Two years ago, Amani Olu and his wife Aleiya Lindsey Olu were gearing up for the 2025 return of their contemporary art fair Detroit Art Week. The event, which launched in 2019, brought together hundreds of participants from Detroit’s creative community, like Playground Detroit, the Heidelberg Project and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
The Olus were already putting out calls to city-based galleries and exhibition spaces for the third iteration of Detroit Art Week. But then the couple came up with a different idea.
“What we felt was missing was the opportunity for artists to sell their work, and we decided we need infrastructure for a marketplace and that’s what art fairs do,” Amani Olu said.
The couple and cultural curators decided to pivot and produce Season Fair, an art fair that took place last September at Michigan Central. The four-day event brought together 11 galleries across North America, a curated platform of 10 Detroit-based artists, special artist projects, as well as artist talks, activations and civic initiatives.
This year’s fair will bring much of the same, but with a venue change – east side arts and culture center The Shepherd. Taking place Sept. 11-13, the second annual Season Fair will feature international, national and local galleries like Playground Detroit, Library Street Collective and Buffalo Prescott.
Additionally, the exhibition, “Detroit Presents: Other Routes,” will feature six Detroit-based artists: Mobolaji Ayeni, bree gant, Jessica Nabongo, India Solomon, Miriam Uhura and Oshun Williams.
The day before Season Fair opens, Amani Olu and his team will host “Season Talks,” a one-day symposium focused on contemporary art and the ideas, questions and practices shaping the field. The free event will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 10 at the College for Creative Studies.
Season Fair general admission tickets are $40, while a weekend pass is $65 and Friday’s VIP preview is $100.
Amani Olu talked to BridgeDetroit about what he learned from the first Season Fair, connecting with art galleries and why art events that are successful in other cities can’t be replicated in Detroit.
Editor’s note: These responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
BridgeDetroit: What are some things you learned from the first Season Fair that you’re incorporating into this year’s event?
Olu: What we’re interested in is bringing as many people into The Shepherd – those who are seasoned, those who are emerging, those who are curious. And in order to do that, we really have to focus on people actually getting there. One of the things that we changed this year: we had a lot of programming that was going on throughout the city, and while I feel like it was enriching, we decided this year we’re going to keep things super tight and focused. The priority is to get people into the actual fair, so that we can have the conversation that we’re trying to have around building this art market infrastructure.
We also learned that programming is really important on-site. Our talks program this year will be at CCS in collaboration with Modern Ancient Brown Foundation on September 10, so that’s an interesting new thing that we’re doing. There’s a day of talks before the fair opens. We know that people love talks and discussions and panels and programming, but I’m curious to see if we are going to be able to exceed our attendance in year two without a full talks program happening over two days. When I first started Season, I said to the exhibitors, “This is an experiment. We don’t have anything figured out. We have an idea of what can work.” This is an experienced team that has promoted art fairs, participated in art fairs, and has been in a larger art world ecosystem for many years. But Detroit is different, and I think that a mistake that people make when they do projects here, especially if they’re coming from another city, is they try to replicate. And when that happens, you just learn a lot of hard lessons. Instead of trying to say definitively, “This is exactly what we’re doing, and we know exactly where we’re going,” we’re taking a more iterative approach. We’re gonna obtain data, and then, in year three, we’ll make it better. We have a roadmap, but we’re open to where this journey takes us.
BridgeDetroit: How is Detroit different from other cities when it comes to the art scene, and why can’t events be replicated here like they can in New York, Chicago, or elsewhere?
Olu: I grew up in Philly, and I moved to New York when I was 25. I lived there for 12 years, and I’ve now been in Detroit for 10 years. Detroit requires a certain level of authenticity in order for things to work here. If it’s not authentic and incorporates the true essence of the space, it just doesn’t resonate with people. Doesn’t mean it can’t be successful. It just means that Detroiters won’t necessarily feel like they have ownership or the foundation and infrastructure that has already existed here, which is contributing to the fair and not being recognized as being important. What we do is we say, “OK, there’s two conversations we need to have.” The first conversation is artists need to get paid. They need to make money so they can continue to live in Detroit. How do we figure that out? Well, the first thing we do is bring in galleries locally and from elsewhere, and that will draw attention to the city because art fairs are natural magnets for people who are interested in contemporary art. But we’re also going to bring in Detroit-based artists, not necessarily with galleries, but we’re going to set up an exhibition so that when you come to the city, you could meet a gallery from Denmark, but also find out what’s happening right up the street, and that to me is important, and that is one of the key things that is different about how I’m approaching Season Fair.
Now, a place like New York, where the market is so robust, you’re dealing with the challenge of, “OK, you have a fair because there’s so many people here, but now you’ve got 15 different fairs going on.” You’re in New York, and you’re in this massive marketplace where there are artists everywhere, constantly making work, constantly contributing. But now you’ve got a lot more competition. So, now you’ve got to figure out a different issue there. For us, I want Detroit-based galleries; I want galleries throughout the world to come here because they want to exhibit in Detroit. They see the value. They want to get to know the people who live here who are interested in contemporary art; they want to connect with the individuals who are already buying art. That’s where we’re different.
BridgeDetroit: When you were connecting with the out-of-state galleries like Cleveland’s Gallery Abattoir and Chela Mitchell Gallery in Washington DC, were they excited to be a part of a Detroit event?
Olu: Absolutely. The participating galleries that are not based in the city, they’ve been waiting for an opportunity to come to Detroit. People are always coming to Detroit for one reason or another. They’re curious; they want to see what is happening here. I think that what Season does is it allows people to come to Detroit for the sole purpose of connecting with our art community, and you’re hearing about how great the city is. You’re hearing about places to eat, shop and hang out. What I’m really doing for galleries – even the galleries that are based here – I’m creating a moment where there is a hyper-focused attention on contemporary art in the city over a three-day period. I’m creating an opportunity for them to be a part of that conversation here, so they can continue to connect with people who might be interested in supporting their gallery. There is a large client base for contemporary art in Detroit, but you have to show up authentically in order to get people to want to come out and support what you’re doing.
BridgeDetroit: How did you get Denmark gallery HAGD Contemporary to participate in Season Fair?
Olu: You want to know what’s funny about them? The guy who runs the gallery (director Rasmus Peter Fischer) wrote to me and he said, “Hey, I want to apply for the fair. I know I don’t have a chance of getting in, but I just wanted to see if you would even consider us.” To me, I feel like that is a sentiment that we can harness. And that’s what I mean about opportunity. I didn’t know about this guy; I did not reach out to them directly. They contacted me. I asked them to apply, like everyone else. They had a solid presentation proposal, and they got in the fair. So, I want to believe that there are a lot of people out there that are watching and waiting for the right time to engage with what we’re doing. We’re in year two and to have a gallery come as far as Denmark to Detroit says that we have something here. We just have to keep doing it.
BridgeDetroit: General admission for Season Fair is $40. Why was it important to keep the event affordable?
Olu: It’s important that established and seasoned collectors attend the fair and buy art, one thousand percent. But that is a much smaller market of people, and they are making decisions based on a multitude of things. What I’m interested in, in terms of expanding, is turning someone who is curious about an artist and creating the conditions where you can come to a place and buy art, even if you don’t see yourself as a collector. You might just be a curious person, and you see something that catches your eye, and you’re like, “Wow, I would love to have that.”
Season Fair can be for someone young. They just got their first apartment; they’re not rich, but they’re making decent money, and they want to start a collection. Where do they go? They’re not going to go into a gallery because galleries are terrifying for most people. They don’t necessarily have access to an artist. They can’t buy directly in a studio. If you are just somebody who’s outside of the community but curious, you can start your collecting journey for the price of $40, and now you’re in the system; now you’re meeting people and having conversations. And then an art fair is cool because you get to see a lot, so you can figure out what you like and what you don’t like.