The Other Art Fair was in Brooklyn, New York in the first weekend of November 2021 and I was there to inspect and review! I was impressed by not only the in-person fair experience but all the virtual spaces and platforms around The Other Art Fair, and also the positive vibes among the talented artists community.
The Other Art Fair is one of the world’s leading artist fairs, devoted to connecting art lovers with the best emerging independent artists. The fair allows buyers to shop thousands of artworks in-person, or from online/virtual platforms.
I am mind-blown by the virtual possibilities so I’ll start from there! The Other Art Fair Online Studios is an online platform created with Saatchi Art that allows you to shop all of the featured artists online and explore hundreds of artists profiles, both locally and across the globe. The Other Art Fair takes place for just a few days in person, but the virtual edition is permanent. It’s easy to be out there as an artist and to find and support them as an art-lover.
The system The Other Art Fair is built around is very clever and useful. All these virtual platforms and online worlds; you can tell that the fair is not targeting the traditional art buyer. They are here to introduce the millennials and GenZ into this world!
The traditional understanding of the art industry, at least in my head, is that arts is expensive. The Medici family collects them, or billionaires buy them at auctions. So the initial feeling I get when we talk about buying art, is that it’s probably not affordable to me. And it’s not a need; I don’t need to buy an artwork to ensure my survival or anything, so I think buying art sounds a lot like a luxury that’s inaccessible to me, at least at this point in my life.
But, what I love about The Other Art Fair is that they know that I feel this way. And they tell upfront that there will be affordable pieces, it’s the first message we see from the organizers, even before buying our tickets to the fair. They know that the biggest block in the visiter’s heads when it comes to visiting this art fair is that they won’t be able to buy anything, but The Other Art Fair directly addresses it so the potential visiter is not scared away. So it doesn’t only reduce friction for the artists, but also for the target audience. The systems we are working with nowadays make it easy for every party involved.
The Other Art Fair hopes to support young emerging artists by bringing them together with their buyers, who also are young people who aren’t necessarily financially thriving themselves. The fair ensures that loving art should not be limited to a small group of wealthy people, they are on a mission to introduce new art fans into the industry and I love it!
And it gets better.
The Other Art Fair is sponsored by Bombay Sapphire gin, and your ticket includes two complimentary drinks if you are over 21, which I think is very clever! It’s great to see that popular and fun brands are willing to collaborate with artists and art events so that these events don’t feel as this stuck-up places where I won’t belong, it feels like it is for me. And the young artists would probably be more relatable to me, so it would help them find their ideal audience, too. Everybody wins.
At the end of the day, you come to the fair, see some beautiful artwork, and even if you don’t buy anything, you have a couple of drinks, you meet people, and you leave the fair happy. The complimentary stuff should promote the fair and I think The Other Art Fair and Bombay Sapphire gin make great sense together.
Also, we are at the Brooklyn Expo Center in Greenpoint, which is known as a hip neighborhood with large young artist population. So, virtually, the fair can be accessed from anywhere in the world, but for the in-person location Greenpoint makes great sense because of the non-extravagant artsy vibes here. Like, it wouldn’t make sense if the fair was in SoHo, or the Upper West Side, because the population there don’t really need arts to be affordable because the neighborhood culture is somewhat fancy and upscale. So The Other Art Fair targets a different population than the traditional art buyer and the location of the fair reveals exactly who they target and it makes sense.
My experience of the fair was delightful as I got to meet a lot of lovely artists, I was inspired to give my forgotten-hobby a.k.a photography another shot, and had a couple drinks while enjoying beautiful artwork. There was even a tattoo booth which was tempting but I could stop myself.
The Other Art Fair opens in multiple locations all around the world and I highly suggest you check them out to see if they will be coming to your town. If not, it’s good that we have the Online Studios!