The Glenbow Museum is permanently laying off 27 staff members due to financial hardships created by the coronavirus pandemic, it announced Thursday afternoon.
Nicholas Bell, Glenbow president and CEO, said many of those impacted are long-term employees who did a broad range of jobs for the organization, including working the front desk, in the gift shop, in collections, finance and fund development.
“There is no area of the museum that isn’t affected,” said Bell, adding that it was a “tough day for Glenbow but not a surprising one.”
In March, Glenbow temporarily laid off 83 of its 100 employees, although some of those positions were casual. Since then, 15 staff members have been recalled. The move was necessitated by the financial impact of COVID-19. The Glenbow was able to utilize the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy to support employees who have been working.
With this latest round of layoffs, the museum will be left with 26 permanent staff, Bell said.
The Glenbow shut its doors on March 13 when the COVID-19 pandemic first caused wide-spread lockdowns. More than 60 per cent of the museum’s operating budget is funded by admissions, school programs, event rentals, shop sales and donations.
Bell said the layoffs are part of a restructuring of Glenbow’s operations, which includes a $115-million revitalization project to upgrade the 54-year-old museum and preserve its collection. The restructuring will also include the hiring of a new director of development, chief curator and other “new positions to create that are tasked in areas that we know will be most important down the road, especially toward renovation,” Bell said.
“It’s truly a restructuring, we are not just shrinking. We are also considering how we might be shaped in the future and be the most effective as we can.”
Next week, Glenbow will announce its August reopening plans under COVID-19 health restrictions. An exact date has not been revealed, nor has a timeline for renovations.
The revitalization project will be done in two stages. The first is expected to take 12 months, the second 14 to 18 months. The Glenbow will be closed for most of those periods, although will be offering popup exhibitions, education and other programming in other locations in the city when the downtown building is closed, Bell said. The organization is still raising funds for the renovation. In February, the provincial government committed $40 million towards upgrading the museum.
The 27 staff members laid off on Thursday will receive severance packages, based on their tenure.
“Our mandate as we go forward is to navigate this difficult time and understand how we can offer or program to Calgarians and the community while recognizing it won’t be exactly the same as it was before,” Bell said.
“We’re obviously living in a difficult time, unlike anything that most of us have lived in in the past. But I don’t think it means that we should ever think the arts should be diminished. In fact, I think there is no more important time to build the museum. We need community spaces that allow us to regenerate and recover from crises like this one. This has been a difficult day for Glenbow but we will persevere and move forward and we’ll be OK.”
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