Why Frieze Is the Perfect Weekend Adventure (Even if You’re Not in It for the Art)

There are only so many ways art galleries can generate hype. There are gallery weeks and gallery weekends, openings, closings, and, of course, art fairs, where dealers fly in from around the world to stand in a tent with poor air circulation and promote work by their most marketable artists. Frieze New York, one of the biggest of these, opens tomorrow, May 13, to VIPs and the hoi polloi on Thursday the 14th. It runs through Sunday, May 17.

The good news for those who cannot (or will not) be forking over thousands of dollars for contemporary art is that in an effort to make sure that those who can (and will) are in the mood to do so, organizers have created an ecosystem of parties, culinary events, and pop-ups to inject the fair with a festive air.