SOFA Ventures West

SOFA WEST

Mark Lyman, Founder and Direc­tor of SOFA and Pres­i­dent of The Art Fair Com­pany, pro­ducer of the SOFA Fairs in Chicago, New York, and Santa Fe, announced that the sec­ond annual SOFA WEST will move from its for­mer June dates to July 8–11, 2010 at the Santa Fe Com­mu­nity Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. SOFA fairs are renowned for pre­sent­ing cutting-edge mod­ern and con­tem­po­rary design, dec­o­ra­tive arts, and jew­elry. Lyman said, “These new July dates will bet­ter posi­tion SOFA WEST in the inter­na­tional art fair cal­en­dar. And we are very excited to be join­ing Santa’s Fe high sum­mer sea­son of art.” Lyman believes that SOFA WEST will com­pli­ment and aug­ment Santa Fe’s excep­tional art offer­ings in July, such as the acclaimed Santa Fe Opera, and the Folk Art Mar­ket on Museum Hill being held the same week­end as SOFA WEST, attract­ing even more national and inter­na­tional art lovers and col­lec­tors to the city.

Lyman con­tin­ued, “We are delighted to part­ner on this year’s Open­ing Night with the Museum of New Mex­ico Foun­da­tion, which will invite its upper-level donors to an early Spe­cial Mem­ber Pre­view, offer­ing them first oppor­tu­nity to pur­chase.” Over 2,000 guests attended SOFA WEST’s inau­gural Open­ing Night last year, with an esti­mated 10,000 vis­i­tors attend­ing the fair dur­ing its four day run, exceed­ing Lyman’s pro­jec­tions by over fifty per­cent. “We had to expand our ticket sales areas to han­dle the vol­ume! In short, we were blown away by the incred­i­ble response.”

Thirty-five inter­na­tional gal­leries and deal­ers will par­tic­i­pate in SOFA WEST, with gal­leries to date includ­ing Hol­sten Gal­leries, Clark + Del Vec­chio, Linda Durham Fine Art, Charon Kransen Arts, Tai Gallery, and Scott Jacob­son Gallery.

A Lec­ture Series will take place on Fri­day and Sat­ur­day, fea­tur­ing col­lec­tors, cura­tors, artists, and gal­lerists. These events are free with SOFA WEST paid admis­sion or valid pass.

Held in con­junc­tion with SOFA WEST is a new, pre-fair, three-day sym­po­sium enti­tled His­toric Bond/Contemporary Spirit: Col­lect­ing New South­west Native Pot­tery, fea­tur­ing pre­sen­ta­tions and tours of his­toric sites, muse­ums, and pri­vate col­lec­tions. Lyman said, “The sym­po­sium was orga­nized in response to the many SOFA col­lec­tors who expressed keen inter­est in learn­ing about the extra­or­di­nary cul­tural and artis­tic her­itage of Santa Fe and its sur­round­ing Native Amer­i­can Pueb­los.” Tai­lored for the art col­lec­tor and con­nois­seur, His­toric Bond/ Con­tem­po­rary Spirit sym­po­sium pre­sen­ters to-date include Garth Clark, author and spe­cial­ist in mod­ern and con­tem­po­rary ceram­ics, cura­tor, critic, and dealer; Bruce Bern­stein, PhD, exec­u­tive direc­tor, South­west­ern Asso­ci­a­tion for Indian Arts (SWAIA); and Ellen Brad­bury, for­mer direc­tor of Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe (now New Mex­ico Museum of Art).

www.sofaexpo.com/santa-fe