Visitors halved, making ends meet, a large number of layoffs… the reopened museum does not seem to usher in the spring they are looking forward to.
After the gradual unblocking, almost all museums in the world have reopened, but they all seem to have encountered the dilemma of “cold out”. The International Association of Museums has more than 20,000 member museums in 137 countries. The chairman of the association, Alberto Garlandini, said: “Because of the need to maintain social distancing and redesign the visiting route of collections and exhibitions, museums can It receives half of the number of visitors in the past. But the actual situation is that the number of visitors can only reach 1/3 of the previous. “The lack of audiences has caused the museum to make ends meet after the reopening.
The reopening of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Natural History Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Venice has regained the confidence of other museum curators and librarians. In these museums, visitors wearing masks can linger in the exhibits very comfortably, and are no longer disturbed by the influx of tourists in the past. Some of the elderly even regain the happiness of 50 years ago. ——At that time, only a few people went to the museum to visit. At that time, these cultural temples had not yet become the place where tourists had to check in to perfect their tour schedule.
However, the slight rebound in the number of visitors is not enough to withstand the economic earthquake caused by the closure of the museum for several months due to the new crown epidemic. Garlandini said that according to a survey of 1,600 museums conducted by the International Association of Museums in May this year, almost all museums in the world (82.6%) plan to reduce public activities after the quarantine measures are over, and 29.8% of museums consider reducing the number of staff. , 12.8% of museums may be forced to close.
The survey results show that the phenomenon of closing museums mainly occurs in areas where museums have just been established and museums are scarce, especially in places where the management system is not sound enough, such as some countries in Africa and Asia.
| Decadent American Museums |
In American museums, there are waves of dismissals, and hundreds of people lose their jobs every week. Regardless of their size, these American museums are worried that private sponsorship funds will decrease, and these funds are the only source of funding for museums.
Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, decided to lay off 17% of the staff to solve the problem of shortage of funds. The same thing happened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Although this famous art hall on Fifth Avenue in New York enjoyed a special donation of up to $3.6 billion, it still fired 20% of its employees in two batches. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has laid off almost half of its employees; the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York has laid off a third of its employees; the New Museum of Contemporary Art in Massachusetts has terminated the employment contracts of 72% of its employees. The modern art museums in cities such as San Francisco, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh have not been spared the plight of layoffs.
Gallandini pointed out: “More than 30% of American museums have to lay off staff.” Laura Lott, president of the American Museums Alliance, also admitted that every day the alliance’s 35,000 member museums are closed, they lose $33 million in turnover. , She worries that 1/3 of the museums in the United States will be closed. The Indianapolis Museum of Modern Art was the first museum to close down. After opening for 19 years, the museum reluctantly closed on April 3.
| Europe is not spared |
Some museums in the United States can enjoy financial assistance provided by the salary protection program, such as the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Queens Museum of Art, or the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in California. Although the New Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act launched a special assistance program for cultural institutions in June, it is not yet known whether these assistance will work. However, some American museums that allow collections to be transferred have already intended to sell some of their collections.
European museums have not been spared. Garlandini said: “The fate of museums depends on the source of their own funds. Independently funded museums are the hardest hit. Museums that rely on public funding can still pay their employees.” The museum has more than 30,000 members. The European Association of Museums stated at the end of April that large museums such as the Rijksmuseum, Vienna Art History Museum, and Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam will lose 100,000 to 300,000 euros in revenue for one week. The Louvre management estimated that the measures during the quarantine period caused a loss of 40 million euros to the museum.
Currently, the suspension of tourism has caused museums to lose 75% to 80% of their revenue, and private museums whose funds mainly rely on ticket revenue have suffered even more serious losses.
In the UK, the pandemic crisis and the impact of Brexit have sharply reduced the number of museum visitors and forced the museum to put its staff reduction plan on the agenda. The Tate Modern, Tate Britain, and Tate St. Ives have just announced the reduction of 300 jobs in museum shops and cafes. The first layoff plan in the history of the Royal Palace Guard is also the first to direct the guardian guard of the famous landmark Tower of London and let it voluntarily resign. “Those jobs that have been cut are basically fixed-term contract workers and temporary workers.” Gallandini said regretfully. “If jobs related to culture, education and art training are cut, it will be a disaster.”
Epidemic crisis It directly affected the operation of the museum. “The only advantage is that a closer scientific cooperation network will be established between museums around the world.” Gallandini said, “In the absence of funds, museums should reduce future joint exhibitions with domestic and foreign museums. The extravagant hope of quantity, it is not difficult to focus on the exhibition of the collection in the museum.”
