Gallerist Paula Cooper has announced a succession plan for her storied New York gallery. The dealer, who recently turned eighty-three, revealed that she has promoted four longtime employees, who will run the gallery together. Steve Henry, who has since 1998 served as the gallery’s director, will become senior partner, while Lucas Cooper, the dealer’s son and a gallery employee since 2013, will take on the role of managing partner. Anthony Allen, who joined Paula Cooper Gallery in 2000, and Alexis Johnson, a recently returned staff member who was employed at the gallery from 2010 to 2016, are to be partners. Collectively, the four possess a combined sixty years of experience.

“It is with great enthusiasm that I welcome these four remarkable individuals as my partners,” Cooper said in a statement. “Their dedication and that of the staff, community of professionals, and collectors with whom we collaborate has made clear that there is a place for a focused, artist-driven gallery like ours—even in an art world that has continued to change dramatically since we opened our doors in 1968.”

Cooper has been at the forefront of change in the industry since the gallery moved from Soho to Chelsea in 1996 and, this year, opened its first outpost outside of New York, in Palm Beach, Florida. Henry, who spearheaded the space, will split his time between the two cities.

Cooper still isn’t retiring, but her succession plan will allow her to gradually hand over some of the day-to-day responsibilities of running the business, a process that has already begun. Passing the reins of a long-running art business can prove challenging, as Janelle Reiring and Helene Winer recently noted in their announcement about the closure of their 40-year-old Chelsea gallery Metro Pictures at the end of 2021. But Cooper is confident her hand-picked successors will be able to build on her success. “Lucas, Steve, Anthony, and Alexis understand what has made this gallery possible for 50 years,” she said. “They not only understand the culture, but also how to evolve in the next chapter.”