Photo by NCinDC

If you have an urge to see the permanent collections of the Hirshhorn or National Museum of African Art or the incredibly boring inside of the Smithsonian Castle, do it today. Starting tomorrow, and through the end of the federal government’s fiscal year, parts of those exhibits will be closed thanks to mandatory budget cuts required by the deficit reduction measures known as sequestration.

Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough told Congress earlier this month that sequestration would force the Smithsonian Institution to close some of its many galleries. “We cannot keep every gallery or exhibition in every museum open daily without sufficient security,” he told members of the House Oversight Committee. Among the cutbacks the Smithsonian is being forced to make is the amount it can spend on contracted security guards who mind its museums.

So, effective tomorrow, parts of the third-floor permanent collection at the Hirshhorn and sections of the African Mosaic exhibit at the National Museum of African Art will be closed to visitors through Sept. 30. So will the Commons, a collection of artifacts from the institution’s archives that fills the small gallery inside the castle.

The Smithsonian Institution’s total appropriations of $996 million—which includes the Kennedy Center and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars—took a $41 million hit when sequestration went into effect last month. In addition to closing galleries, the Smithsonian will also be forced to cut back on research and delay infrastructural work, such as repairing damage to the National Air and Space Museum caused by the August 2011 earthquake.