The Brooklyn Museum confirmed Friday that it would cut some union and non-union staffers as the famed institution faces a budget deficit approaching $10 million amid its 200th anniversary celebrations.

“We cannot continue to operate with the growing deficit we are carrying. No organization can continue in this way,” Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak told staff at a meeting Friday morning.

A museum representative confirmed by email that the 10 percent workforce reduction would cut some 40 jobs up and down the institution, though the exact number has not been finalized amid negotiations with Local 1502, a branch of the District Council 37 union. It was previously reported that as many as 60 full-time and part-time jobs might be cut.

“In accordance with our union contracts, we are proceeding to negotiate the reduction of union roles with union leadership,” Taylor Maatman, the museum’s director of public relations, said in the email. “So, [it’s] just important to know that we won’t have exact numbers until that bargaining process is complete.”

Hyperallergic first reported the news, quickly followed by the New York Times after the meeting announcing the planned layoffs to staff. The museum confirmed the details of those reports to Artnet News and provided an advance copy of a letter by Pasternak to the public.

Pasternak said in the letter that the museum was facing a “significant cash flow problem” as the museum experienced “strong headwinds” including inflation, which she said added millions of dollars in costs to the museum that outpaced funding. She also placed blame on continuing ripples from slow attendance in the post-pandemic era.

Beyond cutting workers, Pasternak said the museum would reduce the number of exhibitions each year from around 12 to an average of nine, while seeking to ground its programming in its permanent collections. It will also reduce weeknight events but increase weekend events to better accommodate working New Yorkers and their families.

“The reality is, though, that wages comprise our largest operational line item—approximately 70 percent of our operating budget—and a financial realignment sadly requires reductions in our team,” Pasternak said. According to the Times, Pasternak told staffers in the meeting that employee compensation rose $17 million in the past decade.

Pasternak, who made more than $1 million in 2023 per the museum’s financial documents, said that senior leadership would also be taking salary cuts of 10 to 20 percent. It was not immediately clear if those cuts included her own salary.

Wilson Souffrant, the president of the Local 1502 union, told the Times that the union was “dismayed” at the museum’s decision and concerned about the timing of the cuts after lavish 200th-anniversary events and exhibitions.