This Sunday morning (today) was crisp but spring-like. Woken by birds singing and seeing the snow melt, I couldn’t help but think back to last Sunday morning—having to dig myself out of the house.  Last Saturday night, I abandoned my car at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre parking lot because we were in the midst of a snow storm—weather conditions that didn’t bode well for Toronto Art Expo attendance.  Originally, Toronto Art Expo was supposed to be held this weekend (March 13 - 16) and these dates could have worked out better had they been kept.  

When Mr. Peter Maguire (President of Rime Canada/Organizer of Toronto Art Expo) confirmed the date switch (off-line, just before Christmas, and on-line, well into January) from March 13 - 16 to March 6 - 9, 08, I was uneasy.  Apparently, there were two main reasons for the date-change:  to catch March break big-spenders before they left on vacation, and to upstage Toronto’s Artist Project’s first-year, which Maguire didn’t want to have poach his audience a week in advance.  

Sometimes, calculations and manipulations just don’t work.  Mother Nature is more powerful than humankind.  What is meant to be will be, rash or reasonable decisions and changes having little influence over outcome.

Irony:  A week after the event, receipts still haven’t been issued by Toronto Art Expo for expenses already paid (despite pre-show requests).  However, on the Saturday of the actual event weekend, reapplication packages were hand-delivered to each participant’s booth for next year (2009). Then, on the Sunday two paper warnings appeared.  The first note stated that 5 pm would be the cut-off time for resign-up.  Those who didn’t do so by then would be subject to re-jurying and possible price increase.  They’d also lose seniority over booth allocation.  The second note extended the deadline till 6 pm because of "traffic on the floor."

As I sat quietly in my booth (few attendees in evidence) musing about how Toronto Art Expo 08 (at least from what I’d witnessed) seemed doomed from the start, any notion of feeling pressure/anxiety to sign up (and pay up) for a repeat performance seemed a little silly.