from the KEY WEST ART & HISTORICAL SOCIETY 281 FRONT STREET, KEY WEST, FL 33040 295-6616 Fax: 295-6649
Attention: News editors, news directors, features editors and programming directors. Please use the following item as a news story, public service announcement or community event. For immediate release.
Plans are being made to launch the first Key West Antiques Show the last weekend in February 2005, during the height of the winter season. It will be the southernmost antiques show in North America and will run from Thursday, February 24, through Saturday, February 26, in one of Key West's historic forts, now home to East Martello Museum overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The Key West Antiques Show is designed to provide exhibitors with an excellent venue to showcase fine antiques as well as exposure to a national clientele in the tropical paradise of Key West during prime tourist time. The Fort East Martello Museum and Gardens, located near the airport on South Roosevelt Boulevard, provides plenty of display space, security, free parking and easy access for exhibitors. Key West and the Florida Keys are home to a highly affluent and sophisticated population, many of whom reside for the winter months. Key West area property values have more than tripled in the last seven years, while the average household income has risen far above the national average. During the winter season the average population of the Florida Keys is greater than 160,000. Always a cultural Mecca for artists and aficionados, Key West has witnessed an escalating interest in fine art and antiques from an educated population. It now boasts 30 museums and attractions, 90 galleries and a growing number of antique shops. The Key West Antiques Show is sponsored by the Key West Art & Historical Society, a professionally run, 55-year-old cultural organization that operates three unique properties. The Art & Historical Society's full-time staff is actively involved in the community and is giving tremendous support to the development and promotion of the Key West Antiques Show. The Show will be managed by Ellen Katona and Bob Lutz of Greenwich, New Jersey and Big Pine Key, Florida, who have more than 20 years experience as antiques show managers in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey marketing areas. Serving as co-chairmen of the show are George Korn and Richard Kemble, owners of the Forager House Collection of Nantucket and Key West, who bring their enthusiasm and years of experience in the antiques business to the project, along with Richard Sheldon, president of Sheldrake, Inc., developers of fine residential properties in the Keys. The efforts of the managers, chairs and sponsors of the new Key West Antiques Show provide a winning combination for the event's success. For further details and information, please contact Ellen Katona and Bob Lutz at 856-459-2229 or e-mail them at ellenbob@snip.net
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