Is Atlanta the Country’s Next Great Arts Center?
Between one The art market slows downa scan closed showroomAnd dismissalAtlanta is claiming itself as another destination on the contemporary art map with opening of the Atlanta Art Fair. Running through October 6 at Pullman Yards, the fair features 63 exhibitors: galleries, cultural partners, nonprofits and organizations from across the South (25% among the prominent galleries being grown domestically in the city), the United States and abroad. Weekend programming will focus on the theater, where the Art of the American South relates to the artist’s collection, culture, legacy, environmental crisisand the city’s “renaissance” will be the subject of a series of talks.
Art market production director Kelly Freeman set context in recent call with Vanity Fair: “There’s something about creating that blank canvas that our gallery partners, cultural partners, artists can then come in and program,” she said. “There’s a lot of energy in the air and of course it’s Atlanta for you.”
The Atlanta Art Fair takes place concurrently with Atlanta Art Week (held September 30 to October 6), founded by art consultant Kendra Walker. Now in its third year, Walker’s project did more than just land her a position on the board Forbes 30 Under 30 listbut signals Atlanta’s rise to the greater arts community. While there is no overt collaboration between the two events, there is no competition either—instead, an overarching desire to cultivate longevity prevails. The Atlanta Art Fair is thus simultaneously a response to the city’s overwhelming attention and a call to arms for more interested parties to get involved.
“Once people are engaged, I hope that they will continue to engage with the services that Atlanta offers beyond October, beyond that week,” Lauren Jackson Harris, said guest curator and co-founder of Black Women in Visual Art. “It’s just the visibility and consistency that I hope to see, because we’re not New York or LA, but we can create our brand by people just being consistent and intentionally nurture the arts.”
This is the refrain of those who have more optimistic current market outlook. As the scramble for regulation comes, those with a strong commitment to community, art, and artists themselves, rather than the game of assets and numbers, will rise to the challenge.
“Let Atlanta be Atlanta—that’s what I think we do best as an organization,” Freeman said. “We have no ego in the project. I know I will be doing my job right if an attendee learns about a certain exhibition taking place at Spelman College in January and decides to attend because of the interaction they had at the fair.”
Here, a conversation with Art Fair curators about the state of Southern art and Atlanta’s growing role with its continued presence.
Vanity Fair: Can each of you talk about the dynamism of the American South in the contemporary art world?
Lauren Jackson Harris: It was a funny comment from a friend of ours, who mentioned how people sometimes revere Atlanta’s art scene as the hillbilly South. I think once people come to the city and experience the wealth of talent here, though you have to dig a little deeper—it’s not focused on groups like New York or LA.—but once you find it That wealth is in Atlanta, you really see the value that we bring to the entire platform.
People always talk about this “Atlanta Renaissance,” but I think Atlanta has been a Renaissance for many years. Whether it’s music, acting, dance, visual arts, creative industries. We always created that energy and that fire, and people took advantage of that.
I don’t want to be compared to New York or LA. Because Atlanta, we are our own child, we are our own entity and we have our own brand of what we offer. And to compare us to big cities like New York and LA. harm us.
Karen Comer Lowe: We were treated like this stepchild, as if there had been no active art scene in Atlanta for decades. When I walked in, I went to the National Black Arts Festival, which at the time was a biennial festival that brought people to Atlanta every two years to see visual arts, dance and movies. Everything black and in culture. I have seen this artistic community flourish.
If it’s new to you then great. But what I want is for people to come here, and like Lauren said, experience it for yourself so you can see what we have here, because there are a lot of artists who live here and perform outside of Atlanta. . What we need in Atlanta is resources put into the spaces we have to be able to develop new spaces.
What were the initial conversations about curation, the stories you wanted to present and the choice of artists to feature?
Harris: Sometimes I work backwards, but my title only comes after I start actually working and talking to artists and seeing how their work makes me feel. Work of gentle/gentle has been haunting me from another exhibition I wanted to do.
