The Fine Art Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) and the city's Asian Art Museum could see layoffs and reduced public hours as a result of a major cut in the city’s budget.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Aidin Vaziri and Tony Bravo reported last week that FAMSF—which oversees the de Young Museum and the Legion of Honor museum—has proposed eliminating 23 of its 99 city-funded positions and shuttering the two museums’ doors on Tuesdays. Meanwhile, the Asian Art Museum may need to lay off 13 security guards. These moves come in response to the San Francisco mayor’s office warning institutions to plan for a 15% cut in city funding as a result of an unprecedented budget deficit at the municipal level. FAMSF receives 20% of its total budget from the city’s coffers, and roughly a third of the Asian Art Museum’s budget has historically come from the city.
According to the Chronicle, a majority of the layoffs would affect the museums’ security teams—20 full-time guards would be let go from FAMSF, saving the city $2.6m. The Asian Art Museum’s reduction in guards would save the city $1.7m. Many of these jobs are currently held by people of colour. As for closing the de Young and Legion of Honor an additional day per week, by FAMSF’s own estimates, this would “reduce visitation by up to 150,000 visitors over one year” and student visits could drop by 25%. All of these negative effects are outlined in the museums’ proposals, which were submitted to the mayor’s office last month as part of the city’s annual budgeting process.
“It is our understanding that the mayor’s office does not want to see a reduction of operating hours at the de Young and Legion of Honor,” a spokesperson for FAMSF said in a statement, “and we are working closely with the mayor’s budget office to analyse the proposal and look for other cost-reduction opportunities.”
The Asian Art Museum’s proposal states: “In our experience, it would be unsafe to operate the museum with this level of security coverage. Therefore, we would have to either limit visitor access to a small section of the museum or close the museum altogether. We believe that such a result would impede our ability to showcase our collection and deliver educational programmes that connect residents and visitors—activities which contribute to San Francisco’s economic recovery through arts and culture.”
Other San Francisco institutions will also be affected by the proposed budget cuts, including the California Academy of Sciences. The city’s new mayor, Daniel Lurie, has yet to decide on specific cuts to address the estimated $876m deficit in city funding over the next two years. This week, Lurie sent representatives to Washington, DC, where they will lobby for federal funding that they worry could be withheld by US President Donald Trump's administration in response to the city’s liberal policies.