Art Basel set to launch new art initiative, but won’t expand fair venues, which include Hong Kong
Group director Marc Spiegler says Art Basel Cities will create programmes such as arts education and artist residences in new cities
Art Basel will strengthen its dominance in the art world with a new initiative that will allow the Swiss fair giant to have a presence outside of its current locations.
Fair organisers said the new initiative, called Art Basel Cities, was not being created just to tap into the China market. They said the initiative featuring a star-studded line-up of advisers was a global partnership with cities from around the world that had a burning desire to cultivate their local cultural and artistic scenes, which would also drive local economic development.
Art Basel Hong Kong sees off fears of art market slump, to relief of galleries
Marc Spiegler, director of Art Basel, said the Swiss art fair had been approached by many cities from a government to an institutional level that wanted its presence locally. But fair organisers were determined not to stage a new fair outside of its current locations in Basel in Switzerland, Miami Beach in the US and Hong Kong, he said.
“They said they wanted a fair but what they really wanted was cultural development. That’s something we can contribute without having to bring the fair there,” Spiegler told the South China Morning Post.
Spiegler denied suggestions that the new initiative was a response to demands from some mainland cities to stage fairs there. “This is a global initiative. This is not a China play,” he said.
