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Even as two outdoor-focused institutions tentatively re-open, the wave of COVID-19-related layoffs at Chicago museums continues. Lincoln Park Zoo said Wednesday it is cutting 18 workers, about 7 percent of its workforce.
The move comes as the free north side zoological park anticipates a budget shortfall in the current fiscal year of $2.5 million to $5 million “minimally,” said Jillian Braun, director of public relations and communications.
Braun said the cuts were painful to the zoo, which has long been Chicago’s most popular attraction with about 3.5 million annual visitors. Like most major museums and nature parks, it closed in mid-March to help prevent the spread of coronavirus during the global pandemic.
Just Tuesday, Chicago Children’s Museum cut about 80 percent of its staff, leaving just 20 workers to prepare for reopening. Previously, Adler Planetarium fired 120 people in a drastic reduction of its payroll.
Last week the Museum of Science and Industry and Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum also announced less severe layoffs and furloughs.
Similar news from other major institutions is expected as the pandemic continues to sicken and kill Illinoisans, the organizations face uncertain prospects for even partial-capacity reopening, and emergency federal payroll protection loans run out this month.
Morton Arboretum, in west suburban Lisle, on Monday opened its outdoor spaces only, and Chicago Botanic Garden, in Glencoe, enacts a similarly limited plan beginning next Tuesday. Each draws over 1 million people per year, and the arboretum’s marketing chief said her institution loses about $40,000 in revenue each day the gates aren’t open.
The Art Institute has said it is very tentatively planning for some kind of reopening July 1.
Amid Lincoln Park’s calculations were the fact that group events that pay institutions a healthy rental fee won’t be allowed until the final phase of city and state reopening plans, when there is a vaccine or treatment for COVID-19.
And even when Lincoln Park Zoo reopens for limited, outdoor-only access — an announcement that Braun said could come soon — “we aren’t sure what people’s comfort levels will be with food or gift shops,” she said.
The zoo, she noted, is in an extraordinary situation because it does not charge an admission fee. It is therefore less reliant than some of its peers on getting people through the doors, but that also means that opening the gates raises expenses.
Braun said the zoo layoffs came across departments and were accompanied by pay cuts for remaining staff at the “assistant director level or above.” The fiscal year at the zoo, run by the private, not-for-profit Lincoln Park Zoological Society on Chicago Park District land, begins in April, and the annual budget has been about $35 million, she said.
sajohnson@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @StevenKJohnson