New York Art Institutions To Execute Mass Layoffs

Just last Friday, February 28th, museum staff, union members— from District Council 37 Local 1502 and UAW Local 2110— and City Council constituents conducted a hearing at New York City Hall. There, attendees appealed for the museum to “exhaust all options” before going forward with terminations. 

In response to protestors demanding a reevaluation, including a consideration for furloughs, a Brooklyn Museum spokesperson told Hyperallergic, “The museum explored all meaningful options before turning to layoffs. Furloughs do not address the structural deficit.” Museum Director Anne Pasternak and all other leading museum representatives failed to attend Friday’s hearing. 

Prior to this meeting, union members, local politicians, and even workers from other institutions— like the Whitney Museum— protested outside of the Brooklyn Museum entrance in solidarity of the belief that these cuts are a breach of union contract.

Ironically, also on Friday, the new exhibition Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200 officially kicked off celebrations for the museum’s 200th anniversary.

In recent years, the Brooklyn Museum spent millions of dollars to rebrand with a new logo and enticing visuals in preparation for their milestone year. Now, as workers are on the brink of losing their salary, pensions, benefits, and union membership, one has to wonder if that money could have been better spent.

Unfortunately, the Brooklyn Museum is not the only art institution to execute such drastic job cuts. New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum also announced on Friday that they will be eliminating 20 job positions across multiple departments—equivalent to 7% of their total employees. Like Brooklyn, the top seats remain untouched. 

With the Guggenheim relying heavily on the city’s international tourism for further support, the recent numbers just haven’t been hitting their mark since the pandemic. Museum Director and Chief Executive Mariët Westermann explained in a letter that this tightening of the budget is a part of a larger plan to reorganize the internal working structure. 

Over the course of five years, this is the third round of layoffs made by the Guggenheim, and its union was not notified of it beforehand. Thus, grievances have already been filed in hopes of further negotiating the severance plans.