An ailing Muncie music scene suffered another blow this weekend.
After nine years, The Living Room will close its doors for the last time at the end of the semester.
Manager Betsy Elwert said the venue is funded by The Gathering, part of a family of churches called Church of God in Anderson. The church has been struggling financially, she said, and it decided to cut The Living Room from its budget.
Elwert said The Gathering is supported by donations from its 300 to 400 members.
"Out of the blue their giving started going down," she said. "They had to make a lot of cuts, and unfortunately this was one of them."
Elwert said The Living Room uses the money from ticket and concession sales to bolster the funding from The Gathering. She said The Living Room takes a small percentage of The Gathering's budget.
Representatives from The Gathering couldn't be reached for comment.
The Living Room volunteer Angie Bays said The Gathering brought up the possibility of closing the venue about a year ago, but she was still surprised when she found out because the venue seemed to be doing well.
"I'm very sad," she said. "I feel like it's the best thing considering the financial situation ... Sometimes the right choice isn't always the easy choice."
Bays said The Living Room hadn't sought alternate funding because someone would have to make a large investment to pay for rent, bills, equipment and the manager salary.
Elwert said a few people approached her with ideas, but she didn't expect to find an investor.
"I'm pretty upset about it," she said. "I've been going to The Living Room since I was in college. It's something that has been part of my life for six or seven years now. I wish there was something that could be done to reverse it."
Elwert said this semester's attendance has been average. Some shows had about 75 people show up, while others brought in a capacity crowd of about 200.
People have been shocked, she said, and bands that play there a lot are disappointed because they're running out of places to play in Muncie.
Bays said the last show will be April 26. About 10 acts who regularly play the venue are scheduled.
Elwert said the bands are some of The Living Room's best artists who consider it their home venue.
Both said they expected a good turnout for the finale.
"It's unfortunate and really sad that we have to close," Bays said, "but hopefully we can go out with a bang."
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