SFMOMA employees say leadership is avoiding them after sudden layoffs

San Francisco Chronicle​

08-05-2025

A scheduled in-person meeting between leadership at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and its staff to address recent layoffs was canceled, according to the museum workers' union.
'Here's a visual representation of the Museum's current accountability for their decisions to layoff union staff,' read a caption for a photo of an empty conference room posted to Instagram by the SFMOMA Union on Wednesday, April 7.
It concluded with a message of protest: 'Cut from the Top. No Layoffs.'
SFMOMA confirmed with the Chronicle that the meeting scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Thursday, May 8, was held online and concluded before 10 a.m.
A museum spokesperson added that the executive team, including Director Christopher Bedford, would make themselves available for in-person office hours to meet directly with staff.
The last-minute cancellation of the in-person staff meeting came a day after the museum's announcement that it laid off 29 employees, or about 7.5% of its total workforce, including more than two dozen union members. Thirteen additional positions, either vacant or soon-to-be, were also eliminated.
According to the union, 26 members were dismissed 'with no notice.' In response, union leaders called on staff to wear black and protest during the originally scheduled in-person meeting.
The museum said that 'enhanced' severance packages were provided to union employees.
In a letter to the community, Bedford called the layoffs 'difficult' but necessary, citing persistent declines in attendance and broader financial challenges.
'We continue to grapple with some hard realities,' Bedford wrote, noting that the museum is adapting to a 'new normal' of approximately 600,000 annual visitors — a substantial decline from the 892,000 reported in 2019.
The move follows a previous round of cuts in November 2023, when SFMOMA eliminated 20 positions in response to a 35% drop in attendance since before the pandemic.