The Pérez Art Museum Miami Has Cut Over Half Its Staff and Won’t Reopen Until September

The Pérez Art Museum Miami is planning to
stay closed until September and, as a result, will take a
substantial financial hit.

The museum forecasts that it will lose between $3 million and $5
million in revenue this year (about 20 to 30 percent of its annual
total).

To curtail the financial hemorrhaging it has made significant
staff cuts. In April, 15 of the museum’s 120 full- and part-time
employees were terminated and another 54 were furloughed. The
layoffs hit every department, including its curatorial team, and
the museum’s 49 remaining staff members are taking five to 15
percent salary cuts.

The decision to extend the closure, which began March 16,
through the summer months comes as parts of the country are
beginning to resume normal activities for non-essential businesses.
The governor of Texas gave museums the green light to resume
operations at 25 percent capacity as of May 1, but museums across
the state are choosing to remain
closed rather than risk endangering public health.

But by deciding in April to stay closed through September,
the Pérez Museum is signaling that social distancing
constraints will prevent normal museum operations longer than many
had hoped. Even New York’s Metropolitan Museum of
Art, one of the first institutions in
the country to shut down, is targeting a July
reopening.

Keeping the doors shut also means that the Miami museum is
canceling its two spring shows: “Joyner/Giuffrida Collection” and
“Allied With Power: African and African Diaspora Art from the Jorge
M. Pérez Collection.”

A spokesperson for the museum says it cannot rely on donors such
as Jorge Pérez, a prominent real estate developer and art
collector, to bail out the museum financially. (The museum renamed
itself after Pérez when he donated $40 million to the institution
in 2011).

“This unprecedented event demanded immediate fiscally
responsible actions in addition to donor support in order to
address shortfalls in the annual budget for 2020,” the spokesperson
told Artnet News. “Each and every board member contributes to [the
museum] in meaningful ways on an ongoing basis. That said, the
museum is preparing a fundraising plan that involves the board of
trustees.”

“We feel horrible that we had to do this,” museum director
Franklin Sirmans told the Miami Herald,
“but we will move forward, being deliberate about what we can
do.”

Those currently furloughed will be brought back on September 1.
The museum spokesperson said there were “no plans” for
additional layoffs “in the immediate future.”

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Staff and Won’t Reopen Until September appeared first on
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