Bishop Museum lays off 6% of staff following grant loss

The Bishop Museum last week laid off 13 administrative and management employees — 6 percent of the museum’s workforce — after losing $2.2 million in federal funding.

Through January, the museum’s financial performance was running ahead of its goal but the loss of federal earmarks "was a very large amount to lose at one time," said Blair Collis, Bishop Museum president and CEO.

"We’re ahead of our revenue goal for the year, which is great," Collis said Tuesday. "But if we were to continue, we would have run negative. It’s frustrating because the staff has been doing such a fantastic job."

The layoffs will be felt "in every area of the museum, although not every department, representing education, development, cultural resources and natural sciences," Collis said

Overall operations and hours will not be affected by the layoffs, he said.

However, the museum will eliminate its regular public access to its library and archives for the next year while it experiments with appointment-only access and looks for better ways to make its collection available, Collis said.

One employee in the museum’s library and archives was laid off last week, Collis said.