N.J. museum to close

New Jersey’s Museum of Agriculture is shutting its doors.

According to the Associated Press, the 30,000-square-foot facility, near Rutgers University’s Cook College campus in New Brunswick, was founded in 1984 to chronicle the state’s farming history.

But the museum has struggled financially in recent years and lost its $90,000 annual state appropriation last year as Gov. Christie worked to close an $11 billion budget deficit.

Museum trustees plan to cease operations Monday and start disbanding the nonprofit organization that runs the facility, a process that will take a few weeks to complete. Officials hope new funding can be found during that time and note that the museum is not in debt, but they would need about $100,000 to get it back on track.

If the facility does close permanently, two full-time employees and several part-time workers will lose their jobs. The building and part of the collection will be returned to Rutgers, but no decision has been made on what to do with the rest of its farming and American Indian artifacts.