The MoMA Has Taken a ‘Chainsaw’ to Its Staff, Budget, and Exhibitions
In a call with other arts professionals, the museum’s director discussed the drastic cuts necessary for his institution to survive the Covid-19 shutdown.
Visitors inside the renovated Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Photographer: Iwan BaanWhen the Museum of Modern Art in New York reopens, it will do so with 17% fewer staff members, a budget that’s $45 million smaller, and likely a fraction of the visitors it had just two months ago.
In a Zoom conference with other museum professionals whose recording was reviewed by Bloomberg, Glenn Lowry, the director of the MoMA, described plans to pare down exhibitions and publications and radically reappraise the visitor experience. While the museum’s reopening plans remain provisional, one thing is certain: Post Covid-19, the MoMA will be a very different place.