Welcome to SOFA CHICAGO 2008!
We are now 15 years from the starting point of SOFA – that small, precocious art fair, held in the basement of a hotel with just over 40 galleries exhibiting. That upstart fair that ambitiously held itself up to the world as a place where the fine and decorative arts and design are bridged. A place where the world could see the finest artworks and the best galleries, and where persons from all walks of life could dive in and find out more about what “it is all about” from artists, museum curators, writers and the, then, small number of passionate collectors. I can remember standing at the entrance to the Fair welcoming those curious individuals and thinking about how diverse an audience we were gathering. Collectors quietly flew into Chicago on private and corporate jets, and children and art students roared up in school buses. Budgetconscious art lovers took city buses and trains and walked to the Sheraton. I remember being so pleased by the wide variety of people checking us out. From young families with children in strollers to stylish women in haute couture and intense-looking artists dressed headto-toe in black. I realized that this was a new populist community in the making, where everyone was and felt welcome. I recall being asked what I would like a visitor to experience on their first visit to SOFA. My response was that I would like them to feel that they are part of this open community, that the people walking the aisles alongside them are like-minded mavericks and friends. That they should leave their varied lives and backgrounds behind and get into the moment, become part of this “now” experience. Ask questions, ask MORE questions, look at the work and the people looking at the works, and if not taking home a piece of art they fell in love with, take home the spirit and moxie of it and its fledgling community.
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To my utter delight, the SOFA community is no longer fledgling but fully mature, admired for its category-busting artworks and having earned a respectable place in the art world. Even with the finest galleries and dealers representing the finest “bridge” artists in the world, dozens of museum and collector groups attending, national award ceremonies, major corporate sponsors and 35,000 still curious visitors, SOFA remains an open, populist community where everyone is welcome and all are moved and amused and amazed by the extraordinary works on view. Our heartfelt thanks to those persons and organizations too countless to mention, who have contributed time and energy and expertise to this success story and to our dedicated and hard-working SOFA team—friends as well as colleagues. So as you walk these aisles looking at the art and the like-minded people looking at the art, enjoy, and know you are part of something remarkable.
Mark Lyman Vice President, dmg world media: Art & Antiques Founder/Director, SOFA Anne Meszko Director of Advertising and Educational Programming, SOFA