Kinsey Robb Explains the Thinking Behind the ADAA Fair’s Year Off and Its Return
Observer · · g5128581
The Art Dealers Association of America's executive director says rising costs, an overcrowded calendar and shifting collector behavior made it necessary to rethink the longest-running art fair in the U.S. It returns in 2026 with a rebranded identity, the Whitney as its beneficiary and a slot in one of New York’s busiest art weeks.
Next week, the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) makes its grand return to the Park Avenue Armory for its banner art fair. The event kicks off with a VIP preview gala on Thursday (Nov. 12) benefiting the Whitney Museum of American Art and marking the return of the longest-running art fair in the country after a year away. That fair, newly rebranded as ADAA Fair, lands back at the Armory after the board announced a “strategic pause” in July 2025 .
For 36 years the fair had been called The Art Show, which had a certain panache. It was the most public-facing offering from the ADAA, an invitation-only trade group that used to be a client of mine. Notably, the weekend-long Park Avenue show only ever represented a small example of its yearlong activities. Founded in 1962, ADAA’s larger unseen efforts include the lobbying of Congress in Washington, D.C., on behalf of its membership, which now includes more than 200 galleries.
The new ADAA Fair is smaller, with 63 galleries, and dealers from Dallas, Memphis, Nashville and St. Louis. The last edition had 75 and a keen New York focus. It has a new beneficiary, too, with the Whitney replacing Henry Street Settlement, the Lower East Side social services agency that has received more than $38 million over the course of its association with ADAA. (Henry Street, a vital nonprofit, now has a similar relationship with the Independent Art Fair.)
Kinsey Robb left New York in 2021 to run Art Center Sarasota and was named executive director of the ADAA in September 2024, days before that year’s fair opened. She came to the job following years at member galleries, including Perrotin and Lehmann Maupin , and holds a B.F.A. from Syracuse and an M.A. in art history from the University of Manchester. We caught up with Robb ahead of the ADAA Fair’s opening to talk about why it came back the way it did, and what it means to represent the sector in this difficult moment.
In 2025, about three months before The Art Show was due to open at the Park Avenue Armory, the ADAA told members the fair would not happen that year, a decision made with “long-term sustainability” in mind. The board called it a “strategic pause.” The fair had run every year since 1989 and had been the longest-running in the country. Can you tell me more about that decision to take a break?
The decision to pause the fair was not made lightly, particularly given its distinguished history and the important role it has played in New York’s cultural landscape for more than three decades. But the art market today is fundamentally different from the one in which The Art Show was established in 1989. The growth of the international fair calendar, rising operating costs and evolving collector behavior have changed the environment in which galleries operate.
These challenges are not unique to the ADAA. Across the cultural sector, organizations are reconsidering longstanding models, partnerships and priorities to remain relevant and sustainable.
As a nonprofit association, we have a responsibility to periodically return to our mission and assess whether our programs and initiatives continue to serve our members effectively. The pause created an opportunity to examine not only the changing market, but also the structure of the fair itself, its positioning and how it could best serve the Association and its members moving forward.
Meaningful institutional change takes time. It requires a willingness to challenge assumptions while recognizing that models that worked historically may need to evolve. Our mission hasn’t changed, but the environment in which we carry it out has. Responsible leadership means respecting an institution’s history while making decisions that position it for the future.
Let’s hear a little about the decision to come back. What were the factors that went into the return?
The decision to return was rooted in our belief that the ADAA Fair has a distinctive role to play within the art ecosystem. Unlike most commercial fairs, the ADAA Fair is organized by a nonprofit membership association, with participation exclusively reserved for ADAA member galleries, each of which has been admitted to the Association through a rigorous peer-review process. That gives the fair an identity grounded in expertise, scholarship, professional standards and a shared commitment to artists.
We wanted to build upon those strengths while developing a model responsive to the needs of galleries and collectors today. That has meant being intentional about the fair’s scale, representing the geographic breadth of our national membership and strengthening connections between the commercial and institutional art worlds.
Building a new model is an iterative process. I don’t view this inaugural edition as the conclusion of our strategic work, but as an important step in a longer evolution. We will continue to evaluate what works, listen to our members and refine the model.
The objective is not growth for growth’s sake. It is to create a fair that delivers meaningful value to participating galleries while fostering engagement among collectors, artists, curators and the broader arts community, distinguished by the quality of its presentations and the expertise of the dealers behind them.
A successful fair should be defined not simply by its size, but by the value it creates for the galleries, artists, audiences and collectors who participate.
Henry Street Settlement was the fair’s beneficiary for the whole of its life, receiving more than $38 million through the preview gala by The Art Newspaper’s count. During the hiatus the nonprofit went to Independent instead. The Whitney Museum of American Art is now the gala beneficiary. What does that change about the fair?
Our relationship with Henry Street Settlement is an extraordinary part of the ADAA’s history and something of which we remain deeply proud. Over more than three decades, the generosity of our galleries, collectors and supporters helped raise more than $38 million for an organization doing essential work in New York City.
That partnership began at a very different moment in the development of the art fair industry, before the proliferation of fairs that now shape the international calendar. As organizations evolve, it is natural to reassess how partnerships align with their respective missions and priorities. That evolution does not diminish what was accomplished together.
We are delighted to welcome the Whitney Museum of American Art as the beneficiary of this year’s preview gala. The partnership creates a meaningful connection between the galleries that support artists throughout their careers and a museum dedicated to advancing the understanding and appreciation of American art.
Partnering with a museum as the preview gala beneficiary is a natural extension of the ADAA’s longstanding commitment to supporting museums and the broader visual arts community. That commitment predates the fair itself. Established in 1970, the ADAA Foundation has supported museums and nonprofit arts organizations through grants that help bring exhibitions, scholarly research and public programming to fruition.
Our commitment to philanthropy has never been defined by a single event or beneficiary. It is embedded in the broader mission of the Association.
This year you have 63 exhibitors, down from roughly 75 in 2024. Lehmann Maupin, where you worked, Almine Rech , Timothy Taylor, Michael Werner, Tina Kim and Anton Kern showed in 2024 and are not back. In their place are galleries from Dallas, Baltimore, Memphis, Nashville and St. Louis. What do these changes tell us about the new direction of the fair?
I think this year’s exhibitor list reflects one of the ADAA’s greatest strengths: the depth, quality and geographic breadth of its national membership. The American gallery landscape extends well beyond New York and Los Angeles. Across the country, exceptional dealers are building ambitious programs, supporting artists, developing collectors and contributing significantly to their cultural communities.
This year’s edition brings together longstanding exhibitors, including galleries that have participated since the fair’s earliest years, alongside galleries making their debut. That combination of continuity and new perspectives is a strength.
Participation in any fair is also an individual business decision. Galleries evaluate opportunities based on their programs, schedules, resources and relationships with collectors. Those considerations are particularly significant in today’s market, and we respect the decisions our members make.
I would not characterize the inclusion of galleries from Dallas, Baltimore, Memphis, Nashville or St. Louis as a substitution for galleries based in larger markets. These are accomplished dealers whose programs contribute meaningfully to the art and culture landscape.
The objective is not to measure success solely by the number of exhibitors or the prominence of individual names. It is to bring together exceptional galleries whose presentations demonstrate the quality, range and vitality of our membership.
The ADAA is a national organization, and the fair should reflect the strength of the American gallery community in its entirety.
The fair is cross-promoting with the inaugural Art Week NYC, run by Penske Media, in the same week as the November auctions. The fair moved from February to November in 2021, but November seems to get more crowded every year. How does that benefit the fair?
New York’s concentration of galleries, museums, auction houses, collectors and cultural institutions is one of its greatest strengths as an international art capital. The November auctions attract an international audience of collectors, advisors and arts professionals, creating opportunities for engagement that extend well beyond the auction rooms.
Our collaboration with Art Week NYC reflects a belief that the city’s cultural community benefits when institutions and businesses find opportunities to work together. By connecting the ADAA Fair with exhibitions and programming throughout New York, we can encourage visitors to experience the breadth of the city’s gallery community and cultural institutions.
Of course, a crowded calendar creates competing demands on people’s time and resources. That makes it increasingly important for individual events to offer a distinct experience and clear value. For the ADAA Fair, that means a focused environment where collectors can engage directly with knowledgeable dealers and encounter exceptional works across a wide range of periods and disciplines.
The opportunity is not simply to add another event to the calendar, but to create greater value through collaboration and reinforce New York’s position as a global cultural destination.
The Art Market Integrity Act, introduced in July 2025 by Fetterman with Grassley, Cassidy, Whitehouse, Kim and McCormick, would make dealers and auction houses subject to the Bank Secrecy Act, the 1970 anti-money-laundering law that requires banks to verify who their customers are, keep records and report suspicious transactions to Treasury. Congress already extended it to antiquities dealers in 2020. The bill’s $10,000 single-transaction floor reaches most of your members, so a gallery would carry the compliance duties of a bank. In February 2022 the ADAA said the Treasury study “echoed” its view that the market was not a priority. Has the organization’s position changed since then?
The ADAA’s position has not changed. We support effective, evidence-based measures to prevent illicit financial activity, but we also believe that regulation should be based on demonstrated risk and tailored to the businesses and transactions presenting that risk.
It is instructive to review the Treasury’s recent evaluations in this area. The Treasury Department’s 2022 study concluded that comprehensive anti-money-laundering regulation of the art market should not be an immediate priority. Its 2024 National Money Laundering Risk Assessment found little change in the sector’s risk profile, and the 2026 assessment characterized the high-value art market as presenting low residual money-laundering risk to the U.S. financial system.
These findings provide an important policy foundation for evaluating proposed AML legislation and determining where regulatory attention and resources can be most effective. We do not believe broad compliance requirements should be imposed on galleries without evidence that the businesses or transactions being regulated present a corresponding money-laundering risk. It is also important to consider the compliance burdens on small and mid-sized businesses, which constitute the vast majority of our membership and represent a significant portion of the gallery sector nationwide.
Our role is to help policymakers understand how galleries operate, the existing legal obligations and professional standards governing their activities and the practical implications of proposed legislation. Protecting the integrity of the art market and supporting the continued viability of responsible galleries are complementary objectives.
I’m told you’ve been pretty active in your lobbying. I worked with the ADAA as a PR client under Maureen Bray and remember she was extremely dedicated to ecological issues, making member galleries and the fair more green. Would you say money laundering is one of your personal issues? What are the others?
Our policy work is a combination of advocacy and education. As a national association, one of the ADAA’s core responsibilities is to help policymakers understand how galleries operate, the challenges they face and their contributions to the cultural economy.
My priorities are broader than any single regulatory issue. I’m particularly focused on the long-term economic sustainability of galleries, strengthening recognition of their essential role in supporting artists and cultural institutions and ensuring the ADAA continues to provide meaningful resources and advocacy for its membership.
Galleries are often viewed primarily through the lens of commerce, but their contributions extend far beyond business transactions. They invest in artists’ careers, produce exhibitions, support scholarship and contribute to the development of museum collections. Helping policymakers and the public better understand that role is important to me.
Environmental responsibility also remains a concern. Maureen Bray’s leadership helped advance that commitment, and we continue to incorporate sustainable materials into the fair wherever practical and provide members with educational resources to help reduce their environmental impact.
Our responsibility extends to the broader cultural community as well. We have long been proud that, through the ADAA Foundation, we are able to support exhibitions, research and programming at museums and nonprofit arts institutions. Following the Los Angeles wildfires , the ADAA Relief Fund pledged $100,000 to the J. Paul Getty Trust in support of the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund.
These initiatives reflect the breadth of our mission and the responsibilities we believe come with representing the gallery community. Ultimately, our responsibility is not simply to address the challenges of today, but to help shape a future in which galleries, artists and the cultural institutions they support can continue to thrive.