In an all-staff meeting this morning, February 7, Brooklyn Museum Director Anne Pasternak confirmed that the institution would implement layoffs due to a persistent budget deficit that is expected to reach $10 million by the end of the current fiscal year.
The staff cuts will affect 47 full- and part-time workers, according to District Council 37, one of the unions representing workers at the museum.
To address what Pasternak described as a “significant cash flow problem,” the Brooklyn Museum will also be instituting a hiring freeze for any position that is not “critical for financial growth” and salary cuts of up to 20% for members of senior leadership, she said in today’s meeting. In 2023, Pasternak earned $1,012,633, according to the most recent publicly available filings.
Other planned cost-saving measures include reducing the number of exhibitions that take place each year and increasing the endowment draw, though legal limits restrict the museum from relying too heavily on withdrawals.
Pasternak cited factors including growing inflation affecting everyday costs and government contributions that “have not kept up with rising expenses,” combined with an increasing operating budget that stands at $64 million for the 2025 fiscal year, as contributing to the deficit. Salaries make up about 70% of that operating budget, she said.
“ We cannot continue to operate with the growing deficit we are carrying. No organization can continue in this way,” Pasternak told staff, explaining that the museum would implement “difficult cuts and strategic investments” to help bring its finances into a more stable position.
The institution’s endowment totaled $175.2 million for the fiscal year ending June 2023. That is significantly smaller than the endowment of comparable institutions, Pasternak noted. (The Museum of Modern Art, for example, has an endowment of around $1.75 billion.) The Brooklyn Museum director also said that the museum offers pay-what-you-wish admission for locals, who make up more than half of its public, a model that “limits earned revenue.”
The meeting confirmed fears percolating throughout the museum this week after leadership informed unions on Wednesday of planned staff cuts. Yesterday, Local 1502, a branch of the District Council 37 union representing 130 workers at the museum, issued a statement urging the museum to halt the layoffs and “engage in good-faith discussions with DC37 Local 1502 to explore alternative solutions to financial challenges.”
In today’s meeting, Pasternak stated that the museum would “ engage in negotiations with both unions as stipulated in our contracts.” But Local 1502 President Wilson Souffrant told Hyperallergic yesterday that the union should have been notified of the museum’s intent to lay off workers with more notice.
Impacted workers are expected to hear from Human Resources about their employment status throughout the day.
This is a developing story.
