Related: Why the Arts Are Important
"MFA exhibiting signs of the times; Museum lays off 33, will freeze pay starting next year" by Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff | April 3, 2009
Reeling from the recession, the Museum of Fine Arts yesterday laid off 33 workers, about 4 percent of its staff, and said it will freeze salaries in next year's budget. The cuts are meant to contain costs as the museum readies for a massive building project set to be completed in 2010.
In addition to eliminating the jobs, the MFA won't fill 21 vacant positions - bringing the total number of cuts to 54. After the reductions, the MFA will employ 756 workers, 577 of them full time. Along with the frozen salaries, museum director Malcolm Rogers, his four deputy directors, and the dean of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts have taken voluntary pay cuts. In addition, the MFA said it is working to reduce costs by cutting back on staff travel, reducing printed newsletters, and considering ways to spend less on exhibitions.
Together, the cuts will save $6 million in the 2010 fiscal year, the museum said. The MFA budget for the museum's most recent fiscal year, 2008, was $54.9 million. The museum did not disclose savings for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. "We've known for several months that we had to look at cost cutting in all possible ways, but we thought very seriously about taking our time," said Rogers. "One of the critical things is not to overreact in difficult circumstances."
The MFA's endowment has declined about 30 percent since June, to about $359 million. Rogers said the MFA has been particularly hard hit in its retail shop and fund-raising. Twenty of the 33 laid-off workers came from those two departments. Retail revenue dropped from $7.6 million in fiscal year 2007 to $7.36 million in 2008. No figures were available for the current fiscal year, but the numbers are expected to fall. Membership at the MFA is also down, from 76,000 in 2008 to its current 70,000.
Still, the museum is on track to open a dramatic expansion next year, Rogers said.
"This allows the museum to remain stable through the rest of this year and the rest of next year," said Rogers, who told the museum staff about the layoffs and other cuts during a meeting yesterday afternoon.
Museums across the country have been hit hard by the recession, with cuts coming recently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Detroit Institute of Arts, and Denver Art Museum. The Art Institute of Chicago recently increased its admission price from $9 to $18.
"This is a terrible, terrible time for arts organizations across the country," said Melissa Berman, president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in New York. "Lots of very generous people are really focusing whatever giving they can manage on basic human services: food, shelter, healthcare. Arts organizations often get left out."
--more--"I'd feel better about them except for the fact that they are often undercover Mossad spies!
Also see: Gatekeepers Bury Story about Dancing Israelis and Art Students
