Overheated job markets are rebalancing, according to the employment-focused social media platform LinkedIn. Per a September report from the company, hiring in the US, the world’s largest economy, was down 3.6% in August compared to July, and remained down 23.8% year-over-year. Some 95% of industries experienced hiring declines in the US in August.

But those numbers contrast with the art gallery sector, where dealers are facing a real recruiting challenge notwithstanding a widely reported decline in sales. In fact, speaking to Dr. Clare McAndrew for the Art Basel und UBS Art Market Report 2023, art dealers said that ‘finding and keeping the right people’ is a ‘paramount concern,’ and they expect it will remain so over the next 5 years.

‘In general, despite a more conservative art market this year, it is still a candidates’ market, especially for senior salespeople and leaders across our industry,’ says Rachel Johnston, Commercial Director at Sophie Macpherson Ltd, a recruiting firm with offices in London, New York, and Los Angeles. More than half its business comes from galleries, including major players such as Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, and David Zwirner.

According to Johnston, several factors come into play. In addition to robust compensation and benefits packages, candidates are looking for a positive environment, where they can work alongside like-minded people. These factors are especially important since candidates know, in a competitive context, that their current employers are likely to make a counteroffer in order to keep them in-house.

Candidates are looking for opportunities where there is potential for growth, and Johnston points out that some large galleries have put in place professional development programs. Samanthe Rubell, President at Pace Gallery (New York, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Seoul) says that ‘probably more than any other large gallery, Pace is made up of people who started at the front desk or the rack room and rose to positions of leadership.’ Rubell herself started at the front desk 15 years ago.

‘We have initiated some new programs that help our staff chart out a career course within Pace,’  says Rubell. ‘This includes offering exposure to different departments and specialties at the gallery, which is incredibly fruitful and exciting to watch and partake in.’ The gallery has just under 300 employees; a little over 20% are at the director level or above.

Alexandre Gabriel, of Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro), which employs 47 staffers (eight of them directors, a similar percentage to Pace), says that the Latin American art market was once so small that galleries had to recruit from other fields. In Brazil, there were no university art history programs in his day, he says, and he came to the gallery from the film industry. But now the market has grown enough that gallery positions have become increasingly professionalized and specialized.

Since the pandemic, other galleries are trying to lure his staff away, he says, and galleries in Brazil, as elsewhere, are now recruiting academics, museum curators, and critics.

‘Bigger galleries here are hiring curators to serve as liaisons to artists and institutions,’ he says. His own gallery, not wanting to be reliant on only institutional exhibitions to create context for its artists, hired Tiago Mesquita, a former art critic and curator. ‘You need to produce serious content, even for Instagram and for newsletters,’ he says. ‘You can’t do that while you’re on your phone, selling art.’ (Pace employs three former curators: Mark Beasley, Andria Hickey, and Oliver Shultz.)

In terms of compensation, Gabriel points out, Brazil has strong labor laws. Galleries in other countries may have to do the math themselves to factor inflation into salaries, but in Brazil, a country that experienced hyperinflation in the past, costof living increases are federally mandated.

Speaking to Dr. Clare Mc Andrew for the Art Basel und UBS Art Market Report 2023, some dealers said they are thinking seriously about how they can maintain the increased flexibility that many workers came to expect during the pandemic. An event that spurred a wholesale rethinking of work-life balance has them looking for ways to require less travel for their staff, which is a challenge in a context of resumed exhibition and fair schedules.

Many galleries, Gabriel points out, now employ directors in places where they do business but do not have gallery locations; his gallery has hired directors who live in New York and Lisbon. This means less long-haul travel (including for himself) because when one of his artists has a museum exhibition opening in Europe, for example, the Lisbon-based director can accompany the artist to the opening.

Pace’s Rubell acknowledges that art galleries are demanding places to work. ‘The truth is that working in our field requires deep dedication: We work crazy hours and often find ourselves in very demanding situations. But our team is amazing; they are usually volunteering to travel, work weekends, or do whatever is necessary to get the job done. They are devoted to the collectors, to each other, and most of all to the artists.’ Avoiding burnout is, Rubell admits, a work in progress.

Younger, smaller galleries face different concerns from their larger, more established counterparts. Nicola Vassell Gallery (New York) was launched in 2021 by a former consultant and veteran of Deitch Projects and Pace. Having opened during the pandemic, Vassell hasn’t had to adapt previous policies to a post-pandemic world. ‘We’re building in the new world we were born into,’ she says. While she declines to reveal numbers, she says that her staff is small and nimble, and that she outsources some tasks to a public relations firm, for example.

Vassell approaches compensation with a philosophy of ethics as much as recruitment, she says.

‘I believe in fair compensation,’ she says. ‘Given inflation and the costs of living in New York, that threshold has shifted over the last couple of years. It’s important that everyone feels valued and taken care of.’

A small, newer employer has its own possibilities to offer to staff, she says, distinct from larger galleries: ‘They’re getting in at the ground level, so they have the opportunity to evaluate their future in view of that and what they hope to gain from the business.’

Brian Boucher is a writer and art market commentator based in New York City.

Published on October 10, 2023. 

You can access the Art Basel und UBS Art Market Report 2023 here

Caption for full-bleed image (from top to bottom) : 1. Installation view of Fred Eversley and Alteronce Gumby’s artworks in Nicola Vassell Gallery’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach 2021. 2. Artwork detail in Pace Gallery's booth at Art Basel 2022.