London
The Victoria and Albert Museum is the location for a new commercial fair, Collect, for contemporary applied art and decorative art objects, to be held 20 to 24 February 2004. It is the idea of the Crafts Council, a non-for-profit body that promotes the work of craftspeople and designers, and already exhibits through its Crafts Gallery at the Chicago SOFA fair. According to Karen Turner, who is in charge of the project, response to the fair has been overwhelming and she could easily have included over twice the number of stands. The 41 selected galleries includes exhibitors from Tokyo, Sydney and Copenhagen; most will present unique pieces, although there will be some multiples. While the fair is not yet on the scale of SOFA, this and other fairs such as Kunstrai in Holland have definitely been the inspiration behind the new event, which is programmed for an initial three-year run. “There is really a need for a major applied art event in the UK, and this is why we have started the fair. The market in the US is very substantial, but because of SOFA’s very existence we haven’t targeted US galleries for this show,” explains Ms Turner: “We are aiming for a show with a strong European presence.”
www.craftscouncil.org.uk/collect