The launch of Singapore’s first international art fair in January sent a signal to local artists and an even stronger signal to those people lucky enough to buy and collect outstanding art. Visitors could buy works by Ai WeiWei, China’s radical artist who last year won Tate Britain’s premier commission, and by Yayoi Kusama with her ravishing polka dots, as well as global bankers like Picasso and Warhol. One collector bought three paintings by Takashi Murakami, the leading Japanese artist, for US$2.2 million.

Art at this level is a heady cocktail of culture and money. There is nothing more newsworthy than a major art fair, film festival or fashion week. Think Art Basel in June, the Cannes Film Festival in May and the fashion weeks in Milan, Paris and New York.

These events have become an essential part of the global business calendar for everyone who works in the sector. They are also becoming part of the social calendar for people attracted by the excitement and glamour. The results are an uplift in the host city’s profile and more business for local companies.

Competition is fierce. A few years ago, two British entrepreneurs spotted London’s existing art fairs were not attracting the big international galleries and started Frieze which quickly became a huge success. Art Basel, the world’s pre-eminent art fair held in October every year, recently expanded its franchise to Art Basel Miami Beach in December to provide a bit of winter fun in Florida in the run-up to Christmas which is generally a slow time in the art world.

Singapore’s decision to enter the fray with Art Stage Singapore in mid-January was based on a careful analysis of contemporary Asian art. Its Director is Lorenzo Rudolf who was the pioneering Director of Art Basel for 10 years and also helped to establish the Contemporary fair in Shanghai which is held every September. He now hopes to turn Singapore into a major platform for Asia’s emerging art scene. The Art Stage took place in Marina Bay Sands’ three astonishing skyscrapers.

Singapore is playing for high stakes. The Asian art market has boomed over the last decade. The respected, France-based Artprice company says that in 2010 Asia’s contemporary auction sales were $220m of which China was responsible for $178m. This is getting close to America’s $285m. But Asia does not yet have an established annual event for its own contemporary art.

Asia’s best-known fair is the Hong Kong art fair, known as Art Hong Kong, which is held every May. Hong Kong has strong links with both Europe and mainland China and is the centre for deals between the two. But the fair works best as an outpost of Western art.

Many cities have seen the opportunity for promoting regional Asian art. Both Beijing and Shanghai are bidding to be the leader in mainland China. Commercial galleries in Bangkok, Mumbai, Bangkok, Jakarta and Sydney want their cities to hold art fairs. However, so far, few governments have offered support.

One reason is that governments fail to understand the role of these mega art fairs and often say the local art scene is not active enough. But Art Basel succeeds as the world’s leading art fair even though very few German artists live there. Cannes is the world’s most famous film festival but few film directors live in Cannes, just as few film-makers live in Pusan which hosts Asia’s premier film festival.

Art fairs are about buying and selling and they succeed where buyers and sellers feel welcome and like to trade. Unlike film festivals which award prizes, art festivals are pure market-places. Money is the only measure. Dealers set up their stands and everyone pokes around to see what’s on sale and how much it costs.

Lorenzo Rudolf’s achievement was to attract 120 top-level galleries that, in turn, attracted top-level buyers. Art Stage’s arrangements with hotels, exhibition spaces and local officials were critical. It also offered tax-free trade to all foreign galleries who sold to foreign buyers.

I also liked the fair’s use of Skype. When visitors clicked on an exhibitor’s telephone number, Skype connected the call to their right landline or mobile. So you could click in from a laptop, smart phone or iPad and be immediately connected to the exhibitor without needing to know their number. After lugging around heavy printed guides at other events for many years this is enough to make the Singapore art fair a very welcoming place.

Singapore made its wealth as an international trading centre by being hospitable to global buyers and sellers. Its new Art Stage aims to do the same for Asia’s creative economy by becoming the region’s top art market-place. Last month’s fair was ‘an exceptional start’, according to local broadsheet The Straits Times, and the venue has already been booked again for 12 – 15 January 2012.

Staging an art festival is a sure-fire indicator of a vibrant, cosmopolitan city with a creative buzz.

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