Art Fair Invites Collectors, Curators and the Curious

13 July 2011

Art Fair’s Public Programme Invites Collectors, Curators and the Curious to Know Better

Auckland Art Fair, which will open the city’s spectacular new Viaduct Events Centre, offers under one roof over one weekend an unrivaled showcase of 600 of the best contemporary artworks in Australasia today and a lively public programme to inform, educate and entertain all visitors be they doyens of the art world or newcomers wanting to look, listen and learn.

The 2011 biennial fair, from August 4-7, has a full schedule of daily tours, talks by artists, philanthropists, curators, critics and writers, opportunities to meet leading dealers who know their artists and their art and an interactive project inviting visitors to make their own work, under expert tutelage, which they can take away while leaving behind a photo reminder that they have shown at New Zealand’s premier art event.

“We want the fair to be more than an occasion which shows and sells glorious artworks from leading galleries in Australia and New Zealand but also an opportunity to inform and educate people about what they are looking at or hearing about so they can know better,” says Deborah White, the public programme organiser and one of the founders of the Auckland Art Fair and the New Zealand Contemporary Art Trust, the charitable organisation which is dedicated to making art accessible to the community.

“Encouraging the community to experience the world of art and breaking down preconceptions and inhibitions is what the public programme aims to do so that no-one who visits the fair leaves without having their questions answered and receiving the information they want. We hope that they will have enjoyed themselves so much that they’ll start visiting galleries and following different artists.”

An army of 60 volunteers, mainly art students from different tertiary institutions, will be on hand to help visitors and a team of experts including artists, curators and gallerists will lead the free, hourly tours around the 41 galleries’ exhibits. On the Friday and Saturday 400 senior students from 14 Auckland schools will participate in a special education and interactive visit.

Highlights of the public programme are the Friday, August 5 keynote lecture from the colourful and outspoken Knight Landesman, the New York publisher of Artforum, which is the art world’s version of a Vogue or Rolling Stone. (Bookings are essential.) He’ll take his audience inside the art world arguing that it takes more than talent to make an artist successful but interconnected relationships right through the value chain.

There will be daily artist talks including from Australian Linde Ivimey on her own work, Los Angeles artist Dave Hullfish Bailey on his collaboration with aboriginal activist and playwright Sam Watson and New Zealander Gretchen Albrecht.

A panel of art dealers from New Zealand and Australia will answer the questions you’ve always wanted to ask but never had the opportunity or courage to do so and a debate on whether art in advertising is still art with artist Dick Frizzell, self appointed curmudgeon and art expert Hamish Keith and adman, Paul Catmur on the panel.

A lively discussion is expected on the role of philanthropy and the case for supporting the arts financially through public endowments, private giving or government tax incentives as introduced by many countries around the world to ensure a healthy and flourishing cultural sector.

Metro magazine will also present True Stories Told Live, with seven people from different areas in the arts including artists, a photographer, an academic, writer and publisher Knight Landesman telling their own stories.

Information

Tickets at www.iticket.co.nz
Programme details at www.artfair.co.nz

ENDS

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