Area Code Art Fair

www.areacodeartfair.com (online and in pop-up venues across greater boston), august 1-31, 2020

The first contemporary art fair focused on New England, Area Code was developed in collaboration with a team of Boston-area curators and artists as an effort to mitigate some of the economic challenges that the pandemic has posed to the region’s cultural life and arts community. Through free online and decentralized in-person experiences across greater Boston, and innovative donation and profit-sharing models, the Fair featured works from New England’s most innovative and inspiring art galleries, nonprofit organizations, and individual artists without gallery representation. The founding team worked together to develop the structure, marketing, curatorial approach, and fundraising for the Fair, and each member curated and/or oversaw a specific initiative: Main Online Section (Octavio Zaya); Performance Art (Gabriel Sosa); Public Programs and Artists’ Talks (Amy Halliday); Video/Digital Art (Leonie Bradbury); Storefront Pop-Up Projects (Jen Mergel); Special Projects (Marla McLeod and Ellen Tani); operations, outreach, and contracts (David Guerra).

As organizer of public programs, over the month of August, I organized and facilitated a series of free discussions, workshops, and studio visits, aiming to dive deeper into artists’ work and to explore resonant contemporary issues weaving through other sections of the Fair (with an emphasis on racial justice and cultural equity). Each week, AREA CODE Conversations were hosted digitally, and, on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the Fair, featured artists took audiences behind the scenes into their practice with Lunchtime Live Studio visits on AREA CODE’S Instagram Live (@areacodeartfair). We also hosted several AREA CODE Workshops, including an artist-led “recalibration of Zoomspace” (with artists Heather Kapplow & Sholeh Asgary), and a hands-on zine-making session.

Programs:

AREA CODE Conversation 1, Utopia Now: Contemporary New England Artists, August 6, 2020
AREA CODE Conversation 2, Art & the Expanded Digital Space, August 11, 2020
AREA CODE Workshop 1, Second Sight is Water: Zooming Against the Zoom, August 13, 2020
AREA CODE Conversation 3, Teaching Art in the Present Tense, August 20, 2020
AREA CODE Conversation 4, Area Coda: New England Entanglements, August 27, 2020
AREA CODE Workshop 2, Zine Making with Aiden Nguyen & Thanh “Nu” Mai of Vănguard, August 29, 2020
LUNCHTIME LIVE Studio Visits: Aug 3/Otto Berchem; Aug 5/Marla McLeod; Aug 7/Tory Fair; Aug 10/Gabriel Sosa; Aug 13/ Lily Xie & Crystal Bi Wegner; Aug 17/Charles Suggs; Aug 19/Jessica Lau; Aug 21/David Borawski; Aug 24/Elizabeth Awalt; Aug 26/Shadia Heenan Nilforoush; Aug 30/Shadia Heenan Nilforoush

Press and Public Relations

McQuaid, Cate, Outdoor pop-ups boost Boston’s newest art fair. ‘We all have fatigue looking online these days.’ Boston Globe, July 29, 2020
Colby, Celina, AREA CODE Art Fair debuts with egalitarian aims, Baystate Banner, July 29, 2020
Creative Collective and Salem State University Collaborate with AREA CODE Art Fair to present a ‘Digital Art Drive-In’ August 3, 2020
Hac, Karolina, As Boston Cautiously Reopens, AREA CODE Art Fair Brings Art Back to the City, Boston Art Review, August 3, 2020
Erickson, Ruth, ICA Staff recommendation: AREA CODE, August 3, 2020
McQuaid, Cate, Reflections on life with Boston’s storefront art installations, Boston Globe, August 12,2020
McQuaid, Cate, Fantasy is a place to retreat, recharge in these artist videos, Boston Globe, August 19, 2020
Sinclair, Jacquinn, Experimental Art Leaves the Museum and Heads for the Drive-in, Boston Art Review, August 20, 2020
Kubrick, Rachel, Went There: Area Code Art Fair – New England Art Fair Turned Alternative Freedom Trail, Boston Hassle, August 26, 2020
Northeastern University Partners with AREA CODE, the First Art Fair Exclusively Featuring Contemporary Artists with Ties to New England, August 3, 2020