Tag: 07.09.05

Five long-tenured employees have been laid off from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., as a result of what the museum’s director says are serious budget concerns. The firings came out of the blue, and the decision to go ahead with a staff reorganization was apparently that of the director alone, who says that belts have been tightening all over the Smithsonian. The museum has 32 remaining employees.

The Cleveland Museum of Art has laid off six employees, including a paintings curator with 18 years service time, as it prepares to close for several years during a $258 million expansion and renovation. “The number of employees at the museum now stands at 370, down from more than 500 before an earlier and more extensive round of layoffs in 2003 meant to bring the museum’s budget in line… The museum complex will be largely closed during construction, but will start reopening in phases beginning in the fall of 2007. Special exhibitions and other programs will continue, with the exception of a complete shutdown in the first six months of 2006.”