Meet Robinson Holloway | Executive Director, Art Fair 14C

We had the good fortune of connecting with Robinson Holloway and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Robinson, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
It was really with the desire to fill a need, rather than the goal of starting a business. My business, Art Fair 14C, began as an initiative of the Jersey City Arts Council when I was the chair of that organization.

The goal was to help strengthen careers in the visual arts in our area, and it became apparent that art fairs were crucial to doing that – nearly half of all global art sales (prior to the pandemic) happened at art fairs, and they were where critical collaborations and opportunities happened because all parts of the arts ecosystem came together in one place.

Our area artists and galleries were largely excluded from art fairs – because of lack of both access and finances – and so I decided to start an art fair in New Jersey, and to cast a wide net and make it affordable and accessible to all kinds of visual arts participants.

We had our first fair in 2019 – it was a hotel fair on the Jersey City waterfront, just 5 minutes from the World Trade Center, and exhibitors from NJ, NYC and around the world came, sold art, made connections – and then just paid for their hotel rooms.

After the first event I stepped down from the Arts Council and Art Fair 14C became its own separate nonprofit – with the mission to expand opportunities for artists, increase public access to fine art, strengthen careers in the visual arts and activate under-recognized arts areas.

Our model of subsidized exhibition spaces – most booths cost between $2,000 and $3,000, well below the industry standard – has worked. There have been sales, commissions, collaborations, museum acquisitions and numerous other opportunities that came about because of the fair.

We outgrew the hotel after two years, and in 2022 had our largest fair yet, with 150 exhibition spaces in the Jersey City National Guard Armory building.

After moving to large event spaces over the last couple of years, we’re returning to the Jersey City waterfront in 2023 for the 5th Edition of Art Fair 14C – but taking over the Terminal Building in Liberty State Park.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Art is my first love, but second career.

I spent two decades in sports journalism, chiefly on the PGA Tour, working for several British newspapers, Reuters and Sports Illustrated as a writer, then moving over to ABC Sports and ESPN as Editorial Advisor to their golf telecasts. I got to travel the country – and all over the world – and always sought out museums and art galleries wherever I went.

I’ve spent most of my second career working to help other artists make a living, while never making a penny myself from the arts. My own creations are murals, which I’ve left behind in every place I’ve lived, and donated a few to public spaces. I’ve created and run philanthropic art galleries, where 100% of the sales go to the artists, and I work pro-bono as the Executive Director of Art Fair 14C. It’s ironic, because one of my biggest challenges in the arts is fighting the pervasive belief that the arts is something extra, an add-on, a hobby, an amenity that doesn’t need to be paid for.

Most of my life my closest friends have been artists, and helping artists reach the larger audience they deserve has been what has driven me. I think the arts are essential to civilization – they are what challenge us and move us forward as a society, and yet they are not fully supported by the community in a way that allows them to fully thrive. Artists are incredibly easy to exploit – treat them badly and they still create art – but what if we treated them well and fully funded their work?

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Let’s say the week that my friend is visiting Jersey City is the first week of October – it’s not Art Fair 14C week (2nd week of November each year), but it’s a very fun and art-filled week nonetheless.

The Jersey City Art and Studio Tour has been going on for nearly 40 years – and during this week in October art galleries bring out their best shows, pop-up exhibitions are all over the city, and artists open their studios to the public. It’s a great time to explore and see new things, meet and chat with artists and come together as a community. It’s a fantastic way to see the whole city, not just the downtown area.

One of the highlights is Mana Contemporary, which is an entire community in an industrial area of the city that is dedicated to the arts – with hundreds of artist studios as well as exhibitions of work by world famous artists like Andy Warhol, Dan Flavin, John Chamberlain and many more. When the Centre Pompidou opens its first North American satellite museum in a couple of years it will be in Jersey City, and I can’t wait to see what they can show us during this city-wide arts week.

There are dozens of incredible restaurants in Jersey City – with Razza a highlight for pizza lovers (when the New York Times reviewed it, the headline was that the best pizza in NY is actually in NJ), and virtually every kind of cuisine available. Since Jersey City is America’s most diverse city, you can easily get delicious food from all parts of the world. There’s one block that is just Indian food restaurants on both sides – I’m sure they are all great, but the first one I visited was Rasoi and I’ve never had reason to stray to another.

But no trip to Jersey City is complete without a long walk along the Hudson River waterfront, with the New York City skyline and New York Harbor across the way. The best walk is in Liberty State Park, which stretches along the waterfront past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty – since it’s October, the Caven Point bird sanctuary path to the beach will be open (it’s just open in the fall and winter) – that’s an incredible walk that feels a million miles away from the country’s densest population center.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Art Fair 14C probably wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t joined the Association of Women Art Dealers (AWAD), which is a global membership organization based in London.

Pre-pandemic the New York chapter met monthly and these meetings were so collegial and collaborative and helpful, that it gave me both the inspiration to start the art fair, and the confidence that I could make it succeed.

Art fairs can be a volatile topic when art dealers get together, and there is definitely a love-hate relationship with them. A bad art fair can be ruinous to a small gallery, and a good art fair can help establish careers. The women of AWAD have been unfailingly supportive of my efforts to create a nurturing nonprofit art fair, and have unstintingly given of their time and expertise.

Website: artfair14c.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artfair14c/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artfair14c

Image Credits
photos by Alyssa Ki