Paul Crawford, the much-loved curator of the Penticton Art Gallery, has been laid off for 11 weeks, The Herald has learned.<\/p>\n
A source requesting anonymity told The Herald that the layoff was a financial decision. The financial challenges of the gallery were brought to public light in 2023 after city council voted against the gallery\u2019s full grant request of $145,000.<\/p>\n
Crawford and his treasurer faced intense questioning for more than an hour at a city council meeting.<\/p>\n
Crawford, who has been with the gallery since 2008, is responsible for popular exhibitions including Bob Ross, Robert Bateman, a Syrian art display and the current show, David Spriggs First Wave.<\/p>\n
The Ross show was one of the few events that brought visitors to Penticton during the summer of COVID-19.<\/p>\n
Crawford was also instrumental in founding Unite the Arts with his partner Julie Fowler, held annually each spring.<\/p>\n
In 2021, Crawford received the city\u2019s highest honour — the Business Leader of the Year from the Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n
In a press release sent Friday, president Claude Roberto said that Karen Walls, the Gallery Gift Shop Coordinator, has also been placed on leave with no recall date.<\/p>\n
“Cost saving measures are being taken due to the financial deficit accrued, making these actions unavoidable,” Roberto wrote in a press release.<\/p>\n
“It is the hope of the Board that by pausing the employment of our highest-paid position, additional time can be afforded to perform an in-depth internal evaluation and the consideration of an operational realignment.”<\/p>\n
Additionally, the gallery will now be open for only four days a week, Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. All programming will be delivered as scheduled.<\/p>\n
“We must be very clear, the Gallery is facing a time of dire hardship,” Roberto said. “The Board is making every effort to keep the Gallery open. With roots stretching back to the 1950s, we are dedicated to maintaining a robust and accessible art gallery in Penticton. Our Impact Statement – to enrich lives by sharing opportunities for artistic expression, creative connections, and cultural impact – leads our actions as the Board of Directors.”<\/p>\n
Crawford has declined The Herald\u2019s request for a comment.<\/p>\n
A new board was elected on May 28 and included: Juliana Buitenhuis, Kayla Cazes, Ann Doyon, Rhonda Radench, Blair Raimondo, Frank Regehr, Roberto, Ankit Sachdeva, Ret Tinning, Banu Tulumen and Leslie Whatmough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Crawford, the much-loved curator of the Penticton Art Gallery, has been laid off for 11 weeks, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75,10400,54057],"class_list":["post-91989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-life","tag-wine_and_dine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}