If you are interested in the business of the trade in art and antiques, Skate’s Market Research is nearly as handy as the pocket on a shirt. Although they do compile the statistics associated with blockbuster auction and private sales, they also provide stats on things less sexy but more germane to the everyday decisions a dealer must make, including whether or not to participate in art and antiques fairs.
With the bricks and mortar venues around the world in their death throes, the pop up venues that art and antiques fairs provide function as what would seem a logical, relatively low cost opportunity to get one’s gear in front of the buying public. With the show organizer and frequently a worthy benefit charity performing the ostensible heavy lifting of promoting the venue and purchasing opportunity, the dealer then only, it would seem, has to show up and sell to the raft of people massed at the front door waiting to make a longed for purchase.
What’s not apparent is the dealer’s cost associated with the fair. The rental of the booth, decorating the booth, lighting, electrical outlets, phone outlets, and many times, assessments for advertising in the show catalog and promoting the fair through local and national media. Oh, yes- and the cost of transport. For us, the least expensive transport bill is $15,000. On the whole, the least expensive fair we participate in costs us, before we sell anything, $52,000.
I suppose if one were guaranteed sales into the six or seven figures, the significant investment for what often functions as a pop up store that exists for no longer than a long weekend might seem paltry. But the fact is, fair attendance and at-show purchases have been on the wane. And this is where Skate’s becomes an invaluable tool- they report fair performance with a degree of accuracy that is, shall we say, somewhat illusory when one questions fair promoters. Mind you, fair promoters, whether those who operate for profit or those who are an arm of a not for profit worthy cause, seek to put the best face on their face to induce art and antiques dealers to participate. One would suppose with the numbers of dealers becoming thinner and thinner on the ground, the word about the relative performance of a fair would quickly make its way around. Our experience, though, is that dealers most generally have attended the same school of obfuscation as most fair promoters. With this in mind, what we do, long after the fact, is assess the number of individual dealers returning to the same fair and assume that, if they are returning, it must constitute a successful venue. We track this over years and have determined some surprising facts. One of the more vaunted fairs that promotes itself as a major international venue has had a dealer turnover of nearly 130% in the last four years. Clearly, the dealers are judging the success of this fair with their feet.
Keith and I are just returned from a fair we felt might be a fit for us, but expensive so wanted to check it out thoroughly before we even put numbers together precedent to giving it serious consideration. Frankly, one could as they say have shot a cannon through the venue on the Saturday afternoon we visited. Skate’s recent report on the success of this fair, and ‘success’ is the word used by the fair organizer, indicated that attendance was in the mid five figures. However, divisible by the number of dealers exhibiting, the per booth attendance was in the- wait for it- low three figures. We determined, based on our lowest estimated cost to participate, this resulted in a cost of $300 for each visitor to our booth. That is on a par with handing out a couple of bottles of Dom Perignon to each gallery visitor just for darkening our door. For those of you with a profound thirst, please don’t get the idea we are planning on doing either the fair or offering free champers any time soon.