The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) laid off 20 workers last week, citing financial strain that the institution attributed to changes in enrollment. Among the roles terminated were three of the five positions in the Video Data Bank, a major resource for early, experimental, and contemporary video art, in a move some worry will dramatically impact the organization’s operations.
The layoffs affected several departments across the academic institution, said Myia Brown, assistant director of Career and Professional Experience at SAIC and president of th in e American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union representing workers at the institution, in an email to Hyperallergic. The SAIC declined to provide details on the 15 additional employees laid off outside of the Video Data Bank. Brown said that six union positions were eliminated in the cuts.
The staff reductions come as universities across the country experience an enrollment slump attributed in part to a decline in international students. According to one survey, international college student enrollment fell by 17% this fall, largely due to uncertainty surrounding student visas.
“Like many colleges, SAIC is facing financial pressures due to changes in federal policy and their effects on enrollment,” a spokesperson for the institution told Hyperallergic. “We have taken several actions to reduce spending, including the elimination of a limited number of staff roles throughout the college in order to better center the academic mission.”
SAIC and Brown did not disclose how many staff members are employed by the academic institution, but a spokesperson said that the cuts accounted for less than 5% of the total workforce. The union represents 233 individuals, and according to tax documents filed last year by the umbrella organization, the Art Institute of Chicago, its museum and school collectively employ over 3,500 individuals.
Tom Colley, who had served as the Video Data Bank’s director since 2022, confirmed to Hyperallergic that his position was among those affected by the layoffs. Only two staff members remain.
In a letter circulated among staff on November 17, an unnamed group of scholars, artists, and curators claimed that the staff cuts “constitute a functional dismantling of Video Data Bank as it has existed for nearly fifty years.”
Founded in 1976, the Video Data Bank distributes contemporary video works to cultural institutions, libraries, and academic institutions and maintains a collection of works by 600 artists, including Dara Birnbaum, Paul Chan, Coco Fusco, and Joan Jonas. In 2016, it completed a digitization project of all the analog tapes in its collection. Recently, Colley said, the Video Data Bank distributed a video by Glenn Belverio titled “One Man Ladies” (1996) to MoMA PS1 for Vaginal Davis’s exhibition Magnificent Product.
In a statement to Hyperallergic, a spokesperson for SAIC said the institution “remains committed to the Video Data Bank and the value it provides to artists, other colleges and researchers, and the field.”
“The Video Data Bank is not going away; however, in order to maintain and distribute its collection, we needed to adjust staffing levels,” the spokesperson continued. “This was a challenging but necessary decision that allows us to protect our core teaching mission and preserve the future of the Video Data Bank.”
Kate Horsfield, the retired founding director of the Video Data Bank, told Hyperallergic in a phone call that it was the “biggest provider of video art to other institutions.”
“I’m talking about every university and college that has a film video program,” Horsfield said.
Under her tenure, she said, the program was one of the highest-funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The SAIC has not responded to Hyperallergic’s inquiries regarding whether widespread NEA cuts informed the institution’s decision.
Horsfield also described the program as a launching point for emerging artists.
“It’s going to have a large impact … on all the individual artists who need a form of distribution of their work,” Horsfield said. “Artists cannot do this on their own; they need to be doing their own work, and they need an organization that can represent them very broadly in museums, and in cultural and educational institutions.”
