The Armory Show takes place from March 4 to 7.

The Armory Show returns to New York next spring with a strong selec­tion of the top inter­na­tional gal­leries exhibit­ing the best art of the 20th and 21st cen­turies. The fair is one of the most impor­tant inter­na­tional art mar­ket­places in the world, a great cul­tural event and an eco­nomic pow­er­house. The twelfth edi­tion of the fair is sched­uled to take place March 4–7, 2010 on Piers 92 and 94 on Manhattan’s west side. The fair has con­tin­ued to cement its impor­tance in the city’s art com­merce, grow­ing from 94 gal­leries and 8,000 vis­i­tors in 1999 to 240 exhibitors and 56,000 vis­i­tors in 2009. The invitation-only open­ing of the fair will be attended by 7,000+ art col­lec­tors and pro­fes­sion­als, along with hun­dreds of media rep­re­sen­ta­tives from around the world.

Along with the art auc­tions and the open­ing of the fall sea­son, the week of the fair, known as Armory Arts Week, is one of the times that col­lec­tors from all over the world visit New York, cre­at­ing a sig­nif­i­cant surge in the mar­ket. Next year’s Armory Arts Week promises to be par­tic­u­larly active, as the ADAA’s Art Show fair has joined the sched­ule and the Whit­ney Bien­nial will have just opened the week before.

Armory Arts Week has also expanded to incor­po­rate dozens of pub­lic events at not-for-profit orga­ni­za­tions, artist stu­dios and gal­leries through­out the five bor­oughs. The Armory Show’s sched­ule has grown to be a pil­lar of the city’s art com­merce, ben­e­fit­ing not only the fair’s exhibitors, but the local art com­mu­nity in gen­eral. Armory Arts Week now extends to each of the five bor­oughs and their unique art com­mu­ni­ties. The effort has been quite suc­cess­ful. This year the fair orga­nized key times for the pub­lic to visit each of the five bor­oughs and their respec­tive arts com­mu­ni­ties. The Armory Show pro­duced 50,000 copies of a map of the events which were dis­trib­uted at the par­tic­i­pat­ing venues as well as at NYC & Com­pany offices and Bloom­ing­dales. The fair also devel­oped a web­site, armoryartsweek.com, list­ing all the events and link­ing to other fairs and attrac­tions in the city.“I’m very excited about next year’s edi­tion of The Armory Show,” said Katelijne De Backer, the fair’s exec­u­tive direc­tor. “We are work­ing on some new ini­tia­tives that promise to keep things excit­ing. I can’t talk about them just yet, but vis­i­tors can look for­ward to some sur­prises and a num­ber of new faces join­ing the show.” The Armory Show is dis­tin­guished by an abil­ity to assem­ble a stel­lar ros­ter of pri­mary mar­ket deal­ers and its rep­u­ta­tion for attract­ing exor­bi­tant num­bers.

www.thearmoryshow.com