Overview
- The museum confirmed 33 layoffs—6.3% of staff—leaving 489 employees as it seeks to address a $13 million structural deficit after drawing down a $40 million reserve.
- Seven curatorial positions were eliminated, including theo tyson (fashion), Nadirah Mansour (Islamic art), and Marina Tyquiengco (Native American art), who have been identified as the only Black, Muslim, and Indigenous curators on staff.
- Education and inclusion functions were pared back, with the head of learning and community engagement, the senior manager of equity programs, and the senior director of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility removed or folded into other departments.
- Union representatives say they were notified just minutes before a staffwide email; 16 union and 17 nonunion employees were laid off, bargaining has begun, and leaders did not take pay cuts though the COO role was eliminated.
- Public pressure includes a MassArt faculty letter urging reinstatements and a petition nearing 2,000 signatures, as the museum disputes disproportionate impact and a spokesperson notes nearly 40% of those laid off were people of color.