The Modern Jewish Museum (CJM) has determined to promote its Daniel Libeskind-designed constructing in downtown San Francisco. The museum had already been closed since December 2024, when it shut down and laid off 80% of its employees, citing low attendance and restricted assist for the reason that Covid-19 pandemic. The CJM intends to make use of proceeds from the sale to “guarantee a sustainable and impactful future for the museum”, in response to a press launch asserting its intentions.
“As we enter our subsequent chapter, each determination is guided by our dedication to remaining a vital a part of the cultural cloth of the Bay Space for generations to return,” Kerry King, the CJM’s govt director, stated in an announcement. “Over the previous yr, we’ve strengthened the CJM each financially and structurally, positioning the establishment for a daring and lasting future. Whereas our bodily dwelling might evolve, our dedication to serving as a vital hub for artwork, tradition and Jewish life stays unwavering.”
The museum, based in 1984, is a non-collecting establishment centered on up to date Jewish artwork and tradition. It inaugurated its 63,000-sq.-ft dwelling in 2008, spending $47m to remodel a landmark 1907 energy substation. The mission’s award-winning architect helps the upcoming sale.
“It has been each an honour and a profound accountability to form a constructing for this neighborhood—one which transforms a historic energy station into a brand new architectural expression of sunshine, type and public life,” Libeskind stated in an announcement. “Because the Modern Jewish Museum enters its subsequent chapter, it’s my hope that the constructing continues to encourage all who encounter it, serving as a long-lasting testomony to Jewish life in San Francisco and the creativity and cultural alternate it was conceived to foster.”
Based on Laura Waxmann and J.Ok. Dineen of the San Francisco Chronicle, native legislation requires that the landmark constructing proceed for use for cultural or institutional functions. It can’t be transformed into workplaces, housing or a resort, vastly proscribing the potential purchaser in an already struggling downtown cultural panorama. “That is our most important asset,” King informed the Chronicle. “We have to monetise it to have a future.” The CJM at the moment has about $13.5m in debt—the museum remains to be paying off the mortgage it used to assemble the very constructing it’s now making an attempt to promote.
Though the CJM has not introduced its precise intentions for the longer term—maybe it should observe the Institute of Modern Artwork San Francisco’s lead and develop into a nomadic museum—it’s decidedly not winding down programming. In actual fact, the museum intends to rent a brand new curator and collaborate on exhibitions and occasions with different cultural organisations. Its areas may also be accessible to hire out for personal occasions via January 2027. The true-estate agency Newmark is dealing with the advertising and sale of the property.
