After receiving a $15 million donation from the Eskenazi family and a $20 million donation from IU, the Eskenazi Museum of Art will be closed to the public for renovations from May 2017 to the spring of 2020, according to a press release from the museum.
The renovation project will update the museum with expansions to gallery and event spaces, a new entry and atrium, integrated gallery technology and modernized building systems.
While the project ensures improvement to the museum facilities and programs, museum employees may suffer the consequences of losing their steady income during the three-year shutdown.
“If, by next summer, we don’t have a definite answer if we have a job or not, I’m going to apply somewhere else because that’s my only source of income, and, as students, especially, I can’t wait around to see if my job is still there or not. It’s frustrating,” said sophomore Milly Cai, who currently works at the museum’s Angles Cafe and Gift Shop.
During her two years at the museum, Cai has worked at the information desk and as a museum studies intern. Cai said all student employees at the museum are part of IU’s work-study program, which for many students acts as a needed source of income.
According to the release, staff members will receive priority consideration during the hiring process when the museum reopens in 2020. However, the museum’s undergraduate students will be long gone before they can get their jobs back.
Sophomore Hannah Gregory, who also works at the cafe, said their boss told them about the shutdown two months ago. While nothing has been confirmed, Gregory said the museum gift shop might be relocated during the three year period, so she would get to keep her job.
Even still, Cai said the employees are waiting to see if these jobs will really exist.
“Our boss said he doesn’t know if it will be relocated or not. It’s just like, ‘In the future, maybe this will happen,’” Cai said. “It’s all just rumors right now, so everybody’s just being put on edge, and it’s just kinda like should I start looking for a job next year, or should I just wait it out?”
If they do lose their jobs, Cai, Gregory and the rest of the museum’s student employees will have to look for new work-study positions, which are limited to a select amount of campus groups and local businesses.
Aside from the financial damage, Cai said losing her job would also mean losing the community she’s grown during the past two years.
“I like being surrounded by these people who are just as enthusiastic and as passionate for the arts as I am and talking with all the other curators and all the other professors that come to the cafe when they order drinks,” she said. “We have small conversations but they talk about how their days have been or what they’re teaching. That’s just all really interesting to me.”
Gregory also said she’d miss the community she’s found at the museum, which has shaped her college experience.
“I’ve made a lot of connections with the customers and professors, and I’ve also made a lot of friends. Some of my closest friends are definitely the people who I work with because it’s just pretty low key there, and we’re all pretty alike,” Gregory said.
According to the release, the museum will continue its educational programs with local schools and its work with online collections during the release so these programs will still be available when the museum reopens in 2020.
“This renovation project will help us to realize the full potential of the Eskenazi Museum of Art, allowing us to be the most far-reaching and dynamic resource that we can be to the University, Bloomington and to the larger Indiana community as a whole,” said David A. Brenneman, the museum’s Wilma E. Kelley Director, in the release.
