Can the excitement generated by sports, especially when the home team is thriving, boost art sales? That certainly seemed to be the case in Toronto this past weekend, when Canada’s biggest fair Art Toronto (23-26 October) was taking place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, just blocks from the revamped Rogers Centre arena, where the Toronto Blue Jays faced the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday and Saturday in the first two games of the World Series, Major League Baseball’s championship. (The Dodgers are the defending champions; the Jays last won it all in 1993, before the launch of Art Toronto in 2000.)
There was speculation in the local scene that the Blue Jays’ run might cut into business at Art Toronto, but the opposite proved true. “The World Series has added a real buzz to the city, and we’re feeling that energy inside the fair,” Mia Nielsen, the director of Art Toronto, told The Art Newspaper. “Art sales are not suffering; in fact, we’re seeing an increase in purchases in the C$50,000 to C$100,000 ($35,700-$71,400) range compared to previous years.”
Nielsen added: “With the Convention Centre right next to the Rogers Centre, it’s been easy for visitors in the area to drop by, and we’ve noticed more daytime attendance as a result. It’s been an energising weekend for both art and the city.”
There was no comparing ticket prices, which surely helped Art Toronto’s cause. Scalpers were demanding up to C$12,000 ($8,600) for a single World Series ticket according to the Toronto Star, while Art Toronto could be accessed for as little as C$40 ($28.60)—though most of the works on show cost a good deal more.
Danny Hussey of the Ottawa-based Central Art Garage, one of the 121 galleries participating in the fair, touched on how the baseball is lifting Canadians while sparking art sales, too. “It’s impacting the mood of this city,” he said. “There is a term, ‘collective effervescence’, when everybody is in a good mood. The team is winning, the [art] market is rising.” The collective effervescence appeared to extend to the National Gallery of Canada, which bought a piece from Central Art Garage’s stand.
The concurrence of the fair and World Series was exhilarating for the long-time Toronto gallery owner Miriam Shiell, who was a founding member of Art Toronto. She reported brisk sales on Friday then headed directly to watch the first game of the World Series (a best-of-seven series), which started at almost the same time the fair closed.
“We watched [the game] till 11pm last night after being here all day,” she said on Saturday. “At this point it’s kind of an addiction,” she said of her Blue Jays fandom. In fact, most Canadian sports fans are behind the Jays, a reflection of these nationalistic times.
If there was a drawback to the weekend’s synergy of art and baseball, it was its effect on Toronto’s already-notorious traffic. As Michael Gibson, an Art Toronto regular whose namesake gallery is based in London, Ontario, said: “We got out of the cab early because we couldn’t get close.” He added: “It’s a great city and [the Jays] are on a roll.”
Even Toronto’s mayor Olivia Chow, who watched Friday’s first game of the World Series with crowds at nearby Nathan Phillips Square, paid a visit to Art Toronto and wistfully recounted her days as an art student with her own studio. “I miss my art,” she said. “I don’t do it anymore. I don’t have much time.”
Art Toronto closed on Sunday (26 October). The World Series is currently tied, the Blue Jays and Dodgers having won one game each; game three is Monday night (27 October) in Los Angeles.
