Art Fairs Part One: Navigating the New Normal with Nicole Berry
By Holly Howe
Nicole Berry is the Executive Director of the Armory Art Fair in New York, a position she has held since 2017, having joined the fair the previous year as Deputy Director. She was previously Deputy Director of Expo Chicago from 2011-2016, as well as working as an art historian, art writer, curator, and art advisor for over a decade. Nicole spoke with our members about the challenges of running an art fair during Covid-19 times and the importance of collaboration.
The changing nature of the Armory Art Fair
When she joined Armory, one of her main goals was to move away from the two separate identities that the fair always had – Pier 92 was known for showing modern art while Pier 94 featured contemporary works. Because they were branded as two separate entities, some people would only visit one pier and not the other. Nicole wanted to change this:
“We wanted to create an experience that made you feel like you hadn’t seen the fair unless you had seen both piers.”
To do this, they got rid of the focus section as being related to a geographical location. While it was well received critically, some of the participating galleries received funding from their governments to be a part of the fair for being in that particular section, but then couldn’t return in the future.
“We wanted to open that up a bit and create a focus section that was really curatorially driven.”
Nicole also wanted to change up the layout of the fair to create a more enjoyable experience for visitors, so it didn’t feel like an endless trek of seeing booth after booth down the length of the pier, so getting curators involved was crucial:
“We wanted bigger booths with stronger presentations and also sections of the fair where there could be large scale works and you could have moments of reflection and pause…it was a great way for people to get to see works that are normally too large for the booth spaces.”
This year’s fair was in March and was the penultimate fair (before TEFAF Maastricht) to take place before the shutters came down on the art world as a result of Covid-19. Next year, the 26-year-old fair moves to the Javits Center – just a 5 minute drive south of its previous home – and takes place 9-12 September, presuming it is allowed to go ahead. The new venue will allow for all of the sections to come together under one roof:
“It’s a real opportunity for us to reinvent the fair while still embracing its roots.”
Navigating the new normal – what will fairs look like?
It’s currently impossible to know how long it will be before people can congregate or even if they will want to. There are many factors to consider – global travel restrictions, how people feel about using local transportation, guidance on maximum gathering sizes, how you manage volume and people, social distancing guidelines, not putting the ownness on exhibitors to manage social distancing within their booths, how people feel about wearing face masks, the list goes on. As we encounter multiple phases of re-opening and shut downs in various global locations, it’s hard to know what the world will look like in a year’s time.
The fair’s profits depend on the galleries and the visitors that come, so Nicole is constantly thinking about how to navigate that, including having conversations with galleries that are currently struggling financially. She is grateful that their new date in September 2021 buys them additional time to plan for the next fair and see what works and what doesn’t:
“We’re fortunate as we can watch what’s happening at other fairs…we’re not only looking to the art industry for solutions. I’ve been talking to people in the entertainment and sports industries – anyone involved in events is facing a similar situation. At this time, we really feel like there are no bad ideas.”
While she acknowledges that online viewing rooms are fine for the time being and have been relatively successful, she accepts that they’re not ideal:
“This is also an opportunity to reinvent what a fair can be.”
Fairs may also need to rethink who their main audiences are and location can play a key part in that. People may be more inclined to visit a fair if it is local to them and doesn’t involve a plane journey:
“I think that all fairs are going to have to focus on the local and the regional for a while…we’re in an area with a loyal collector base who support this fair. Focusing on them may be the right thing for the next couple of years. Luckily we have a New York collecting community that’s large enough to sustain a fair unlike some fairs that are in smaller places that are really destinations.”
Strengthening collaborations
Nicole believes the fair has a responsibility to support arts in the city with their various partners, given the number of institutions, small non-profits, and galleries that have been devastated by this situation.
One initiative was to create a dedicated page on their website for galleries to show an entire exhibition which may have closed because of shut down or never got to open. Each week since 3 April they have offered slots to galleries from the Presents section of the fair on a first come first served basis, and were quickly booked up until the autumn, when they plan to open it up to other galleries:
“We’re going to continue it after lockdown as want to get people’s focus back on gallery programming.”
They also hosted a Curatorial Leadership summit – a closed door invite only zoom session for international curators – where participants could discuss strategy and concerns.
The future of viewing art
Nicole sees the role of public art becoming more important during times of social distancing. It can be experienced outdoors which is a safer environment, and it means that for the present moment, you’re not just restricted to viewing art on your computer screen.
While she hopes the fair will go ahead in a live capacity next year, she feels that there will still be a digital component as not everyone may feel comfortable travelling to New York to visit the fair in person. But she doesn’t want to replicate the current online viewing room model:
“We want it to be more experiential and in real time – I don’t know that all of this can be achieved, but in an ideal world this is what we’re looking for. How do we create something that people want to be engaging with?”
Acknowledging that the art world was initially slow with technology, she believes that many people have now come to embrace it and rely on it following lockdown.
“We know that digital is here to stay but we’re never going to take away that experience with the art in person. It’s not about reinventing that experience because nothing can replace that, but it’s about creating something that’s additive.”