POST BY PADDY JOHNSON
Sara Harari, assistant director, and Mike Weiss. Image via: Art and Living
Mike Weiss Gallery responds to former employee Meghann Snow! Weiss discusses a mix of concerns with regard to Snow’s dismissal ranging from competency and demeanor, to far less salient complaints such as failure to disclose her career as an artist.
I’ve posted Mike Weiss Gallery’s response below so readers will have a better sense of the company’s position, but reiterate my sentiment that it is far from satisfactory. Although she does not say so explicitly, Snow leaves the suggestion that being required to tolerate personal inspection may constitute quid pro quo harassment.
The question is, why didn’t gallery owner Mike Weiss address Meghann Snow’s account of her physical “inspection” prior to her firing? According to Snow, Weiss took her into a back room and told her “I own this gallery and I have the right to inspect you.” No, he doesn’t, and the gallery’s response in yesterday’s comment section of the blog does not address this issue at all.
Given the amount of attention this issue has received, Mike Weiss Gallery would like to respectfully respond to the blog post written by Meghann Snow. This all comes as a surprise to us being that we received an email from Ms. Snow in which she thanked us for our time and stated that she respected our decision.
When Ms. Snow interviewed for the position as Registrar she dressed the part as would be required of a high profile gallery and was enthusiastic about taking initiative for the position; she did after all get the job over a number of highly qualified and equally enthusiastic applicants. Upon arriving at the gallery for her first two days of training, Ms. Snow did not bring the same excitement for the position she had expressed in her interview and in fact revealed herself to be an inexperienced registrar, unable to even properly complete a shipping order or email on her own. It may be true that Ms. Snow is an accomplished ballet dancer and recipient of Deans List awards but that has hardly enriched her skills as a professional registrar.
Understandably, being appropriately dressed is of course a consideration of a ground floor gallery in Chelsea where the employees are in view of the visitors and clients. However, Ms. Snow has failed to mention in her blog post that it was her timidity taking on the responsibilities of the position that requires an enormous amount of energy, self motivation and initiative, which ultimately led to her being asked not to come back.
Ms. Snow is an artist, a fact decidedly omitted in her interview, and if this blog post has increased the traffic to her own website I suppose she finds justification in her efforts to tarnish the reputation of a respected gallery.
