Job Shifts at County Museum Focus on Future

For the last nine months, those of us who are closely involved with Los Angeles County Museum of Art have wrestled with wrenching budget cuts. With county funding down 30% and private giving also down in this recessionary year, every facet of the museum has had to be examined carefully and tough, painful decisions made.

As part of that process, the county directed the museum to reduce the number of county employees and to offer early retirement to all who qualified, which was done. Some employees accepted early retirement; others did not. The trustees, museum director Michael Shapiro and staff all worked very hard to handle layoffs as supportively as possible. We found new positions internally through reorganization where possible and, if not, outside the museum. We provided extra severance from private funds to everyone laid off and counseling service as well. I led a drive and raised $1.6 million from the trustees alone to handle the severance costs as well as a portion of our deficit. These cuts were painful, emotional, tough to do and affected all of us, including Shapiro. But they were necessary and were carried out in the most supportive way possible.

There has been considerable publicity about Maurice Tuchman and speculation that he is being forced from the museum by the director or the trustees (“LACMA Changes Point to Team Dissolution,” Calendar, May 24). The facts are:

1) We were directed by the county to offer early retirement to all eligible employees, including Tuchman; he was not singled out. He declined early retirement, as was his right.

2) The senior curators, including Tuchman, agreed to drop the senior curatorial title in their county job descriptions, which helped us save other younger curators’ jobs. This was a technical title change, it did not affect their museum titles. Tuchman and the others remain senior curators.

3) His salary is unchanged, although we have had to lay off other employees or transfer others to lesser-paying jobs.

4) Shapiro subsequently asked Tuchman to head a new department of 20th Century Drawings, which is an emerging, interesting area with great public popularity. It is an affordable area for acquisitions in a tight budget time, and we think it has great potential. Tuchman is recognized by the museum as a senior curator of great talent and experience, and Shapiro felt that it was a smart utilization of his talent. We would hope that he would settle into this new role ultimately with enthusiasm. Incidentally, Richard Koshalek at the Museum of Contemporary Art is very enthused about this area and is actively working to establish a similar department.

5) Finally, there has been comment about Tuchman’s new office. It is newly built, larger than any other senior curator’s (including Tuchman’s old office) and is as close to the Prints and Drawings Galleries as possible. The museum tries wherever possible to have curators adjacent to their respective galleries. The museum is cramped, and we are constantly trying to find new space for classrooms, offices, etc. Many would agree that the new office is a great improvement.

The core issue here is whether such a major creative talent as Tuchman is being forced from the museum by either the director or the trustees. That is certainly not the case. He is recognized and valued as a great asset to the museum. He has had neither his title nor his salary changed. It is the director’s prerogative to make personnel shifts internally and changes often create resistance, particularly when one has been doing basically the same job for 29 years.

Internal staff functions are not an appropriate responsibility for trustees nor the president of the museum, and there has been no such involvement. Our responsibility is to make sure that the strategic purpose of the museum is carried out and, within that, to ensure that employees are being treated fairly and responsibly, even though they may not be happy with job shifts. As president, I have that responsibility, as do the other trustees, and I am comfortable that these changes are being handled fairly.

Stepping back and taking a longer view, these cuts and changes are probably very healthy on balance. The county cuts force the staff and the trustees to energize, become much more innovative, focused and proactive in searching for funding sources and inventing programs that can increase the relevance of the museum to the community. We are a public institution, and our role is to serve all of the community, not just the elite few.

It has been a difficult time but also one of progress, and the museum faces the future with renewed confidence and enthusiasm.