The School of the Art Institute of Chicago dismissed more than half of the staff last week at the Video Data Bank, a video art–focused organization whose services are used widely by museums across the globe.
Three of the organization’s five staff members saw their positions eliminated by the school on November 12, according to Tom Colley, the Video Data Bank’s former director. He said that Elise Schierbeek and Nicky Ni, respectively the organization’s digital collection and media manager and a distribution assistant, had also lost their jobs.
“Other structural and mission changes are happening as well,” Colley wrote in an email that was posted to social media. “I have heard that there will be no acquisitions or programming.” Colley said that the school had made these decisions “without the knowledge or input of VDB staff,” and that the organization’s future was “uncertain.”
Colley concluded his note by writing, “We sincerely want to find a way forward for the Video Data Bank.”
“Like many colleges, SAIC is facing financial pressures due to changes in federal policy and their effects on enrollment,” a spokesperson for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago said in a statement. “We have taken several actions to reduce spending, including the elimination of a limited number of staff roles throughout the college in order to better center the academic mission. SAIC remains committed to the Video Data Bank and the value it provides to artists, other colleges and researchers, and the field.”
The statement continued, “The Video Data Bank is not going away; however, in order to maintain and distribute its collection, we needed to adjust staffing levels. This was a challenging but necessary decision that allows us to protect our core teaching mission and preserve the future of the Video Data Bank.”
Colley, Ni, and Schierbeek are no longer listed on the Video Data Bank website, which names two remaining people on its staff. Colley and the Video Data Bank did not respond to a request for additional comment.
Founded at the school in 1976, the Video Data Bank was gearing up to celebrate its 50th anniversary. It maintains a collection of video artworks that it distributes to museums, libraries, alternative spaces, and more.
Included in the Video Data Bank’s collection are works by Dara Birnbaum, Nam June Paik, Martine Syms, Valie Export, Bruce Nauman, Coco Fusco, Pipilotti Rist, and many other artists of note.
On its website, the organization states that it has historically received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, which pulled many grants to arts institutions earlier this year under the Trump administration.
The downsizing at the Video Data Bank has drawn condemnation from some in the industry. Abina Manning, a former director of the organization, wrote on Instagram, “Like many of us who worked there, VDB is in my blood. Questions around what is happening with the organisation, the represented artists, the staff team, the programs, the collection, are running around my brain.”
An artist-run initiative called VDB Forever sent out an email on Monday in which it said that the organization was now being facilitated by Melanie Emerson, dean of the school’s library and special collections.
“This evolving group will release more information on a proposed course of action in the weeks and months to come,” VDB Forever’s email said. “Although the future of VDB is uncertain, the concern expressed across the arts community underscores the organization’s irreplaceable role in the history, present, and future of moving-image art.”
