We haven’t exhibited at any antique shows since late February, 2020, when we were in Asheville, NC, for the National Arts and Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn. At the time we were beginning to hear about the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, but it was far away and their problem. Certainly not ours! We were the happy idiots.
Then in March, when I heard that the virus was in the United States, I told our family that we would not visit them, nor permit them into our home. At first we were met with incredulity, as I was a week or two ahead of the general warnings. It didn’t take long for our family, and the country at large, to realize the gravity of the situation.
I informed various show promoters that we wouldn’t exhibit at their shows for the foreseeable future. They still had hopes they could pull off their shows. After all, they had commitments, contracts and a lot at stake. It took the promoters longer to realize there would be no shows during the pandemic, despite their valiant efforts. Eventually they were forced to cancel their shows, one after another.
Now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I’m tentatively planning. Miami is out. At first the show was postponed from January to March and ultimately canceled. The National Arts and Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn this month was turned into a virtual show this year. So the next possibility on our schedule would be the Chicago Merchandise Mart Show in May. But that just seems too soon to me. Even if both my wife and I have had our shots, most of those people around us wouldn’t have had theirs, so we will not exhibit in Chicago this May.
That leaves us with our next possibility, the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show, at the end of August. As of now, I don’t even see dates for the show listed on their website, so I hope it actually happens. My assumption is by then, a majority of Americans will have been vaccinated, and life will have begun to return to normal. So our plan, of course subject to change, is to exhibit there as our first show in a year and a half. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the virus can be subdued, but the new variants put that plan in jeopardy. Stay posted!
In the meantime, business has been good, so I continue to stay optimistic.
Mr Chasen,
As always thank you very much for both a very interesting and informative blog.
You may be aware the Baltimore Convention Center is being used both as a Covid Field Hospital as well as a mass vaccination site. If not, the show promoter will soon realize it. It would be a false sense of security to assume all will be back to normal (whatever that means) by August. I would greatly miss not having the show for a second time—there have been so many cancellations, but I suppose it remains to be seen.
I’m glad your internet business is doing well and hope you and family are as well.
Regards,
Mark Mitchell
Baltimore, MD
Ugh! Never thought of that, but the Convention Center is very large and it could easily accommodate an antique show in some sections and a Covid Field Hospital in others. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Best.
Philip