Vast cuts at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) are feared to be imminent, with curators and conservators in the line of fire, the Guardian understands.
Details of the museum’s “recovery strategy” were briefed to unions on Thursday. Staff are expecting to hear news of redundancies within days.
One insider expressed dismay that the curatorial division may have to make 20% cuts. They said: “We’re expecting curatorial redundancies to be announced in the next few days. The conservators are already being restructured. Conservation departments are in negotiation. The museum has already done a scheme for applications for voluntary redundancy and retirement.
“The selection of those people was made by three individuals who don’t have any curatorial or conservation experience, the head of human resources, the financial director and the chief operating officer.”
Staff fear that history is repeating itself. The former V&A director Elizabeth Esteve-Coll sparked outrage with her restructuring and redundancies programme, made worse by an advertising campaign headed: “An ace cafe with quite a nice museum attached.” She also claimed various achievements, including increased attendances.
“We think it’ll be infinitely worse now,” said one insider. “It’s hollowing out the expertise of the museum. Experienced technicians who are invisible to the executive board of the museum are going. Very experienced conservators are leaving or have left. Some conservators and curators have already left on voluntary terms. The next wave is forced redundancies.”
Another said: “We now have no specialist in European paintings. The chief conservator of miniatures and the head of paintings conservation have each retired. It’s unbelievable. This is why we’re so alarmed. These are the voluntary departures and it was done without reference to the heads of the sections involved.
“There was no advice sought or taken. This has just happened recently. Then a restructuring of conservation was announced. 28 of 47 posts are affected. That doesn’t mean they’re all leaving. But some people are being made redundant. Others will have to renegotiate their position and we fear that a lot are actually being demoted.”
Staff understand that a meeting will be held on Friday between department heads and Antonia Boström, the director of collections, who will detail her restructuring.
They believe that, while Covid-19 has no doubt taken its toll on the V&A’s finances, the cuts are particularly harsh because of the steep costs involved in its new London outpost. The museum denies this.
The V&A announced plans in 2018 to open up its vast stores, creating dramatic 360-degree viewing spaces for the public and displays of large items that are normally in storage.
The museum and a research centre is due to open in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford after the government’s decision to sell off Blythe House in west London, which the V&A and other institutions had used as a store for 40 years. The government gave the V&A £50m to come up with an alternative.
The V&A said curatorial colleagues had been involved in the process. “Due to the ongoing financial impact of Covid-19, and the need to find £10m sustainable savings per year, the V&A is reviewing the structure of its curatorial teams, as part of its recovery strategy,” it said in a statement.
“V&A staff are our main priority. Details were confidentially briefed to trade unions today, ahead of planned meetings and the start of a consultation process, with proposals supporting public-focused, collaborative ways of working.”
