What a difference a year makes.
After the controversy of last year’s London International Fine Art Fair, this year the 38th Olympia International Fine Art and Antiques Fair (June 9-19) made a concerted attempt to go back to its roots, reverting to the old name and notably without the involvement of David Lester.
Opinions can change overnight in this industry and, despite scepticism before Olympia opened this year, the Thursday preview was bustling with many dealers reporting strong sales, and a positive atmosphere of goodwill certainly pervaded, even among those who had not yet covered costs.
Stand rents had been reduced this year, contributing to the healthy diversity of exhibitors, but presentation of the vast Grand Hall had not been compromised and it looked every bit as good as last year.
The eventual tally of 150 exhibitors meant that there was no need for the balcony, which contributed to a more coherent layout and generally proved a popular move.
Visitor numbers were up to 32,008, compared with 27,711 in 2010, and, while this may not prove a profitable outing for the organisers Clarion, it certainly made it clear that this is a fair with a future.
The past few months have been a nervous time for organiser Chris Gallon, Clarion’s portfolio director, who was all too aware of how crucial a successful fair was to restore confidence in the future of this event.
Speaking after the fair closed, he commented: “The team has worked very hard over the last year to produce a trading fair that fits the dealers’ needs and is right for the current marketplace. It seems that this has paid off and we are delighted that the fair was such a success.
“Two thirds of the exhibitors at this year’s fair have already rebooked and we are getting enquiries into stands for the 2012 fair.”
Celia Lendis
June 28, 2011
This was our first year at Olympia and the experience was both less and more rewarding than I had expected. We were introducing work by a number of fairly high profile contemporary painters, but all unknown in London and so were hoping to be the ‘baby’ in the new Contemporary section – and contribute freshness to an audience largely brought by bigger galleries based in London.
This was not the case and we found that while the response to our work was fantastic, there was not the critical mass of contemporary or big name galleries at the Fair to bring in the audience we needed. While Mayoral Galleries had some big name artists, they did not have a local audience either. The audience that did attend seemed, for the most part, to be ‘regulars’ and old clients. There were some comments that the Fair began brightly and then seemed to disappear into the gloom as you headed towards the back end – maybe mixing the stands up might be worth considering?
We made good sales in the early days, but also feel that the Fair was too long. The programme of tours and lectures could have been much more substantial and we received many comments from local people that they had ‘stumbled’ on the Fair and had not known it was on. Our three large sales all went to people who could walk the paintings home to their houses. None of them had seen any local advertising. Why are banners not hung on the poles?
I appreciate that this Fair has had many issues over the last few years – none of which I was actually aware of until I arrived, so I am not sure that I should congratulate or praise the organisers for ‘improvements’. Rather, if I consider whether or not the Fair represented good value for money and met my expectations in terms of marketing, sales and raising public profile, then I am afraid that I am leaning towards a ‘no’. If I could put that same amount of money and effort into sales and raising profile that I paid to Olympia, then, sadly, I know I could have achieved a better outcome elsewhere.
Having said that, I am still excited about the idea of giving Olympia another year – but this time I will be looking far more carefully at the marketing strategy, commitment to securing contemporary galleries, advertising spend and planning for the event.
J
June 28, 2011
Two thirds of exhibitors signed up, are you sure? J