Dubai
As much of the world continues to delay mass gatherings, Dubai will go ahead with its major art fair Monday, the first test of the art world’s willingness to flock to a tent to shop.
After being forced to shelve the event last year, the organizers are planning to leverage Dubai’s high rate of vaccinations—second only to Israel—and its position as a haven for high-net-worth visitors sheltering from the pandemic.
“We were the first international art fair to cancel last year due to Covid and will be one of the first back to test the market and take on that challenge this year,” said Art Dubai’s co-founder and chief executive Benedict Floyd. “How we have gone about organizing this event may encourage other fairs in the future looking to return to look at a model similar to that we are using.”
Fifty galleries from 31 countries are expected to show their wares, with organizers saying they could see up to 20,000 visitors, down from roughly 30,000 before the pandemic. Organizers are bringing the works of big-name artists, setting up stringent safety protocols and changing up the way they make money in order to adapt to the new realities created by the pandemic.
