ADAA Cancels 2025 Edition of Flagship Fair
124July 19, 2025
TheArt Dealers Association of America(ADAA) will not stage the thirty-seventh iteration ofthe Art Show, its flagship fair,Artnewsreports. The cancellation marks the first time since its 1988 founding that the event hasn’t taken place. Traditionally held at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, it was to have opened with a benefit preview on October 28, in support of the Henry Street Settlement, a social services nonprofit on New York’s Lower East Side for which it has raised more than $38 million in the past three decades.
An email to ADAA members described the cancellation, which the organization’s board decided upon after “careful review,” as a “strategic pause.”
“While we understand this news may be disappointing, we believe this pause presents a meaningful opportunity to reimagine the Art Show with long-term sustainability and member value in mind,” read the email. “It allows us to evaluate how best to support our members, partners, and the broader arts community in an evolving cultural and market landscape.”
The cancellation arrives as the art market appears to be undergoing a period of retrenchment, with galleries closing, as a number of small and midsize galleries as well as larger, longer-running operations like Marlborough in New York have done in the past year or so, or shifting away from brick-and-mortar operations, as veteran gallerist Tim Blum recently announced he was planning to do. Too, both auction and fair sales in the sector have been soft this year, as the art world contends with tariffs, economic and geopolitical uncertainty, and shifting tastes and buying patterns.
Despite the challenges mentioned above, ADAA organizers confirmed that the fair will return, “with a renewed vision,” in 2026.