The Dallas Art Fair is the latest casualty of the mounting fear surrounding the worldwide spread of COVID-19. Fair officials announced Thursday that the 2020 event, scheduled to launch with a preview benefit on April 16 and continue through April 19, is being postponed until October.
Co-founder and chairman John Sughrue and executive director Kelly Cornell said that, while they fear an October cancellation looms as a possibility, they’re hopeful the event can move forward after a nearly six-month delay.
Meanwhile, the Nasher Sculpture Center made its own announcement Thursday, saying the official ceremony of awarding the Nasher Prize to its latest recipient, Chicago sculptor Michael Rakowitz, has been postponed from April 2-4 to November 4-6.
“Given the risk that the spread of COVID-19 presents on a global level, and understanding the international nature of the Nasher Prize, which draws guests from all corners of the world to convene here in Dallas, we are postponing the Nasher Prize gala and its public ancillary events,” Nasher director Jeremy Strick said in a statement.
But the stunning postponement of the Dallas Art Fair, which emerged as the centerpiece of Dallas Arts Month under previous mayor Mike Rawlings, was by far the most disappointing news to the city’s arts aficionados, since tens of thousands of people will not be coming to Dallas for what has become a mega event, a kind of Texas-OU weekend for the art world.
“We are postponing the fair until Oct. 1 through the 4th, of 2020,” Cornell confirmed. “And then, we hope to get back on schedule in April 2021, with the dates being April 15th through the 18th [of 2021]. Obviously, this is all with a watchful eye with what is happening, as we look at the way the climate is in the next months.”
Cornell said that four Italian art dealers had been booked as exhibitors at the fair, with a total of 22 coming from other countries. Italy is one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus, with The New York Times reporting that Italy alone has more than 12,000 confirmed cases and 827 deaths. Ninety-four gallerists were scheduled to show at the fair, which Cornell said has grown dramatically each year, despite having launched in the shadow of the Great Recession in 2009.
As co-founder Chris Byrne once said, the Dallas Art Fair did indeed begin in 2009, “three months after the world ended,” referring to the Great Recession, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. But even then, the fair proceeded without delay or even a threat of cancellation.
Cornell said the fair has, in recent years, enjoyed remarkable growth in terms of attendance and in the quality of the galleries and the work being shown from all over the world.
“Things are just growing. This is a new thing for us,” she said. “But we are pivoting and are going to make the best of the situation.”
Sughrue said the fair has seen between 18,000 and 20,000 attendees at its Fashion Industry Gallery headquarters on Ross Avenue “over the last couple of years,” with many attendees jetting in from other continents to visit Dallas over the course of the four-day extravaganza.
Ninety-five galleries came to Dallas for last year’s event, which Sughrue called a peak year in the fair’s 12-year history.
“We have been sold out for eight years,” Sughrue said. “Every year has been a new peak year.”
From an emotional standpoint alone, Cornell said, “It’s really hard. We work all year to put on this event. We have a small staff but a very important, dedicated staff that works all year to do this one event that is so important to the art scene in Dallas. We’ve talked to all of our partners, and everyone is devastated, but everyone knows that this is the right move, and we will survive it. We’ll move forward. It’s really hard for small businesses, and this is going to be a hard time for the next six to 12 months."
Cornell said there are three staffers who work exclusively on the art fair and eight more that are “significantly involved.”
As to whether layoffs might be a possibility, which happened at South by Southwest in Austin, Cornell said, “It’s not in the plans.”
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