Overview
- On November 12, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago eliminated three of five positions at the Video Data Bank, including director Tom Colley.
- SAIC confirmed wider retrenchment across the institution, with 20 layoffs in total, as a union representative said six of those were union roles.
- Administrators said the Video Data Bank will continue, asserting staffing reductions are necessary to maintain and distribute the collection despite budget pressures.
- Colley and former leaders said decisions were made without VDB staff input and reported there will be no new acquisitions or programming.
- The VDB website now lists two remaining staff, and an artist-run group, VDB Forever, said librarian Melanie Emerson is facilitating an evolving effort to outline next steps.