97 pink slips served at the Getty Trust, a total of 205 positions eliminated, when currently unfilled and expected to turnover positions are counted. With the endowment taking a beating in the current financial environment, and a hiring freeze already in place, this axe has been hovering for a while. Parking fees, which had recently jumped from $8 to $10, have now leaped upwards to $15, pretty much putting a visit to the “free” Getty up there with several other LA museums, especially for the solo visitor. Mike Boehm from Culture Monster has the details, and Silence Dogetty, the Getty employee anon-a-blog, has been providing an ongoing window into the minds of some of the folks on and off the hill about the situation.
Coincidentially, I was at the Getty Center yesterday, taking part in the annual Supervisor Orientation as part of Angels Gate’s participation in the Getty Foundation’s Multicultural Undergraduate Internship program. I knew that today was pink slip day, but no one from Getty staff made mention of it or even seemed anything but upbeat.
I’ve argued in the past that any organization of the Getty’s girth presumably has some fat that can be trimmed, but which fat? The MUI program that I love so much has faced cuts, and I worry about the future of the program, especially since the LA County side of the program, focused on performing arts organizations, is currently unfunded in the County 2010 budget (read more about that at Arts for LA’s page on the issue). Yesterday I looked across an auditorium filled with some of the best arts administrators in Southern California and wondered if scores of performing arts organizations will be without critical intern support in 2010, and if scores of brilliant, hard working potential interns won’t have the opportunity that has benefited so many who have come through the County side of the program in recent years.
Based upon the many, many amazing people I know who work at the Getty, I can’t imagine the Getty losing any one of them without the whole organization being lesser for it. Everyone I know there is so inspiring, so damn professional, and they’re constantly impressing me with their commitment to their career.
Yesterday, while getting my breakfast before the meeting, I took the above photo and joked with a coworker that things must be okay at the Getty, because they’ve still got the shekels to be serving up their ersatz Devonshire cream in the gallon bowl size. But that’s clearly not the case. Maybe that gallon of delicious white fat is a symbol of the problem – why weren’t those free breakfasts and lunches that come with even the smallest meeting at the Getty canned months ago, at the first sign of financial crisis? I’d be more than happy to brown bag it, or simply eat at the cafeteria, if I knew that the Getty could save one essential staff position by cutting the literal fat from its budget. I’ll admit, that I’m a sucker, a total fool, for a spread of delicious delights (the Getty’s apricot preserves are crazy, crazy good), but I’m a bigger sucker for the amazing team of professionals who make up the staff at the Getty. So Getty, is it too much to ask to cut some of the literal fat, so that you can continue the level of excellence in your programs, which only exist because of the elbow grease of so many hard working people?
Technorati Tags: Getty, Getty Trust, Culture Monster, Mike Boehm, staff cuts, layoffs, Silence Dogetty, museum, art museum, Devonshire Cream
My mom makes the greatest apricot preserves, hands down. Way better than the Getty.
I do love those chicken sandwiches with the fig paste though…
Still back to the serious stuff, yes, you are absolutely right, the Getty does need to make other cuts before they cut staff, as does Los Angeles. However, cutting staff is SO much more dramatic and therefore more likely to get folks to open their wallets, be they donors or taxpayers.