Boston's Museum of Fine Arts announces layoffs

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston notified employees of upcoming layoffs in an internal email sent Tuesday.

The MFA faces "an unsustainable deficit that we have committed to resolve," the email to employees stated. "Unfortunately, we have determined that in order to move toward financial sustainability, we will need to implement a restructuring that will result in a reduction in our workforce."

There are 520 employees at the museum, and the institution said in a statement to WBUR it plans to reduce 6.3% of its workforce. More than 30 museum positions will be affected.

"Our challenge was to create a sustainable business model while remaining true to our mission. Leadership came to this difficult decision only after careful consideration of every available option," the press statement said.

In the email to staff, the MFA noted that layoffs will be effective Friday, Jan. 30.

This is the second time in six years that the museum has laid off staff. The last round of layoffs took place in 2020. At the time, 56 employees elected to take voluntary early retirement and 57 were laid off. Matthew Teitelbaum, then the museum's director, also took a 30% pay cut.

Chelsea Farrell is an organizer with United Auto Workers Local 2110, the union representing museum staff. She said 16 of the 33 people impacted are union members, adding the union will continue to be in conversation with the MFA. " It is our position that layoffs should really be a last resort for an organization. We would really want to push the museum to tell us that they are pulling every lever available to avoid any layoffs."

Layoffs in the arts industry are rising, especially in the past year. In 2025, the Guggenheim Museum laid off 20 people and provided little to no notice. The Brooklyn Museum also announced layoffs due to a shortfall in revenue, but those layoffs were paused. In Los Angeles, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, projected to open sometime in 2026, laid off 22 employees.

The American Alliance of Museums released a 2025 report that found more than half of museums are seeing fewer visitors than they did in 2019. This is a decline from the 2024 report, which showed that over half of museums reached or surpassed pre-pandemic attendance.

The MFA reported that paid attendance in 2024 was "37% higher than the pre-pandemic historical average" and that close to 1 million people visited the museum. However, the overall attendance rate is still lower than the 1,351,000 people who visited the MFA in 2019.