The National Museum of American History, which reopened in November after a two-year renovation.

The grand opening of the Newseum’s new building in Washington last spring was upbeat and festive. A trained eagle flew across the sky. Confetti cannons shot colorful flakes toward the clouds. A block party on Pennsylvania Avenue continued inside with speeches by luminaries like the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and John G. Roberts Jr., chief justice of the United States. Visitors poured in, and attendance has since remained strong despite the economic downturn and a $20 admission fee.

Nonetheless in the last few months the museum, which focuses on the history of news reporting and specializes in hands-on exhibits, has been struggling to adjust to a new world. In challenges paralleling those facing other cultural institutions, the Newseum has seen its endowment shrink by roughly 25 percent, to about $450 million from $600 million. Some 20 employees, 10 percent of the staff, have accepted buyouts. And the museum’s $50 million annual operating budget is expected to drop by about 10 percent.

“I was certainly surprised and dismayed we would have to do that,” Joe Urschel, the museum’s executive director and senior vice president, said of the cutbacks. “I also was not prescient enough to see this coming economic collapse.”

Opening a new building or wing is always a gamble for arts organizations. The potential payoff is a surge in visitors and visibility, but there is also the burden of higher operating expenses and the pressure to draw big crowds. An economy like this one, in which charitable donations have steeply declined and many people just stay home, makes such new chapters even more difficult.

“Many organizations have an edifice complex — they’re so excited by the glory of a new facility,” said Michael M. Kaiser, the president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, who trains arts managers. “Now it’s particularly challenging because the pool of money is smaller.”

As of early December about 365,000 people had visited the Newseum since the $450 million building, designed by Polshek Partnership, opened in April, Mr. Urschel said. In Arlington, Va., where the museum was previously located and admission was free, annual attendance reached 480,000 at its peak. Charles L. Overby, the museum’s chief executive, said he expected to surpass that by April based on figures so far.

“We didn’t know what to expect as a paid museum on Pennsylvania Avenue,” said Mr. Overby, who is also chief executive of the Freedom Forum, which runs the museum.

As part of the cuts, Mr. Overby said, the Newseum will scale back spending on video productions and the acquisition of artifacts. The Newseum also expects to draw more heavily on its endowment: 6 to 8 percent, rather than the typical 5 percent, Mr. Urschel said.

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History reopened on Nov. 21 after a two-year, $85 million renovation designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. In the first two weeks — with the benefit of Thanksgiving weekend tourism — attendance was “phenomenal,” said the director, Brent D. Glass; over the first 12 days 200,000 visitors streamed through the doors.

Even though the building was not completely ready, “we pushed hard to open before Thanksgiving,” he said. “We’re 98 percent where we wanted to be in terms of all the finish work, but there’s a punch list we’re going to work through over the winter.”

Admission is free, as it is at all Smithsonian museums, which presents a special challenge. Mr. Glass said he anticipated even more visitors during the economic recession and worried about accommodating the large numbers, particularly people flocking to crowd-pleasing exhibits like the Star-Spangled Banner and one on Lincoln that opens in January, or a gallery devoted to popular entertainment that features Judy Garland’s shoes from “The Wizard of Oz.”

“The popular culture collection is enormously popular,” Mr. Glass said. “People will stand in line for half an hour to see the ruby slippers.”

The museum’s hopes hinge on spending in its shops and cafes, given that the institution must raise $8 million to $10 million in operating expenses each year. “Will they continue to spend and buy food and buy gifts and buy souvenirs?” Mr. Glass said. “That’s what’s unknown right now.”

In New York two museums cut the ribbon in a similarly shaky climate: the Museum of Arts and Design at Columbus Circle and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum in Crown Heights both opened in September.

Officials at these museums said they were encouraged by the public response so far. “Attendance has way exceeded our expectations,” said Holly Hotchner, the director of the Museum of Arts and Design, where admission is $15 but free for members.

But she added that fund-raising for the $90 million building project, a sweeping redesign by Brad Cloepfil of Edward Durell Stone’s 1964 structure, had been tough. She said the museum had trimmed its $11 million annual operating budget to around $10 million, mainly by delaying the opening of a couple of big exhibitions for a year.

The museum had hoped to build its endowment to $20 million by 2010, Ms. Hotchner said. That may have been overly optimistic. With pledges, officials expect that the endowment will reach about $13 million in 2009. Salaries are frozen; there will be no raises this year.

“People on the board have been hit dramatically,” Ms. Hotchner said. “This year is going to be challenging for everyone.”

The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, designed by Rafael Viñoly, has greeted more than 76,000 visitors since it opened, 34 percent more than projected. As a result the museum has increased its attendance goal to 225,000 for the current fiscal year, ending in June. Admission is $7.50 per person and free for members.

“I’m pleased that the economic environment isn’t affecting families’ ” attendance, said Carol Enseki, the museum’s president.

Membership has tripled, to 3,300 from 1,100, since July, so the museum has increased its target to 5,000 by the end of the fiscal year. In moving to the new building the institution raised its annual operating budget to $6.5 million from $5.4 million. (It had planned on $7 million but later cut back on expenditures like bringing in outside performers and developing new programs.)

“Even with all the planning in the world,” Ms. Enseki said, “you can’t anticipate situations like what we’re facing now.”