Amid Financial Turmoil, Brooklyn Museum Quietly Suspends First Saturdays Program

In the wake of their widely reported financial difficulties, the Brooklyn Museum quietly announced last week that its popular First Saturdays events have been canceled for March and April. 

Earlier this month,  the New York Times reported on a letter sent by Anne Pasternak to staff on February 7, in which the director of the museum said that there would be layoffs, pay cuts for management, and reductions in exhibitions to address a projected $10 million deficit. Per the Times, "weeknight events with low attendance or inconsistent funding would be canceled" in response to the deficit.

First Saturdays, however, is perhaps the museum's flagship event. Bank of America, the sponsor of ongoing and upcoming exhibitions at the museum, had been the lead sponsor of the monthly First Saturdays events, which are free and open to the public, since February 2023. That sponsorship appeared to end sometime toward the end of 2024, disappearing from the First Saturdays webpage by December. After the museum's 200th anniversary party in October, the First Saturdays events had been absent, but as late as February 10, 2025, the museum's website promised that First Saturdays would occur every month from February through June, as well as in August and October. (February's event did occur, and was sponsored by the clothing brand Kith.)

A worker at the Brooklyn Museum who asked to remain anonymous told Hell Gate that staff was first notified of the suspension of the March and April First Saturdays at the same February 7 all-staff meeting where leadership announced a recent round of layoffs. A few days later, the museum added some text to their First Saturdays webpage saying that the party will "return in May." There has been no other public announcement of the two-month cancellation.