State of the Art Fair Post-Covid: Audience Development Strategies in a Post-Digital Context

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the audience-oriented initiatives implemented by art fairs during the confinement. As in other spheres of art and culture, significant growth of digital activities has been offered to the audience of the fairs. However, due to the 'experience nature’ of the event, not all of these strategies were equally successful. Based on the qualitative thematic analysis of the articles written by the representatives of the art world, this paper identifies audience development strategies for the art fairs in a post-digital context. The first section introduces the classification of the strategic areas of audience development covered by the art fairs during confinement. The second section discusses which of these strategies can be implemented in the post-pandemic context. In conclusion, an overview of the audience development strategies and main trends is presented, opening the discussion on the contribution of these strategies to the development of the new art fair’s model.