Karen Gillenwater first started working at the Speed Art Museum in the early 2000s. After some time away from the museum, she came back to further the Speed’s mission: “to invite everyone to celebrate art forever.”
“I really felt a draw to move back to focusing on education and connecting with communities, and saw the positive changes happening at the Speed through a lot of the transparency and community work and just reinvention of a lot of programming,” she said.
In her role as director of Learning, Engagement and Belonging (LEB) over the past three years, Gillenwater and her team served nearly 20,000 people across programming for marginalized communities, Kentuckiana schools of all levels and adult artists.
All their programming came to an abrupt halt this month when the Speed announced it will close the entire LEB department.
In gutting its education department, the Speed terminated nine employees, some without a severance package. With the team’s termination, some former employees are wondering how the museum will continue its community outreach.
This comes just as the Speed prepares to unveil the Elizabeth P. and Frederick K. Cressman Art Park, a $22 million project that will “create a vibrant community hub,” according to a news release. The Art Park opens on Wednesday.
‘Unsustainable growth’
In a statement from the Speed on Sept. 19, museum leadership said they are “navigating a challenging financial period.”
After the pandemic, the Speed increased its number of employees by 68%, according to communications director Kim Butterweck. By 2022, the museum developed a five-year strategic plan focused “on expanding opportunities for students, families, lifelong learners, and other audiences, and on strengthening the overall guest experience.”
In 2023, Elizabeth Colón Nelson started working toward that goal as the associate director of community belonging for LEB.
“My role was to make sure that folks who had not always felt like they could walk in the front door [could],” Colón Nelson said. “…to reach out, to engage, to talk with folks, to create programming, community days [and] community events.”
Betsy Huggins was hired as associate director of school engagement on the team.
“When I joined the Speed, it felt like the organization was on very solid footing, that the organization was in a growth period,” she said.
Huggins managed all the K-12 programs including school tours and field trips. She was also responsible for Art Detectives, an outreach program that served about 2,000 students annually in the Floyd County school district.
As fiscal year 2025-2026 approached, museum leadership deemed its growth “unsustainable” amidst current economic conditions, Butterweck said. The board of trustees unanimously approved a steep budget reduction from $12.3 million to $8.7 million for the upcoming fiscal year.
In response, the LEB department slashed about 12% of its budget, Colón Nelson said. This included funding for expenditures like art supplies, paying artists for their workshops and expanding other programs.
“Our team still only spent 33% of our budget at six months in because we heard, ‘Hey, this is a tight time for the current administration,’” Colón Nelson said.
‘It felt like a whiplash’
After nearly three years, the Learning, Engagement and Belonging team was proud of its progress, Colón Nelson said. The department had increased participation in programs by 194%, overall programming increased 120% and community partnerships increased 150%.
However, in the recent joint statement, museum leadership said “rapid growth has not translated to an increase in revenue.”
The move to cut LEB “was a difficult one,” Butterweck said, and the Speed had to prioritize “non-negotiable” departments such as 24/7 security, building maintenance and collection upkeep.
On Sept. 8, all nine LEB employees were informed of their termination. The team had expected a marketing meeting that afternoon, Huggins said.
“[The employees] were deceptively believing that they were entering into our regularly scheduled marketing meeting,” Huggins said. “And instead, [we] were told by HR and the interim executive director that our department was being closed.”
In June, the museum’s director, Raphaela Platow, announced she would not extend her contact after four years in the role. The board of trustees is currently searching for a permanent executive director.
According to the joint statement, the Speed and UAW negotiated a severance package for employees through the end of October.
Colón Nelson explained she is worried about her future. The mother of two young children is the sole income earner in her household.
“It feels particularly cruel in the world, that instead of expanding and connecting and reaching out, we’re closing each other down and making it harder just to live,” she said tearfully. “So it’s really painful to think I would have to leave this city that I love.”
The severance package did not apply to all employees. Gillenwater and Huggins said they were not in the union, and as of this week, neither has reached a severance agreement with the Speed.
For Gillenwater, similar jobs in her field are sparse.
“I loved doing that work, and really want to continue doing that work, but there’s not a lot of opportunities out there, especially right now,” she said. “So it’s a philosophy switch and conversation to see: Is there something else I do?”
Huggins was terminated amidst her father’s medical emergencies and a heart condition that sent him to the hospital for nearly a week.
“I’ve gotten so much support from the team in dealing with my family,” Huggins said.
While Huggins said she worries about her former team members, she said she is more concerned about the community she served.
For example, this will be the first time the Speed will not host a Día de Los Muertos celebration with community partners since the LEB team formed.
According to Butterweck, all school tours will be paused indefinitely.
The cuts also halt community days in support of marginalized communities, the 55-and-older artist workshop, in-school art workshops and programs with local libraries, Colón Nelson said.
“It was not about revenue. It was about the work of creating, learning, engagement and belonging,” Colón Nelson said. “This team, in just two years time, built a reputation with the community that said, ‘We will show up for you and with you.’”
Butterweck said education and community engagement is not limited to one department at the Speed.
“While the structure of our work is evolving, our commitment to creating meaningful opportunities for learning, connection, and belonging through art has not changed,” she said. “We must adapt to economic realities to ensure the Museum continues to serve the Commonwealth for the next 100 years.”
But Gillenwater said she worries about how the Speed will bridge the gap between itself and underserved communities without her team.
“That work isn’t achievable through an invitation alone,” she said. “People only celebrate things that are personally meaningful to them, and a critical part of figuring that out and finding out how the speed can successfully serve the community is…hearing about what they care about, hearing about what their needs actually are and then supporting their journey to discover how art can help meet those needs.”
Butterweck said the museum’s curatorial department is in the process of “reimagining the ways to engage the entire community with the Museum’s permanent collection, special exhibitions, and Cinema offerings.”
Editor’s note: The Speed Art Museum is an underwriter of Louisville Public Media.