The Public Service Association (PSA) has released a statement this morning announcing that its members at Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) will walk off the job and protest in response to the plan for mass layoffs at the gallery.
AGNSW is facing a $7.5 million cut in expenditure due to reduction in government funding for the 2025-2026 financial year, and has made the decision to cut 10% of its staff as part of the restructure.
AGNSW – quick links:
PSA Assistant General Secretary, Troy Wright says, ‘Our members have had a gutful … Cutting one in 10 roles, 51 jobs, will literally decimate the Art Gallery of NSW. These are public facing roles, there’s only one manager included in these cuts.’
Wright also points to the discrepancy towards funding for major capital works versus those to actually sustain business-as-usual operations, including human resources.
‘Arts Minister John Graham needs to know we won’t cop this, the Powerhouse in Parramatta has a blank cheque meanwhile established arts institutions are being looted and vandalised,’ he says.
Wright continues, ‘We’ve seen new galleries and gardens added, like the Sydney Modern extension [renamed Naala Badu after completion] in 2022, and now we see how they’re paying for it, by painting our members out of the picture.’
AGNSW facing financial woes
The opening of AGNSW’s new north wing, the $344 million Naala Badu, has no doubt put a strain on gallery operations. Despite bringing record visitation to the gallery, AGNSW was faced with a $5.8 million cut in government funding ($72.4 million in 2024-2025 to $66.6 million in 2025-26).
Wright is concerned that the quality of public experience at AGNSW will take a hard hit as a result of the staff layoffs. ‘The public will notice these cuts, if you enjoy the gallery then you need to know the amount of exhibitions and their quality is in the firing line.’
He continues, ‘People travel from all over Australia to visit exhibitions like the Archibald and it’s time the government started treating this cultural institution as the tourism money spinner it is.’
It was alleged that 30 staff were cut from AGNSW last year under the previous directorship of Michael Brand.
The AGNSW workers walk off the job and protest will occur at noon today (27 August) at the gallery.
Interview with AGNSW Director Maud Page
Just this week, ArtsHub published an interview with AGNSW Director Maud Page on the forthcoming job cuts, excerpts from the article below:
A week after the news was broken to AGNSW staff, ArtsHub caught up with recently appointed Gallery Director, Maud Page about what these numbers mean, how many will go, and what daily operations will look like moving forward.
While the answer to the funding shortfall is simple, it is the hardest thing that any gallery director will have to do. Page tells ArtsHub flatly: ‘To help meet this target, the Art Gallery needs to reduce its structure and functions.’
With regard to structure, a Change Management Plan was tabled on 12 August, outlining the cutbacks. It states: ‘It is anticipated that there will be a reduction of 51 ongoing non-PSSE roles because of the proposed restructure.’
Deeper into the plan, of the 382 current roles at the Art Gallery, 310.9 are filled by ongoing employees, as distinct from temporary or fixed-term positions. It is understood this is the pool from which the staff cuts will be made.
Numbers aside, transparency around the internal process is minimal. Page says that is because it is, ‘inappropriate to make additional comments or speculate on the final structure while the staff consultation process is ongoing.’
Further muddying the situation and causing anxiety, the Change Management Plan was tabled with a three-week consultation period (12 August – 2 September), and yet the process is already underway. One of the first jobs to topple was the Gallery’s Director Program Delivery.
Page explains: ‘As part of the change process, which affects all levels of the organisational structure, the position of Director Program Delivery was formally removed, reducing the executive team from five to four, including myself.’
