Why satellite art fairs are recession-proof | The Art Newspaper

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Sunday 21 Feb 10

Why satellite art fairs are recession-proof

Fairs work just like real estate, and when commercial rents go south, opportunities pop up

By Jonathan Neil | From issue 210, February 2010
Published online 10 Feb 10 (opinion)

At the centre, not the margins: Pulse fair during Art Basel Miami Beach 2009

See also:

• More satellite fairs for Armory Show

It was inevitable. Once the financial quake that hit the world economy at the end of 2008 began to subside and we all began to emerge from under our kitchen tables (or from behind the walls of our fortified compounds) to survey the damage, some sort of optimism had to take hold. Yes, we now have a name for it: “The Great Recession”, and things are definitely bad (high unemployment, rising deficits). “But hey,” we thought to ourselves, “when we get to Miami,” having at this point willfully forgotten the economic bloodbath, “at least there won’t be so many satellite fairs”.