Vikan

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.

Kate Sellers Markert, the former director of the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Conn. -- whose abrupt resignation last year triggered weeks of turmoil on its board of trustees, including six more resignations -- will return to the Walters Art Museum as associate director for external affairs and operations. Markert, 50, will oversee the Walters' finance, development and marketing departments. In addition, she will carry out a strategic analysis of the board's operations. She was given a two-year contract.

There's a saying that is as true for museum directors as for poker players: You gotta know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. Refusing to fold has paid off - this time - for Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum, the only institution in the United States to hold a major exhibit of still lifes by Edouard Manet. The show, which includes some 58 works by the French artist, made its debut at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris before traveling to Baltimore. Since it opened on Jan. 28 at the Walters, it has attracted about 20,000 visitors and received enough media attention to gladden the heart of any museum administrator.

A nationally renowned specialist in museum design, Polshek Partnership Architects of New York, has been selected to develop a master plan to guide growth and development of Baltimore's Walters Art Museum campus over the next decade. Museum director Gary Vikan said Polshek was selected over 10 candidates that sought the commission, the first comprehensive planning exercise at the Walters in 11 years. Open since the 1930s with an extensive collection assembled by William and Henry Walters, the city-owned museum began at 600 N. Charles St. and has grown into a campus that includes nine properties on three city blocks stretching along Centre Street.

Curator Gary Vikan isn't typical, but he's a true Elvis 'friend'Memo to Bill Clinton, Elvis fan: You're no Gary Vikan.Mr. Vikan, after all, has stayed at the Elvis hotel. He has taken 300 pictures of Graceland. He has planned a family trip to Roanoke, Va., the rumored home of a miniature Graceland.In the eyes of any believer, that makes him more of a Presleyite than the president-elect."I don't use the word Elvis 'fan,' " he says. "I use the word Elvis 'friend.' "But as Elvis friends go, he's hardly typical, what with his Guilford home, his curator's job at the Walters Art Gallery and his high-brow approach to the King.

After three years of discussions, the Walters Art Gallery has finally sealed a deal to buy a rare, 1,000-year-old door panel that once guarded the sacred Torah scroll in the most famous synagogue of the medieval world. Walters director Gary Vikan said yesterday that the museum had purchased the ancient door panel in collaboration with the Yeshiva University Museum in New York. The two museums will share possession of the piece, with the Yeshiva Museum displaying it from Sept. 11 to March 31, 2001, and the Walters presenting it during the reopening of its 1974 building in October of 2001.

Peter John Prevas, a chemist and longtime teacher, died of lymphoma Friday at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was 77.He retired in 1983 as plant manager of Airco Inc., a manufacturer of electrodes in Sparrows Point. He also had taught Greek at Towson State University and science at several area high schools.Mr. Prevas had been a private tutor in science and mathematics and was considered an expert on iconography in the Greek Orthodox tradition."He truly loved his students," said his wife, Loretta Seader Prevas.

The 16th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death will be observed throughout the nation tomorrow. A massive candlelight vigil is planned at Graceland, the singer's mansion in Memphis, Tenn. Among local observances will be a one-hour festival at noon Monday at Fells Point's Market Square.At 58, Elvis lives.His life and legend have developed into a $100- million-a-year industry.By the thousands, the faithful trek not only to Graceland but to such other Elvis shrines as his birthplace, his first home, his clothier's store, his recording studio, even the restaurant where he and his entourage used to wolf down hamburgers in a back room.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - The iconic moment arrived when Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum, pulled out a priceless Malevich painting lying all too casually on its side in a metal rack in the basement of the State Russian Museum. Several trustees from the Walters watched in wonder at yet another startling moment in their journey of discovery. They had flown 4,000 miles from Maryland to prepare themselves for two ambitious exhibitions the Walters is planning, one in 2003 devoted to the Russian avant-garde, the other in 2004 to icons.

The 1974 wing of Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery has so many defects that administrators want to close significant portions temporarily for repairs to protect the priceless art inside.Problems at the city-owned building include a climate-control system that does not maintain the steady temperature and humidity levels needed to preserve works of art, and ceiling-mounted "reheater" coils that sometimes drip water and oil on the floor below.Administrators also say the building's fire and security systems are not up to current museum standards, the front entrance is not sufficiently accessible to the disabled, the main entrance needs an air lock and the structure is showing "signs of stress."