about the answer: forever. "We're a historical society. It's our duty and our responsibility not only to house these archives, but it's also our responsibility to exhibit history" and keep it alive, said Marilyn Kushner, co-curator of the New York Historical Society's new Here is New York: Remembering 9/11 exhibit.

For Henri Matisse, the object of drawing was not to display technical dexterity, but "to give simplicity and spontaneity to the expression, which should speak without clumsiness, directly to the mind of the spectator." His successful realization of that goal can be richly appreciated in the Baltimore Museum of Art's new exhibit "Matisse as Printmaker." The show focuses on a relatively unexplored side of the artist's legacy - from his first, quite traditional self-portraits to examples of Matisse's bold last works in the print genre, when just a few, thick black lines sufficed.

'Jim Henson's Fantastic World' Where: : James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown, Pa. When: : Through Nov. 29; open 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays (extended hours on some Fridays) and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday; 12 p.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday. What: : An exhibit of 100 original artworks by Jim Henson, artist and creator of the Muppets, including drawings, cartoons and storyboards. Objects such as puppets and TV and movie props are part of the exhibit, which also features hands-on activities for kids, including a puppet theater.

Talk about traveling first-class. Four slabs of marble and two clay vases bound for Baltimore received exit visas issued by the Hellenic minister of culture himself. They were driven to the airport in Athens, Greece, in a truck with a suspension so steady that a plastic cup of water didn't spill a drop. And the van received a police escort, just to make sure that nothing untoward occurred. None of that stopped Eleni Vlachogianni's pulse from pounding on the recent day when she unlocked the cases in which the treasures were enclosed.

Menacing ravens, peering eyes, black cats and rats, ominous bells, violent eddies - imagery that fueled many a text by Edgar Allan Poe, and generated a good deal of art. For its contribution to the bicentennial commemoration of the author's birth, the Baltimore Museum of Art has put together a dynamic collection of works directly or seemingly inspired by the author. The displays are divided into three thematic groupings: Love and Loss, Fear and Terror, Madness and Obsession. "As you can see, this is an uplifting exhibit," says BMA director Doreen Bolger, who curated the show.

"It's going to be a challenge for a lot of people," says Roger Manley, gesturing to the invigoratingly eclectic collection of material he curated for the American Visionary Art Museum's new exhibit, "Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness." "It's a little tougher show than some of the previous ones." The museum is famed for its focus on artists who lack formal training but are loaded with motivation and imagination. This show celebrates that concept of rugged individualism in a big, involving way. "For the first time in history, a country was founded where the emphasis was put on individual people doing what they felt was right," Manley says.

Art exhibit Howard County Community College presents an exhibit that features the collection of Richard Talkin, a county lawyer and patron of the arts. Exhibit includes the works of various local artists in varying media and styles. Through Sept. 27 in the Rouse Company Foundation Gallery at the Horowitz Center, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia. Reception 3 p.m.-5 p.m. today. Hours are 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. Free. 410-772-4856. CAC policy change The Community Action Council of Howard County will serve clients by appointment only.

SATURDAY 381 DAYS: The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, 830 E. Pratt St., celebrates the opening of its new exhibit, "381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott Story," which runs through Jan. 3. The Smithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibit provides an overview of the history and significance of the 1955-1956 bus boycott and its relationship to the civil rights movement. Museum admission is $6-$8. Call 443-263-1800 or go to africanamericanculture.org.

SUNDAY Vivaldi Project Concertos by Vivaldi and Bach will be performed in this program by the Vivaldi Project, featuring keyboard artists Andrew Willis and Joseph Gascho and violinist Elizabeth Field, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Baltimore Basilica, 409 Cathedral St. $10-$20. Call 410-385-2638 or go to andiemusiklive.com. Durufle Requiem The exquisite Requiem by Maurice Durufle, who was inspired by Gregorian chant, will be performed by the Central Presbyterian Chancel Choir and Orchestra at 3 p.m. at the church, 7308 York Road, Towson.

They're majestic, mesmerizing, even a little otherworldly. They take on a variety of forms, from bells to toadstools to cauliflower. They're multiplying at what some would consider an alarming rate, and serve as barometers of the health of the world's oceans. A new exhibit at the National Aquarium in Baltimore focuses on the many facets of "jellies," the brainless, spineless, heartless but beautiful creatures that are known for their ability to sting and can be found around the globe. Jellies Invasion: Oceans Out of Balance is the title of a $2.2 million exhibit that is to open Saturday in the aquarium's Marine Mammal Pavilion on Inner Harbor Pier 4. This is the second time Baltimore's aquarium has mounted an exhibit about these gelatinous animals, after the popular Jellies: Phantoms of the Deep from 1996 to 1998.

THURSDAY 'Preserving Treasures' In honor of Preservation Month, the Enoch Pratt Free Library's preservation department displays an array of techniques the library uses and the average person can use to preserve books, photos, CDs, DVDs and other items. The exhibit, Simple Measures: Preserving Treasures, will be up through Aug. 22. The library is at 400 Cathedral St. Call 410-396-5430 or go to prattlibrary.org. Wine tasting Savor a variety of local wines, enjoy an array of foods and hear live music at the eighth annual Federal Hill South Wine Tasting, 7 p.m.-10 p.m. Thursday at the American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Highway.