Affordable Art Fair
The Affordable Art Fair is an international, contemporary art fair held in different cities around the world.
Overview
First launched in Battersea Park, London, England, in 1999, Affordable Art Fairs now take place in Hampstead (London), Bristol, New York, Milan, Maastricht, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Brussels, Toronto, and Hamburg. The fairs take place annually – with the exception of Singapore, Battersea and New York, which hold spring and autumn editions – and run across four days. Affordable Art Fairs all run talks programmes and artist-led workshops, and most provide art-based activities for children too.
Founded by Will Ramsay (founder of PULSE, co-founder of the Hong Kong art fair Art HK, and co-owner of India Art Fair[1])[2] the Affordable Art Fair was organised as an alternative to the traditional gallery scene. With its price ceiling of £5,000/€6,000/$10,000, the fair aims to appeal to and make art accessible for all.
Globally over 1.6 million people have visited an Affordable Art Fair and bought over £235/€295/$367 million of art.[3]
History
The first fair launched in Battersea Park in London in October 1999, where 10,000 visitors attended the event and almost £1 million worth of art was sold[4] That figure just about tripled by the fair’s third edition,[4] and now, up to 22,500 people go to each London fair to see the art exhibited by over 120 British and international galleries.
The Affordable Art Fair then launched a second event in Battersea Park to showcase different artists from the October event. In the same year, a fair was established in Bristol. Taking place in September, it attracts around 6,500 visitors over three days.
In 2002, the Affordable Art Fair launched a fair in New York, which has grown to attract audiences of over 17,500 people per fair.
In 2007, the company began to expand within Europe, starting with the launch of a fair in Amsterdam.[5] Affordable Art Fairs now take place around the world, with fairs in numerous cities spread across four continents. 2012 saw the Affordable Art Fair launch in five new cities and it launched in Hong Kong in 2013. [6] In 2014, for the fourth year in a row, the Affordable Art Fair was voted a CoolBrand[7] in the UK, alongside other brands such as Apple, Nikon, Prada and Sony Music as nominated by the British public and the CoolBrands Expert Council.
Facts
- Affordable Art Fair Battersea Autumn Edition 2014
- Date held: 13–16 March 2014
- Date established: March 2001
- 22,500 visitors attended
- 111 galleries exhibited
- £4.3 million worth of art sold
- Affordable Art Fair New York City Spring Edition 2015
- Date held: 3–6 April 2014
- Date established: 2001
- 78 galleries exhibited
- 17,500 visitors attended
- £4 million worth of art sold
- Broke both its sales and attendance records
- Affordable Art Fair Brussels 2014
- Date held: 7–10 February 2014
- Date established: 2009
- 90 galleries exhibited
- 14,000 visitors attended
- £2.2 million worth of art sold
- Affordable Art Fair Bristol 2014
- Date held: 19–21 September 2014
- Date established: May 2001
- 50 galleries exhibited
- 6,500 visitors attended
- £660,000 worth of art sold
See also
References
- ↑ India Art Fair, India.
- ↑ David Franchi "The Affordable Art Fair 2012 in London" Demotix, March 16, 2012
- ↑ "Affordable Art Fair gets even more affordable". Croydon Guardian, October 3, 2012.
- 1 2 Mike Collett-White, "Affordable art fair seeks to lure new buyers". Reuters, October 19, 2007.
- ↑ "Affordable Art Fair – Amsterdam – Contemporary Art Fair" Happy Hotelier, October 29, 2008
- ↑ Information about Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong 2013 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-18.
- ↑ "Affordable Art Fair" Archived October 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.. CoolBrands, UK, 2012.