The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has cut 29 staffers from its roster, citing financial difficulties.
The laid-off staff constitute about 8 percent of the total workforce at the museum. 20 of the employees were full-time, while the rest were part-time workers. Christopher Bedford, director of SFMOMA, said: “Although this decision was necessary, we recognize the impacts on affected individuals, and have provided severance packages, including enhanced packages to our union members above what is outlined in our collective bargaining agreement.”
On Wednesday morning, all the employees marked for the layoff were asked to join a closed-door, all-staff meeting. In the meeting, Bedford reportedly directly informed the concerned staff that they were being cut. Since the list of terminated employees has not yet been shared, it is not clear whether it included any senior curatorial or management roles. However, it is rumored that most of the laid-off employees were in public-facing roles.
The news was met with outrage from worker unions. The biggest criticism came from the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 29, which had 26 out of the 29 laid-off employees as its members. Union official Nat Taylor said that the termination was abrupt and the union was not given any notice or chance by SFMOMA to negotiate the action.
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Since the pandemic, SFMOMA has been struggling financially. In November 2023, it removed 23 positions from its roster. In 2024, it announced a financial deficit of $3.6 million (which was considerably lower than the 2023 deficit of $7.6 million).
