The Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco (CJM) announced its temporary closure in a press release dated November 13, 2024. Located in the Yerba Buena neighborhood, where many museums are located, the CJM will close to the public on December 15, 2024 for a period of one year minimum. The current temporary exhibitions, “The California Jewish Open,” “Nicki Green: Firmament” and “Looted,” will end sooner than expected. Works on loan will be returned to the artists and the various owners.
The closure should allow the museum to stabilize its finances, facing unprecedented financial difficulties. The CJM has recorded a 50% drop in attendance since reopening after the Covid-19 pandemic. Museum revenues have also fallen by 50%, said Kerry King, the museum’s director of San Francisco Chronicle. “During the closure, the museum will evaluate its financial framework and engage in organizational planning and assessment, with the goal of becoming a more resilient organization”she added. The museum will, however, continue to rent its rooms for private events, an important source of income for it.
Founded in 1984, the Jewish Contemporary Museum originally occupied a small space in San Francisco. The museum today consists of two buildings: a former 19th century power station in red brick and a contemporary building in blue metal designed in 2008 by the American architect Daniel Libeskind. The museum organizes exhibitions and educational programs around contemporary Jewish culture. Without a permanent collection, it collaborates with other cultural institutions to organize its temporary exhibitions.
The current temporary exhibition “California Jewish Open”, open to Jewish artists from the region, polarizes exhibitors around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza. Among the 63 works on display, the museum included works by pro-Palestinian Jewish artists, as well as works by Jewish visual artists committed to Israel. Six pieces were removed by pro-Palestinian artists, who believe the museum has taken a pro-Israeli stance in the conflict. These artists, members of the group “California Jewish Artists for Palestine”, refuse to exhibit their works alongside others adopting divergent political positions. The withdrawal of the works was decided in consultation with the exhibition curators, who left wall spaces deliberately empty with the labels of the withdrawn works.
