There’s only a few weeks left to see the Brooklyn Museum‘s “Agitprop!” and Tom Sachs “Boombox” shows, but don’t plan on crossing either of them off your to-see list this weekend—the museum will be closed due to an air conditioning outage.
The timing is particularly bad considering the city’s current heat wave, where temperatures climbed into the 90s this week.
The institution issued the following statement on social media channels and via email:
Because of an air-conditioning outage, the Brooklyn Museum will be closed tomorrow, Friday, July 8 through Sunday, July 10. Our team is working around the clock to replace the damaged systems during this time. All museum collections are being constantly monitored and sensitive materials are being moved to climate controlled spaces.
A spokeswoman told the New York Times that “transformer malfunctioned and destroyed cables” connected to the air conditioning equipment. A $63 million renovation completed in 2004 installed air conditioning throughout much of the building.
One casualty of the air conditioning outage is the new Brooklyn Community Forum on Anti-Gentrification and Displacement, originally scheduled for Sunday, July 10. The museum had previously come under fire from activists (and artnet News national art critic Ben Davis) for hosting the 6th Annual Brooklyn Real Estate Summit, when gentrification is a seemingly-unstoppable force in the increasingly-expensive borough. This weekend’s event will be rescheduled for a future date.
Image of the Brooklyn Museum used to advertising the 6th Brooklyn Real Estate Summit
Image: via conference website
The facilities issue are not the only problems the museum has had of late: In May, director Anne Pasternak, faced with a $3 million budget deficit, began offering staff buyouts.
Following repairs, the museum plans to reopen on Wednesday, July 13.