Sometimes the goings-on the the art world are absolutely mystifying — especially to outsiders. Here’s a little example, from the world of art fairs.
A press release popped into my emailbox the other day announcing that David and Lee Ann Lester, owners and organizers of several art and antique fairs, were launching a new marketing initiative to “bring targeted American designers and collectors to Olympia in June 2010.”
The Lesters’ organization, International Fine Art Expositions, will pick up the tab for 30 to 50 Americans to travel to the fair (and their hotels as well, as implied in the press release).
The Lesters took over co-management of this fair last summer, partly to raise its standing and profile, comparable — Mr. Lester boasted in an article in The Art Newspaper — to Maastricht. He’s rebranding it as the London International Fine Art Fair at Olympia; you can see the list of exhibitors (and costs of exhibiting, in the application) here.
But would you not think that people who are able to buy the arts on offer at a Maastricht-like fair would also be able to pay their own way there? Would they want to apply — compete even — for free travel? Or maybe the Lesters will simply extend invitations to the chosen ones. Either way, how would fair-goers feel if they weren’t chosen — like too small fish?
Yeah, I know Las Vegas operates, and maybe that’s the theory here — but somehow this doesn’t feel right at a time when so many arts groups, not to mention regular people, are struggling.
Note to self: lighten up!
Photo: Courtesy London International Fine Art Fair