Several major St. Paul museums, closed by COVID-19 and robbed of their three biggest months of revenue, announced Tuesday that they will be laying off up to 80 percent of their staff in order to stretch their reserves.

“It was a tough meeting,” said Alison Brown, president and CEO of the Science Museum of Minnesota. She addressed her staff via a giant Google Hangouts session Tuesday morning, letting them know that 450 people would be temporarily laid off and the remaining 70 would have their hours reduced starting April 1.

“It was hard to deliver and I’m sure even harder for them to hear. I wish I could have delivered different news,” she said.

It was a similar situation at the Minnesota Children’s Museum where the nonprofit’s president Dianne Krizan announced that they would be furloughing 75 percent of their employees, effective March 29. She is giving herself a 75 percent pay cut as well.

“It’s heartbreaking to take these steps,” said Bob Ingrassia, vice president of external relations at the Children’s Museum. “It’s a sad day. There’s been a lot of tears.”

The Minnesota Historical Society said their employees are supported through the end of March. After that?

“We are feeling the impact on our budget as well and will need to make hard decisions soon, probably later this week,” said Jessica Kohen, spokesperson for the museum.

MAJOR LOSSES DURING PEAK TIME

The museums closed their doors March 13 as a precautionary measure against COVID-19, planning to re-evaluate in two weeks. But there’s nothing to indicate that the restrictions will lift any time soon.

Museum leaders have had to look further down the road.

“We did a planning exercise of being closed three months,” Ingrassia said. “The loss of revenue that comes to the museum through ticket sales and membership just from March through June would be $2 million. We needed to take serious actions immediately to preserve or extend our operating funds. If we continue at our current rate, we would run out of money soon.”

For most of the museums, the bulk of their revenue comes from three sources: visitors and memberships, lending exhibits to other museums and private donations.

The months of March, April and May are the busiest times for the St. Paul museums because of spring break and school field trips.

Not having that revenue wiped out 25 percent of the Children’s Museum’s budget, Ingrassia said.

“We haven’t even looked past June yet in terms of the financial impact,” he said. “Assuming we are able to reopen, we don’t know what the attendance would be.”

It’s an even greater loss for the Science Museum.

“Forty percent of our revenues come in through this period through the end of May,” Brown said. “This is a period when we really build up our cash reserves that take us through the rest of the year.”

OTHER REVENUE STREAMS DRY UP

Considering that all museums everywhere are suffering the same closures, exhibit rentals aren’t being used, taking out the second leg of the three-legged revenue stool.

“Visitor revenues are going to zero and we can’t do the work for the other museums or fulfill our grants,” Brown said. “That’s two-thirds of our revenue stream.”

That leaves private donations, which often come with strings attached to certain projects.

For example, if donations were designated for a certain exhibit, and the exhibit can’t open, the donation can’t be used elsewhere.

EXHIBITS ON HOLD

The closures also mean suspending exhibits that planners have been working on for months or years.

The Children’s Museum’s “Wallace and Gromit: Get Cracking!” and “Shaun the Sheep: Flock this Way!” exhibits were going to be open for the big crowds and then rented out to other museums.

The Science Museum has an exhibit called “Strandbeest” which combines art and science to create large “beasts” made of yellow tubes that “walk” with wind power. It was coming this summer, but is now on hold.

This April was also the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The Science Museum was planning to celebrate that in a big way, but has moved much of those interactions online.

The closures of these tourist destinations which draw more than a million people a year to the downtown, affect nearby businesses as well.

“All of our business sectors are intertwined,” said Joe Spencer, president of the St. Paul Downtown Alliance. “They’re all experiencing really similar economic impacts right now. Our visitor destinations are a huge part of our local and regional economy.”

ASKING THE COMMUNITY FOR SUPPORT

With its usual revenue streams drying up, the museums are looking at other options and putting out a general plea for help to the community.

They will explore loans and grants from disaster relief funds, request expedited payments on multi-year grants, seek contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations and encourage members to renew and others to sign up.

“It would be wonderful if people could reach out to their legislators and let them know all non-profits and all museums need to be thought of in terms of financial support,” Brown said.

The museums have put educational projects and programs online to help parents who are schooling at home and are hoping the community will return the support especially if the closures are extended or COVID-19 rebounds in the fall.

Spencer said he’s hearing from all sectors — private, business and public — a message of cooperation he described as “inspiring.”

“I keep hearing from business owners and public sector leaders, what can we do, what should we be doing, so we all pull through this together,” he said.

One bright side he’s seen is how the crisis has accelerated growth in online platforms and forced businesses and nonprofits to connect better with their customers online.

“The Science Museum is a great example,” he said. “They recently held a virtual tour of their paleontology department.”

The other silver lining has been the dedication of employees, Brown said.

She said she was moved during her Google Hangout meeting when employees asked if they could retain email access so they could keep working without pay.