What's up with Scope?

The artsphere seems to be ripe with all kinds of issues dealing what has been described as a "free fall" by the once mighty Scope Art Fair.

Art Fag City earlier reported on the complains (and astounding responses to them) by exhibitors at Scope Basel, and Scope also canceled its recent Scope Hamptons fair.

Last year I also heard a lot of grumbling from some of the exhibitors at Scope Miami, and at least one gallery told me that they wouldn't come back as they've found that some of the "lesser known" satellite fairs were doing equally well (or bad) for them for less money and hassle.

Clearly the economy, plus the end of the good times when all you had to do was show up at an art fair and watch the art fly off the walls, perhaps coupled with Scope still obsessed in showing some of the truly infantile work that was cool a few years ago but these days doesn't cut the mustard for sales, may all add up to why this once mighty fair may be suffering.

It takes a lot to build a good reputation for an art fair, but only a couple of reports like this one or this one, for blood to hit the water and the sharks begin to circle.

Paradoxically, there will still be more than 20 art fairs in Miami this coming December, and some fairs (such as Art Miami, the dean of all Miami fairs) seem to be doing well and have become increasingly difficult (for galleries) to get in.

This year four Miami art fairs will share the same block area in Wynwood: Scope, Art Miami, Red Dot and Art Asia. Their huge tents will be side by side, and if their directors truly wanted to make sure that visitors to the fair get their bang for the buck, they'd honor an entry pass to any fair at all fairs. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and until the economy bounces back and people start buying art again, the huge fees and costs associated with doing an art fair justify trying everything and anything to increase foot traffic in the hope that sales will accompany some of the feet.