Still too early to tell the details but the talk at Art Chicago today has been circling the possible purchase of the New York Armory Show by the Merchandise Mart. More details to come as they arrive, stay tuned.
Operations Manager at Bad at Sports
Christopher Hudgens is the Operations Manager for BaS and works in various other capacities for other organizations in the Chicago Art & Culture scene. Most recently as Business Operations Manager for the Bridge Art Fair and currently an advocate for all things art & technology.
Latest posts by Christopher Hudgens (see all)
- Episode 886: Scott Speh on 20 Years of Western Exhibitions & Chicago Art Scene Reflections - November 29, 2024
- Episode 885: Betsy Odom - November 26, 2024
- Episode 884: Pete and Jake Fagundo - November 12, 2024
Version had better rent a bus and a bigger catapult.
Chris Kennedy announced it this morning at the Artropolis breakfast. The Mart bought Volta and the Armory shows.
I’m left to wonder what the end goal is? Will this mean that they have a line on art based hedge funds? The Kennedy family, however altruistic they may at times be, has never been in the business of making unprofitable choices.
Whew! I’ve been through four days at The Artist Project, meeting the great BAS people, it’s six o’clock am at the end of Sharkstock and cleaning up. I’m losing my voice from talking, have made lots o’ contacts, seen old friends, sold a buncha works. And the Mart buys the Armory. You Chicagoans have really got something hot happening here! This is great. Cheers for everybody! This could be the start of a whoile new peak for my “Heimat” the Windy City. Keep it up and I hope to see even more people tomorrow …er today … and Monday.
With Chicago Art Fair and the Armory, Chicago has leap-frogged over most other fairs and can now run competition with Basel-Basel Miami.
And Sharkstock’s packed house artworld was fabulous. I’m thrilled I came back for it all from Switzerland.
I just heard on WBBM 780 a.m. that there is a fire at Carrol and Damen, hope you guys are okay.
According to Kennedy, the Mart was looking to hire the leadership of the two shows. Since neither wanted to leave their jobs, the Mart bought the shows.
I think the fire was at Leavitt and Carrol, a block west of Wesley’s studio.
Poor Mark is going to go completely without sleep! The party, the fire, the fair. He’ll be glad to out of Dodge after all of the chaos.
The fire was the next block over -another castle of an old warehouse building burned down -sad. The Sharkpit is unscathed (fire only burns in our veins underwater here at the Farallons’ East-)
oooooooOOOOOOPS! the above comment is from The Shark -broadcasting directly from Sharkpit Central!
Yeah — I had entered my comment via Wesley’s computer, so it had replaced his name with mine. (As it SHOULD do to all other artists as well.)
I just got back in Switzerland an couple of hours ago. Once again, it was a fabulous experience. I’ll write a post on Sharkforum and/or do something for BAS about my experiences. It was great to be at Wesley’s the whole time and discuss art, meeting you all, and more.
One short story here — concerning the fire. After we both went to sleep at 6 am, I woke up shortly at 7 am when an unnamed person who was passed out on the couch woke up and left. There was no power, probably due to the fire, and I couldn’t find any light to go piss, so I went back to sleep. Then, an hour later I got up to get ready to go to my booth at The Artist Project. I look outside, and to my surprise it has changed from cold to summertime, AND the street is filled with cops and the fire dept. One fireman asks me if he can piss in our bathroom. After he’s finished, as I’m getting ready to go over a few streets so I can catch the cab I called (Wesley’s street was blocked off) he told me a bit of what happened. He said, and I quote, that some jerk (“joik” in Chicagoese) had bombed the place but they caught his ass on a surveillance cammera and they had him. AND — he was amazed I didn’t hear the explosion. If you were at Sharkstock, you wouldn’t be amazed. Anyway, I walked back in and shouted up to Wesley in his loft that I was leaving and that the house across the street was on fire. He shouted back groggilly, “Lock the door.”