While most initiatives connected with the Asian art market continue to expand apace, the ‘New York Arts of Pacific Asia Show’ – since 1995 a lynchpin of New York Asia Weeks – has announced that it will not run in the spring of 2013 due to lack of a suitable venue.
The event's venue since 2009, the 11th floor
of 7W, the Merchandise Mart's space at 7 West 34th Street, will no
longer be available as it is being converted into office space.
Organiser Elisabeth Lees of Caskey Lees described the decision as
"wrenching" and said that it is uncertain at the moment whether the
fair will return in 2014.
The fair was initially launched in 1995 to
coincide with New York's Fall Asia Week at the 69th Regiment
Armory, with the spring event added in 1998. The Fall edition was
dropped in 2000 after recurrent problems with dates at the 69th
Regiment Armory.
Ms Lees said she began looking for
alternative venues during Arts of Pacific Asia in
March this year, but to no avail.
"We have looked at every other available
venue, all of which proved too small, too far afield from Asia Week
events mid-town, impossible for load-in/load-out; or unwilling to
agree to union participation in their facility," she said.
"New York's trade show unions are very
strong and will not allow us to mount any show in the city without
them, and non-union facilities are reluctant to let the Teamsters,
Carpenters and Exposition Unions gain a foothold."
Plans for The New York Ceramics
Fair, also organised by Caskey Lees, at the Bohemian National
Hall from January 22-27, 2013, remain unchanged.
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