A period of turmoil at the newly rechristened Philadelphia Museum of Art continued on this week as two more senior staffers are set to resign from their posts.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that chief of staff Maggie Fairs and CFO Valerie McDuffie will both vacate their posts. Fairs is expected to leave by the end of February while McDuffie’s final day will be Friday.
Fairs was appointed to her post by Sasha Suda, who was fired in November from her post as director and CEO for an unspecified “cause.” Suda later sued the museum, claiming that she had been wrongfully terminated; a Pennsylvania judge recently ordered that her lawsuit enter arbitration.
The museum later claimed that Suda was fired because she had misappropriated funds toward herself, inflaming ties with certain board members. Suda has claimed this was already authorized by the board.
Under her short tenure, the museum rebranded itself as the Philadelphia Art Museum, leading some to parody the museum’s new acronym as PhArt. Some board members claimed that Suda had not notified them of the plan to rebrand the institution in advance.
In January, the marketing chief who led the rebrand effort resigned. Afterward, the museum undid the controversial rebrand; it has now returned to its old name.
Daniel H. Weiss, who took over as the museum’s leader following Suda’s ouster, previously stated that the museum is facing a deficit, noting, “It is not sustainable and we need to fix it. In order to do that, we need to take a larger look at the organization and build a healthy model.” It wasn’t clear whether this month’s departures were in any way related.
In a comment to the Inquirer, a museum spokesperson confirmed that an “organizational review” is being conducted, with the possibility that future changes would follow.
