Last week, Jehuda Reinharz, President of Brandeis University, announced the school is closing the Rose Art Museum and selling off a significant portion of the collection. This decision was made after several students considered dropping out due to the inability to pay increasing tuition costs.

Even though Reinharz did what he thought best in giving these students a chance at finishing their education, the public outcry has been far-reaching.

Over the years, the Rose Museum has housed American modern art by artists like Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol; this collection rivals many large institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. The museum has also played host to a variety of exhibitions that examined everything from “Artists of the Post-Jewish Generation” to “Videos by Indian Female Artists.”

The closing comes as a shock to those who see art as the only recession-resilient field. No matter what the economic environment, art continues to become more valuable, but its presence in the academic and private domains seems to be shrinking. Said Matthew Israel, a professor of Art History at New York University, “When things start getting bad, the humanities are always the ones to get cut first.”

Students in times of economic hardship typically turn to more “practical” fields of study such as medicine or law. However, Israel says “the quality of life gets cut down” because there’s no creativity to be appreciated.

Galleries, which depend on the market, are also feeling the effects of the recession. If people aren’t buying work, they have no way to rent space and pay artists. How’s My Dealing, a blog for artists to share their experiences with various galleries and critics, plays host to Gallery Death Watch and the RIP List, two constantly updated lists of galleries who are sinking and those who have sunk.

An anonymous commenter writes, “Yes, (most) dealers do work their asses off, but some, including those on [the Gallery Death Watch] list, have displayed incredible hubris during the good times. Multiple spaces which they really couldn’t afford, and treating artists as a free source of capital, to be paid back whenever it’s convenient.”

Displays of hubris during “the good times” seem to be the common thread among those who are in trouble now. Yet, the length of these lists and some of the galleries that have made it on here are shocking. Even Deitch Projects, Jeffrey Deitch’s multi-outpost gallery, has made it to the Death Watch after their December exhibition, “It Ain’t Fair,” failed to attract enough buyers Art Basel Miami Beach to even open.

So where is the silver lining in all of this? The lack of a quick pay-off from galleries is changing the way artists think about their careers. According to Israel, “People were getting overexposed, too many young new artists were not thinking as critically about their work.”

Rather than making pieces that their buyers like or that they know will sell quickly, the current environment takes the focus away from making a quick buck and presents an opportunity for artists to reexamine their creative process and explore new ways of self-expression.

The declining presence of galleries can also mean the further democratization of art. Even though we have ready access to art of the past via museums, much of what is new and developing in the art world is still only available to those who can afford to collect. However, as collectors are being pushed out of the market, artists will undoubtedly make their work more accessible to the public without the hefty price-tag. Without the temptation of a quick payday, artists are also much more likely to disseminate their works to the masses via street displays, public exhibitions, and the like. Look for new stars like Shepard Fairey getting out of the galleries and returning to the streets, where their reputations were built and their following the most loyal.

The art world has shown that it is not impervious to the grip of economics, but it has proven able to reinvent itself in order to survive. Although the financial crisis has taken its toll on a number of outlets for the creative, it’s also helped change the way we perceive what art is. The art world’s resiliency and ability to change with the times means that there will never be a lack of creativity, and there will always be a place for it.