The Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami reduced the workloads of two employees -- a grants writer and a program manager -- from full-time to part-time positions last week in an effort to further trim the institution's budget.

The reductions are in addition to cuts MOCA administrators made in December, when they trimmed about $350,000 from the institution's annual budget of about $4.3 million, says Bonnie Clearwater, executive director and chief curator.

Clearwater, who is on vacation, says she cannot recall how much will be saved by the job reductions. But, she emphasizes, ``No programs are being cut at this point.''

The positions reduced this week had been part-time jobs in the past, Clearwater says, adding that the reduction for the program manager, who oversees the Women on the Rise! outreach program, is still under review. The employees affected will continue to receive health-care benefits.

This week's moves are in addition to an estimated $535,000 budget reduction that Clearwater carried out in December. Those reductions did not include layoffs, and they achieved savings in unobtrusive ways, Clearwater says, such as cutting a thrice-yearly newsletter to once a year and canceling delivery of bottled water to the building.

''We have to be creative,'' she says.

Like many nonprofits, MOCA is struggling with reduced financial support from private foundations and individual donors. Clearwater says state grants also have been reduced.

MOCA's revenue this year will include about $1.3 million from the city of North Miami and its Community Redevelopment Agency. About $500,000 of that is for the museum's planned expansion. The remainder pays for six full-time positions, including Clearwater's position, plus programs and building maintenance.

The city also owns and operates the 23,000-square-foot building that houses the museum, but the institution is managed and funded primarily by the nonprofit Museum of Contemporary Art Inc.

Despite the job reductions and budget cuts, MOCA is searching for a full-time membership program manager.

-- DANIEL CHANG

Ballet Florida, the West Palm Beach-based troupe that struggled with more than $1 million in financial losses in 2007 and almost a decade of inconsistent administrative leadership, filed for bankruptcy liquidation on July 10.

The cultural nonprofit was founded in 1976.

According to the bankruptcy filing, the group has more than 100 creditors and debts and assets ranging from $1 million to $10 million.

A meeting of creditors has been set for 4 p.m. Aug. 13 at the bankruptcy courthouse in West Palm Beach.

-- DANIEL CHANG

Miami Civic Music Association will open its 77th season on Oct. 2 when pianist Tian Ying walks onstage at the University of Miami's Gusman Concert Hall to perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E Flat with the Frost School of Music Symphony Orchestra.

Ying, who has performed in Europe and the Far East as well as in the United States, will also play a recital for the association on Jan. 24.

The rest of the lineup: Feb. 14, annual piano-gala fundraiser featuring Rosalina G. Sackstein with guest artists performing music arranged for two hands; March 7, soprano Margarita De Arellano, who has sung Gilda in Rigoletto at the Prague State Opera and appeared with various other European opera companies, makes her civic-association debut; May 2, a chamber concert presented with Friends of Chamber Music and featuring Joseph Kalichstein (piano), Kyoko Takezawa (violin), Cynthia Phelps (viola) and William DeRosa (cello); June 13, the annual Young Artist Debut concert.

Info: 305-271-8449; www.miamicivicmusic.org.

-- Miami Herald Staff

A play 14 years in the making has its world premiere Wednesday at Rising Action Theatre, 840 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. Matt May's Still Untitled, which began as a college journalism assignment, has evolved into a play about an actor who reflects on his life as he prepares to make his Broadway debut.

Terrance Olear, who plays the actor, shared numerous stories from his life (including his mother's death from cancer just six months after his brother died of AIDS) with his college friend May, who incorporated some of them them into Still Untitled.

The play runs at 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. July 26. Tickets cost $30 ($20 for students and seniors 55 and older).

Info: www.vervecentralproductions.com.

-- CHRISTINE DOLEN

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