Balboa Park is well known for its major arts institutions.
But those institutions and arts organizations across San Diego County are struggling with funding in recent years.
It has led to layoffs at both the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) and the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego (ICA) over the past few months.
“I didn't know it would end like this when I first started,” said former ICA visitor experience representative Dianna Elizardo.
They were among the ICA staff who were let go between late July and mid-August. ICA’s management announced they reduced its staff by 42% last month.
“I think it really boils down to financial challenges which I really think comes down to financial mismanagement,” said former ICA Curator Jordan Karney Chaim.
Karney Chaim and Elizardo spoke to KPBS outside the ICA’s Balboa Park campus Wednesday. They stood alongside their other former colleagues, Sarah Trujillo-Porter and Katrina Land.
The ICA board of directors said there were previously 21 staff members across their two campuses in Encinitas and San Diego.
The organization formed in spring 2021 when the San Diego Art Institute and the Lux Art Institute announced their merger.
“Every year our resources dwindled. The exhibition budget was cut in half nearly every year since I started,” Karney Chaim said.
The four former ICA employees said they are part of the group called “Current and Former Staff of the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego.”
That group sent an email to KPBS alleging financial mismanagement left the ICA “unable to meet payroll, maintain staffing, or sustain its public-facing operations.”
They provided documentation pointing to the organization’s Form 990 tax filings.
KPBS reviewed those forms and saw there was a $221,000 budget deficit in 2023. It more than doubled in 2024 to over $448,000.
“We really wanted to make sure that someone is being held accountable whether that's the board of directors or the … executive director,” former ICA Director of Operations Trujillo-Porter said.
ICA made other recent changes due to its financial situation.
The organization temporarily closed its central Balboa Park campus to the general public. That means exhibitions like Cat Gunn’s ‘if only by the light of a new moon’ ended weeks earlier than planned, and other planned exhibitions for this year will not happen.
ICA executive director Andrew Utt was not available for comment.
The ICA Board provided KPBS a statement addressing an Aug. 18 letter from current staff expressing “no confidence” in Utt’s leadership.
That letter called for an urgent leadership transition and a formal audit of the most recent fiscal year.
“We have engaged outside counsel and begun a review of our finances and governance,” the ICA Board statement said in part. “The board takes the concerns raised seriously and is not commenting further while the review is underway. We expect to be in a position to share more later this month.”
Just across Balboa Park's Plaza de Panama, the SDMA recently cut its workforce too.
They laid off 11 staff members in August. Their staff now sits at 118 employees.
“... the difficult decision by the board of trustees was deemed necessary in the face of the ongoing funding downturn,” said SDMA’s Chief Operating Officer Kari Kovach in a statement.
She said SDMA is not alone in this challenging arts funding environment.
“Similar reductions have become necessary across a broad swath of arts organizations and museums in the U.S. as institutions adjust to new realities,” Kovach said. “SDMA is confident in its ability to continue operating successfully and to remain financially secure.”
For now, the group of former ICA staff said they’re reassessing their careers and job hunting.
They said with arts funding shortfalls in recent years, it’s time to reimagine how to build a lasting ecosystem for the arts in San Diego.
“We need to be thinking about people who are the foundation — and that's artists, that's art workers and the spaces that are open every day to the public free of charge that are keeping art in San Diego,” Karney Chaim said.
