ARTINFO, has produced a tidy little report about how three cities hit hard by the recession, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., are finding new ways to keep their art institutions afloat.

Los Angeles is proposing the repurposing of fees charged to government-funded construction and usually used toward new acquisitons, to support staffing for it’s 25 arts centers.

Detroit is leveraging social media to attract a younger audience; is it telling that the eggheaded DIA is also “reinstalling its collection in 2007 with simpler labels and more interactive elements?”

While Washington, D.C. seems to be seeing a slight resurgence in giving, it has also experienced an increase in cost due to inflation: it estimates that it will need to raise $3 million more than it did last year in a struggling game of catch up.