SFMOMA Cuts or Furloughs Hundreds of Staff Members, Calling the Current Moment a ‘Very Painful Time for Our Museum’

The San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art (SFMOMA) is the latest major US institution forced to make
drastic staff cuts amid the escalating global health crisis.

With the museum shuttered indefinitely, SFMOMA laid off 135
on-call staff, noting they will be fully paid through April 8,
according to a March 27 statement from director Neal Benezra.
Meanwhile, an additional 191 have been furloughed or are on reduced
schedules. These workers will be paid and have their benefits
covered through the end of next month (April 30), according to the
museum.

“SFMOMA is deeply concerned about the impact of COVID19 on our
local and global communities,” said Benezra in a statement. “We are
feeling its impact in the closure of our museum, the cancellation
of our art and education programs, and financially.”

Amid the unfolding crisis, all three of the museum’s major
sources of revenue—earned income from admissions, store, and
restaurant; contributed income from donors; and investment income
from its endowment—have simultaneously experienced a sharp
contraction. The situation echoes the squeeze experienced by
museums across the country.

“With no visitors, a decrease in contributions, and the
anticipated cancellation or postponement of our art and fundraising
activities, we are looking at a revenue loss of over $8 million
through the end of our fiscal year (June 30) which reflects an
estimated 40 percent drop in our operating revenues since the first
effects of the coronavirus,” he said. “We anticipate significant
additional losses to the museum in the year ahead as half of our
annual visitors are travelers from outside the Bay Area.”

Benezra added that the museum had been fortunate enough to be
able to keep staff “on full compensation for seven
weeks after we closed, but we now have to look to the future and
make the painful decision to temporarily decrease the size of our
team through layoffs, furloughs, and reduced schedules.”

A representative for the museum told Artnet News that SFMOMA
leadership will also take a pay reduction for the duration of the
furlough period, though the scale of the pay cut is not yet
clear.

Noting that this “has been a very painful time
for our museum and the arts community,” Benezra said the goal was
to reboot the museum in early July. “[I]f state and local
authorities allow, we will bring back our team to start the process
at the end of June. We look forward to the day when we can share
the healing power of art again.”

Given that furloughed workers are only paid through the end of
April, this timeframe means that a best-case scenario involves two
months without wages or benefits.

The news follows a wave of similar news in the past week: Los
Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) laid off more than half
of its staff; the Carnegie Museums in Pittsburgh announced a temporarily
furlough of staff and temporary pay reductions; and the Cleveland
Museum said it would
immediately furlough all part-time staff and temporarily lay off a
portion of its unionized staff, including security guards.

The post SFMOMA Cuts or Furloughs Hundreds of Staff Members,
Calling the Current Moment a ‘Very Painful Time for Our Museum’
appeared first on artnet News.