Department head resignations rock Slovak National Gallery amid growing staff protest

The Slovak National Gallery (SNG) is in turmoil as its executive board – comprising the heads of four key departments – has tendered their resignations in a public letter to Slovakia’s Minister of Culture, Martina Šimkovičová, according to The Art Newspaper. 

The letter, signed also by Ľubica Orechovská, the SNG's director of exhibitions and expositions production, was issued on Tuesday (November 26), following a meeting with the gallery's newly appointed acting director general, Jaroslav Niňaj. 

In their resignation letter, the five senior staff members accused Niňaj of fostering a hostile work environment, describing their initial meeting with him as "full of intimidation, threats, and investigations." The letter went on to say that, under his leadership, the staff felt demotivated, unstable, and increasingly frustrated, such that they could no longer “do our job”. Their resignations are set to take effect next week.

Niňaj, a government appointee installed by the Ministry of Culture, marks the third leader in the role since the dismissal of long-serving director Alexandra Kusá in August. His predecessor, Miloš Timko, held the position for less than two months before stepping down amidst growing internal tensions.

The resignations come at a time of heightened unrest within Slovakia's cultural sector. The country's government, led by populist Prime Minister Robert Fico, has faced growing criticism over its handling of the SNG and other national cultural institutions. Protests erupted over the summer in response to the politically charged dismissals of Kusá and Matej Drlička, head of the Slovak National Theatre, which many perceived as an attempt to purge top cultural figures. Despite these protests, the government has continued its interventionist approach, with recent replacements at the Slovak National Museum and other cultural bodies.

The situation at the SNG escalated earlier in November when 177 employees threatened at a press conference held outside the gallery to resign en masse come January.

The staff voiced concerns over structural changes planned under Timko’s leadership, including what they describe as "targeted dismissals", with Timko planning to remove senior figures from their positions. These include Alexandra Kusá, who has continued to work at the SNG in her role as a curator. A detailed letter from the employees expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of transparency and warned that the planned changes could “paralyse” the institution. 

The employees demanded that “a new director general be appointed to head the SNG who can professionally and transparently create and maintain stable working conditions for his colleagues and all collaborators… A person who will preserve the good name of the institution and will make all decisions in the interest of the institution, not on the basis of expedient or personal motivations.”

The discontent within the SNG has already begun to ripple beyond the institution itself, with its major corporate sponsor, Tatra banka, publicly announcing its decision to postpone any future funding commitments, citing the "tense and unclear" situation at the gallery.