Experience Music Project: The Promise Fades

Five years ago, expectations for Seattle’s Experience Music Project were high. But “as the museum’s fifth anniversary approaches, things aren’t going as planned: All rotating exhibits have been canceled or frozen, and of the roughly 250 people employed by EMP, 14 percent are temps who fear their contracts won’t be renewed because attendance is half of what was expected. There’s nothing to indicate that Seattle’s interest in EMP is growing — between 2001 and 2003, admission revenues were down 46 percent.”