Pace Gallery laid off furloughed employees.
Pace Gallery at 540 West 25th Street, New York. Photo by Thomas Loof, courtesy Pace Gallery.
Pace Gallery announced last week that it would lay off a number of employees who had previously been furloughed. The layoffs, numbering fewer than 20 employees according to the gallery, come months after the gallery furloughed a number of its New York staff. The initial furloughs had previously been reported at 25 employees, or roughly a quarter of the gallery’s staff, but according to ARTnews, that number may have been closer to 50 employees. Among those departing the gallery is senior director Simon Preston, who joined Pace less than a year ago, shortly after closing his influential namesake gallery on the Lower East Side. All remaining employees will return to work, according to the gallery.
Pace spokeswoman Amelia Redgrift told ARTnews:
The economic situation caused by the global pandemic means we cannot sustain our previous level of staffing. This decision was taken after every other measure to ensure we are prepared for an extended period of financial uncertainty and to protect as many jobs as possible in the long-term.
Pace Gallery received between $2 million and $5 million through the United States federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), according to ARTnews.
These are the latest series of cuts for a still-uncertain gallery world. Last week, Gavin Brown announced he would close his eponymous Harlem gallery and join Gladstone Gallery as a partner. In early July David Zwirner announced layoffs for nearly 40 employees across its New York, London, Paris, and Hong Kong locations, equivalent to a roughly 20 percent reduction in staff.
