Last week, Anne Pasternak, the Director of the Brooklyn Museum, announced the implementation of staff and salary cuts to curb the institution’s budget deficit that is expected to reach $10 million by the end of the current fiscal year.
District Council 37 (DC37), one of the museum’s workers’ unions, said that 47 full- and part-time workers will be affected by the staff cuts, which represents more than ten percent of the museum’s workforce. Additionally, senior leadership will face salary cuts of ten to twenty percent, the annual number of exhibitions will be reduced from an average of twelve to nine and low-attendance events will be cancelled, Pasternak stated.
The museum is ‘experiencing strong headwinds: inflation has dramatically impacted our operating budget, adding millions of dollars to everyday costs and outpacing funding’, wrote Pasternak and other officials in a letter to staff members. ‘Wages comprise our largest operational line item – approximately 70 percent of our operating budget – and a financial realignment sadly requires reductions in our team.’
Speaking to Hyperallergic, the union president Wilson Souffrant said that he was notified about the staff cuts only two days before they were announced and he released a statement asking the museum to ‘explore alternative solutions to financial challenges’. Pasternak stated the museum will ‘engage in negotiations with both unions’.
