The Dallas Art Fair Director Kelly Cornell Sees ‘All Eyes On Texas’ |
With its ‘sticky’ collector base, a growing roster of participating galleries and a rapidly expanding audience, the Dallas Art Fair is shaping the future of art in Texas. Exploredinary
Recently, there has been considerable talk about Texas’ dynamism and appeal, as the Southern state has seen extraordinary economic growth, now ranking among the largest economies in the U.S., with a GDP surpassing $2 trillion. This rise has been mirrored by a striking population influx over the past decade—more than 4 million people relocating, largely from California, New York, Illinois and other high-cost areas—making Texas the fastest-growing state. The art market inevitably follows the money, and the state’s art scene has been expanding in tandem with its GDP., most notably with the return of the Austin Art Fair for its second edition from May 15-18, 2025 and the upcoming launch of Untitled Art Fair’s new Houston edition in September. Next year, Salon Art Design will host its first Dallas fair.
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See all of our newslettersBut Texas has had a major fair for years: the Dallas Art Fair, which is now preparing for its seventeenth edition at the Fashion Industry Gallery (f.i.g.) in the Dallas Arts District from April 10-13, 2025. Since its launch in 2009, the fair has grown into both a catalyst and a cornerstone of the region’s thriving arts ecosystem. “The fair started right before the economic crash. This is a key point when you’re learning about the fair and when you’re learning about Dallas because it shows the strength of the market here,” the Dallas Art Fair director Kelly Cornell told Observer. “People still showed up and bought art. They still supported us in a very meaningful way and supported the art world in a meaningful way. And then people came back, and the galleries came back, year after year.”
A rapidly expanding community of local collectors has been the key driver of the fair’s growth. “The fair really started as based on a very local collecting community, and then it expanded into a........