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Initially, there were grumblings about the pay-to-play aspect, but they quickly faded. The consensus that emerged was: this is a well-run, well-curated event, one that for a number of artists, turned out to be profitable, both in sales made and in curator/collector connections established. For visitors, the draw was the ability to meet and converse with artists in an intimate environment – two things not possible at convention hall/booth fairs. As such, the sTARTup fair filled the void left by the 2013 departure of ArtPad, the hotel fair/pool party that laid the template for such events in SF. Were there awkward moments? Yes, there were. Not all artists were adept at speaking about their work; some arrived woefully unprepared and would have been better served by galleries at conventional art fairs. Others operated like seasoned pros and reaped the benefits.
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Last year’s Parking Lot Art Fair was a guerilla event. It went up before dawn and was taken down before noon; the location was announced on Facebook only an hour before it opened. This year the fair’s gone legit. It has a permit, meaning it will operate without fear of being busted. The bigger victory, however, may be the location: the Fort Mason Parking lot. Operating out of autos and trucks, the assembled artists, many of them worthy, stand to draw attention from the hordes headed to Art Market — something that could help erase or blur the lines separating insiders from outsiders. Two hundred artists are expected.