PR Firm Cultural Counsel to Restructure with Founder Adam Abdalla Transitioning to New Role

Cultural Counsel, an art publicity powerhouse since 2015 with a national reach that has counted top-flight museums, galleries, and foundations in its client list, is restructuring its operations, sources tell ARTnews—starting with leadership. Adam Abdalla, the firm’s founder and most visible figure, will transition to a new role, with senior vice president Marcella Zimmerman assuming public-facing affairs.

In a statement to ARTnews on Wednesday, Abdalla, who will retain ownership of the company, said he is “no longer involved with day to day account management” at Cultural Counsel, though he characterized his role at the firm since the beginning as being more focused on the company’s big picture. He added that he has launched six projects this past summer and that he has “had conversations with my team identifying a managerial management plan that have been going on since last spring. The announcement of a new leader of CC is imminent, and the transition is underway.” As part of this change, Abdalla said he is now “focused on the development of new intellectual properties, including sports and art projects, movie production, and documentary work for television.”

The restructuring follows a prolonged staff shakeup and quiet exodus of senior leadership from the firm. Former SVP Hunter Braithwaite, who joined the firm 10 years ago, left in January; former SVP Ed Winstead, who began in 2016, left last month. Twin brothers and account executives Evan and André Lenox-Samour have departed to form their own firm, Samour Relations, while fellow senior account executive Liza Stoner joined DADA Goldberg in August.

At its peak following the post-Covid hiring boom, the firm counted just over 30 employees, according to multiple sources close to the operation. Those sources said that Cultural Counsel’s workforce now hovers around 18. On Monday, the firm posted job listings for five positions on the NYFA Classified Listings board, seeking a new vice president, PR director, account executive, account coordinator, and intern.

In a report titled How Unhealthy Is Arts PR? published this month, art market columnist Tim Schneider reported that Cultural Counsel, which he identified as the smallest of the art world’s four leading PR art firms, had 16 account executives as of September 10 “after multiple high-ranking officials exited the agency this year amid turbulence.”

Some turnover is to be expected in any business built on loyalty: Publicity is a person-to-person industry, and clients often follow the publicist they trust—or find a firm that better meets their needs. At art PR firms, the turnover is often high, especially at junior levels, with account executives typically switching from one firm to another after a few years. But the changes at Cultural Counsel have been more dramatic than is typical. Former Cultural Counsel director Caterina Berardi left in July to launch her own agency, Officina, bringing the family foundation of ARTnews Top 200 collector Jordan Schnitzer with her.

Around the same time, the Abrons Arts Center in New York joined Alma Communications. A review of Cultural Counsel’s client list on its website also finds that several other clients still listed there—including the Armory Show, the Watermill Center, Hannah Traore, Poster House, and the Dallas Art Fair—have found new PR representation, all of which have been confirmed by ARTnews.

A Turn Toward Wrestling, Followed by Allegations of Misconduct

“I can confirm there is disappointment [within Cultural Counsel] with certain behaviors from leadership. Cultural Counsel has become a totally different operation,” a former Cultural Counsel staffer told ARTnews on the condition of anonymity. They suggested the change in the company’s culture was a result of its shift in focus from visual art to wrestling, which has been spearheaded by its founder.

Abdalla is a familiar name in professional wrestling circles. He’s the former booker and co-owner of Jersey Championship Wrestling, the New Jersey promotion that became Game Changer Wrestling in 2015 and was later revived as a sister promotion to GCW; the founder of Orange Crush, a journal focused on the intersection of art and wrestling; and the driving force behind wrestling’s push into the art world.

Abdalla founded Orange Crush in 2020, five years after starting Cultural Counsel, to explore the intersection of art and wrestling. In December 2024, Orange Crush presented professional wrestler and painter Lee Moriarty’s work at NADA Miami. (The New Art Dealers Alliance is a current and longtime client of Cultural Counsel; Abdalla currently sits on the nonprofit’s board, according to its website.) That was Moriarty’s first showing as a visual artist; with Abdalla’s help, Moriarty subsequently made his gallery debut with “Balance,” a solo exhibition curated by Abdalla at Los Angeles’s Night Gallery, a onetime client of Cultural Counsel, in September 2025.

In June 2026, Abdalla launched PRODUCE, a wrestling and live-entertainment platform presented by Orange Crush. Its debut event, “PRODUCE: Volume 1—The Octopus,” took place at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn on June 29, with Jonathan Gresham as co-producer and headliner of the SUPERFIGHT against Fuminori Abe.

Abdalla is also credited as the co-curator of “House Show,” a 5,000-plus-square-foot survey of the sport set to open in November 2027 at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, in Florida; Cultural Counsel announced the exhibition as early as September 2025.

But Abdalla’s growing profile has allegedly coincided with internal tensions over how the firm allocates its attention and resources.

“The people [who] worked there‚—[who] are still working there—are watching a sad transition from Cultural Counsel’s original intent to do cutting-edge work with integrity,” the former staffer told ARTnews.

In August, Abdalla faced public allegations of unprofessional behavior and, separately, an allegation of predatory behavior, both of which surfaced on X and which he has denied. Through the X account for Orange Crush on August 14, Abdalla responded to what he described as “alleged, damning incidents,” claiming that the allegations “veered into criminal defamation.” (The allegations were first covered by wrestling-focused publications, including eWrestlingNews.)

On August 4, Joey Janela, a current GCW wrestling talent, announced on X his withdrawal as curator from an event for Produce Wrestling, scheduled for September 13 in Jersey City. He followed with an announcement that he ended his partnership with Produce. In replies to his X post, Janela attributed his withdrawal from the event to a breakdown in communication with Abdalla, describing an argument over having to rebook a flight that he characterized as an excessive display of anger on Abdalla’s part.

On August 4, the Orange Crush account, seemingly in response to Janela’s claims, posted that “[s]ome people don’t like us because we have a sharp tongue, short fuse and speak truth to power.” A follow-up post, written in first person, characterized the ending of Janela and Abdalla’s affiliation as involving “a couple of arguments.” A post from the Orange Crush account also accused Janela of “plotting and colluding with a former friend / acquaintance to manufacture a story about [his] behavior.”

In his statement to ARTnews this week, Abdalla said, “The comments made by Janela are untrue,” and that “[t]his matter is with my attorneys and we are pursuing justice to the fullest extent of the law.”

On August 14, Fawn Michaels, a wrestling fan and DJ based in Portland, Oregon, accused Abdalla on X of “unsafe” and “predatory” behavior toward women wrestlers and fans, including herself. “Baiting me with gigs he knows I’d want to host or participate in, in hopes of gaining more access to me,” she wrote. Michaels further alleged that Abdalla was “intermittently trying to coerce me into having sex or servicing him.”

Michaels told ARTnews that she met Abdalla in May 2025 at Portland’s Union Jacks, where she worked. According to Michaels, Abdalla expressed interest in booking her for his shows and framed their relationship as a professional one, offering access to wrestling events and connections within the industry that she was eager for as an aspiring promoter. “We started our communication based on the fact that he wanted to utilize me for the company in several ways,” she said.

Michaels said that Abdalla introduced a sexual element into their interactions almost immediately, which she did not reciprocate, and that, over time, she came to feel that professional opportunities and access to the wrestling industry were contingent on tolerating his advances. In a series of posts on X, which have since been deleted, Michaels shared what appeared to be texts with Abdalla in which he requested a sexual favor. Abdalla denied all allegations made by Michaels, stating: “The things that Fawn Michaels said are provably false.”

It is unclear whether the allegations have affected the planned exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, in Florida. Adballa confirmed that he is still a cocurator of the exhibition. ARTnews has contacted the museum but did not hear back by press time.