The Winter Show is an annual art, antiques, and design fair organized by East Side House Settlement in New York City. All net proceeds from the fair benefit East Side House Settlement, which provides education, technology training, and college opportunities to residents of the Bronx and Northern Manhattan.
The Winter Show is a ten-day event held each year at the Park Avenue Armory. In 2018, the fair featured seventy exhibitors from North America and Europe. The New York Times describes the show as a “galaxy of colliding worlds,” with works ranging from Egyptian antiquities to postwar Italian art glass.
All works are vetted by a committee of 150 experts for authenticity, date, and condition.
History
The fair was established when two young antiques dealers, John Bihler and Henry Coger, suggested the creation of an antiques show as a fundraiser for East Side House Settlement to co-director Grace Lindquist. Their proposal came days after socialite Norris Harkness enlisted Lindquist's help to sell five Louis Vuitton trunks at the National Antiques Show, during which time Bihler and Coger witnessed Lindquist's acumen for antiques. On Monday, January 24, 1955, the fair opened at the Seventh Regiment Armory with one hundred dealers from the East Coast. By the end of the decade, The Winter Show was seen as the leading event of its kind in the United States.
In 1970, the Show's first catalogue was produced, and the fair hosted a loan show of 19th-century American paintings and objects from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, reflecting a focus on American art at the fair.
The fair's annual loan exhibitions promote the collections of American museums and have included loan shows from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New-York Historical Society, and Peabody Essex Museum.
In 1993, the vetting process that is still in use today was introduced.
In 1995, Arie L. Kopelman was named co-chair of The Winter Show.
In 2015, Lucinda C. Ballard and Michael R. Lynch joined Kopelman as co-chairs of The Winter Show.
In 2017, Arie L. Kopelman was named Chairman Emeritus of The Winter Show. Lucinda C. Ballard and Michael R. Lynch continue to serve as the Show's Co-Chairs.
In 2018, Helen Allen was appointed The Winter Show's Executive Director. Michael Diaz-Griffith is the Show's Associate Executive Director.
In 2019, The Winter Show will celebrate its 65th Anniversary Sapphire Jubilee.
Loan exhibitions
2004: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
2005: New-York Historical Society
2006: George Washington's Mount Vernon
2007: Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) 2008: The Shaker Museum and Library 2009: The Corning Museum of Glass 2010: Colonial to Modern: A Century of Collecting at Historic New England 2011: Grandeur Preserved: Masterworks Presented by Historic Charleston Foundation 2012: Celebrating Historic Hudson Valley at 60: Rockefeller Patronage in Sleepy Hollow Country 2013: Newport: The Glamour of Ornament (The Preservation Society of Newport County) 2014: Fresh Take, Making Connections at the Peabody Essex Museum 2015: Ahead of the Curve: The Newark Museum 1909-2015 2016: Legacy for the Future: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art 2017: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum: Revolution & Evolution 2018: Collecting for the Commonwealth/Preserving for the Nation: Celebrating a Century of Art Patronage 1919-2018 (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)