The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) will lay off approximately 30 unionized staff members, according to the Art Newspaper.
A spokesperson described the staff reductions in a statement as “the difficult but necessary process of reducing its operating budget to ensure long-term sustainability.”
Warren Williams, the president of CUPE 15—the local branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees which represents workers from a number of organizations and institutions in Vancouver, including the museum—said he was “deeply saddened by the employer’s recent decision” in a memo to VAG staff published on June 23. Williams also wrote: “Although the union has not yet completed its comprehensive evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to permit the employer to present voluntary severance package offers to individual employees.”
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Williams told the Art Newspaper approximately 20 percent of VAG’s 150 unionized staff members represented by CUPE 15 will be laid off, and he was unsure of how many non-union staff would also be laid off due to the overall reductions in staff.
The news follows the recent departure of director and chief executive Anthony Kiendl in March, and the cancellation of plans for a new C$600 million ($420 million) building designed by Herzog & de Meuron last December after the budget rose from C$400 million to C$600 million. The cost for the cancelled project was C$60 million, according to the Art Newspaper.
In January, VAG announced the gallery would seek a simpler, less expensive new home through an invitation to 14 Canadian architectural firms to apply to design the new gallery.
The Art Newspaper reported that the mass layoffs “have raised doubts about the timeline for the new building project, which is already a decade and a half in the planning” and occurred after the city of Vancouver, one of the gallery’s funders, also announced budget cuts and hiring freezes across multiple sectors.
Williams added that CUPE 15 will continues to negotiate for “better severance packages—as our collective agreement allows for our members. Those who want to move on from the gallery need a financial incentive to do so as well as protection of benefits for a certain amount of time and career counselling.”
“Considering the financial status of the gallery and the new site being put on hold—they are in a bit of a pickle,” Williams noted.