The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York announced on Friday that it will lay off 20 employees in an effort to improve its financial situation. The cuts, which represent around 7% of the museum’s staff, are in response to “a number of challenges felt across our field, in the United States and abroad, including rising costs, variable attendance levels and changes in international tourism”, a Guggenheim spokesperson said in a statement.
In a letter to staff quoted by The New York Times, the museum’s director and chief executive Mariët Westermann wrote that the decision was necessary because the institution’s “overall financial picture is not where it needs to be”. The layoffs will affect staff in six departments, including education, publications, archives and advancement. Curators and executives will not be affected, and senior leaders will not take pay cuts as part of the attempt to reign in costs.
“In recent years, we have taken proactive steps to adapt our financial and operational models to this changing environment,” a museum spokesperson added. “While these efforts are creating the conditions for long-term growth and sustainability, our current financial picture requires us to make the difficult decision to reduce staffing and reorganise some teams to position the museum well for the future. Our impacted colleagues have shown dedication and commitment to the museum and its mission, and we thank them for their hard work.”
The staff reductions announced Friday come after two previous rounds of layoffs at the Guggenheim, in which upwards of 30 people were let go. In 2023 the museum also joined several high-profile museums in the US in raising the price of general admission to $30. However, the museum’s attendance has been slow to rebound after the Covid-19 pandemic: according to The Art Newspaper’s annual survey of museum visitor figures, 861,374 people visited the Guggenheim in 2023, 33% fewer than in 2019.
Workers at the Guggenheim are among the many museum employees in the US who have unionised over the past decade. In 2019, facilities workers including installers, art handlers and engineers formed a union under Local 30 of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE). And in 2021, employees including curators, conservators, educators, visitor services representatives and others organised a union under Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW). According to a representative for UAW Local 2110, the majority of employees laid off on Friday are members of the union; representatives for IUOE Local 30 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“There were 14 people in our union who were laid off without notice and were also denied any union representation in the meetings in which they were informed about their layoff,” says Maida Rosenstein, the director of organising for UAW Local 2110. “The museum refused to release the names of the people who were laid off to the union or to give us any other information. The union has already filed a grievance over this and has demanded information and bargaining with the museum over the layoffs.”
The Guggenheim is not the only New York institution suffering from persistent financial hardships coming out of the pandemic. The Brooklyn Museum has announced plans to terminate 47 employees (around 10% of its staff) by 10 March in an effort to rectify a budget deficit of nearly $10m. As part of that effort, senior leaders will take salary cuts of up to 20%. Earlier this week, around 100 people including local politicians and colleagues from other museums rallied outside the Brooklyn Museum to protest the mass layoffs.
