Emerging Trend of Art Fairs and Art Festivals in Hyderabad

Art fairs and art festivals are important events in the art market in recent years. They are sprouting all over the world in large numbers as platforms for artists of all levels, be it beginner, hobby artist or professional artists. They are functioning like networking hubs for artists, buyers, connoisseurs and curators etc. providing needed environment for displays and sales of artworks. This paper focuses on the same trend that is emerging in Hyderabad art scene with events like Kalamela, Indian Art Festival, and India Art Fair etc. It has been more of a conventional scenario with gallery-based or individual buyer-based sales earlier. That is, the exposure of the artists was mostly restricted to the gallery-supported or reference-based market with selection of the artists and artwork depending on other forces than the art itself. With the emergence of this trend in the Hyderabad art scene, it is important to understand the changes this has brought to artists, art practices and art scene of Hyderabad. This paper took the evolutionary approach to understand how the art fairs and festivals are emerging in Hyderabad and how they are impacting both artists and Hyderabad art scene