During New York’s Spring Asia Week the 69th Regiment will take over the armory for drill, so rather than hold the fair outside the many Asian activities of that week, Caskey-Lees have found a new venue and from March 13-18 their fair will run at 7W New York, the Merchandise Mart’s 29,000 sq ft exhibition hall at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street.
California-based organisers Bill Caskey and Elizabeth Lees seriously considered holding the fair at the armory on dates made available by the military. However, their exhibitors insisted the event should open in the midst of the major Asian auctions and the growing number of private shows around Manhattan, particularly at the Fuller Building.
As usual, Arts of Pacific Asia will overlap with the Haughtons’International Asian Art Fair, which returns to the uptown Park Avenue Armory from March 11 to 15 next year after being forced to find an alternative venue this year.
The 69th Guard Unit has done two tours of Iraq and the new commander of the regiment anticipates another deployment next year.
He scheduled a training exercise for the period covering Asia Week and insisted on the downtown armory so his troops could stay with their families while training.
The 18th Arts of Pacific Asia will feature 78 exhibitors, about half of them American specialists, with the other half from Europe and the Far East.
