The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco has announced closure for over a year, owing to financial difficulties.
On Wednesday, the museum announced the temporary closure. Though a timeline was not provided, the museum would remain shuttered for at least one year. The museum also announced that there would be layoffs in the staff, though further details were not provided. However, museum officials did not seem too pessimistic about the situation. Kerry King, director of the museum, said that the temporary closure was the “best, most proactive approach” the museum could have taken in the current financial crisis.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum was founded in San Francisco in 1984. Over the years, it has housed artists like Susan Hiller, Judy Chicago, and Sophie Calle. However, in recent years, the museum has faced significant financial strain. The pandemic brought hardships to many art spaces all over the world, but the Contemporary Jewish Museum seemed to have never recovered from the strain. Earlier this year, a fan-favorite deli housed within the museum closed doors, citing a lack of customers.
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But financial strain was not the only hardship the museum faced this year. Earlier in the summer, the Contemporary Jewish Museum opened the ‘Contemporary Jewish Open’ exhibition. A dispute with management caused several participating artists to drop out. However, King said that the incident had nothing to do with the museum’s closure.
