Heather Hubbs On How NADA Has Changed—and All the Ways It Hasn’t

NADA will return to New York on May 7, setting up for the first time inside the iconic Starrett-Lehigh Building in West Chelsea in a move that brings the fair closer to Frieze and places it firmly in the heart of Chelsea’s gallery district. The 2025 edition of the New Art Dealers Alliance fair will welcome more than 100 exhibitors, with fifty-four first-time participants, including Eugster from Belgrade, Gallery Common from Tokyo, CONSTITUCIÓN from Buenos Aires, Dohing Art from Seoul, Galerie Noah Klink from Berlin and DARLA from New York.

Ahead of this year’s fair, Observer caught up with executive director Heather Hubbs to discuss NADA’s evolution from a small New York gallery association into an international coalition and multi-edition fair. The New Art Dealers Alliance was originally launched as a nonprofit initiative led by a small group of New York galleries seeking a more collaborative approach to art market machinations—one that prioritized shared resources and best practices embraced by peers. Today, NADA still functions, first and foremost, as a gallery association and remains focused on fostering an ecosystem where collaboration and exchange are central to art world success.

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According to Hubbs, the idea of launching a fair emerged only after association members pointed out the lack of a platform for young galleries to present during Miami Art Week. “At the time, there was only Art Basel and Scope as art fairs in Miami. The only space in Art Basel for young galleries was in these containers on the beach. It was very limited.” NADA was very much a direct response to a known challenge.

Initially, the New Art Dealers Alliance approached Tom Blackman, then director of Art Fair Chicago, where Hubbs was working at the time. But Blackman was uninterested in pursuing the idea, so the association forged ahead on its own, launching NADA as an alternative fair in Miami. The first edition was held in 2003 in a vacant retail space off Lincoln Road. “It was a very DIY, low-budget fair with around thirty exhibitors,” Hubbs, who attended that year as a visitor, recalled. “Many dealers did very well; some even sold out. Two galleries even made enough money to move from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Overall, it was a success.” The following year, NADA invited Hubbs to become director—a position she has held ever since.

As we spoke, Hubbs made sure to emphasize that NADA continues to prioritize its role as a platform that supports its members beyond the art fairs with programming throughout the year. “We’re really interested in our members coming to us and letting us know what they need from us,” she said. This ongoing exchange has inspired international initiatives like Villa Warsaw, which brought the NADA fair model to the Polish capital at the request of local dealers. And some programs have been launched spontaneously by the association’s members. For instance, in L.A., a group of galleries now hosts “Dealers and Donuts” on rotation—a casual gathering where art world professionals can discuss shared challenges and address some of the industry’s most pressing concerns.

NADA has, since its inception, steadily expanded into a truly international association and a series of art fairs, with more than 250 members across continents as of 2024 and NADA editions in Miami, New York and, as of last year, Paris. Hubbs shared that one of NADA’s main goals moving forward is to become even more global—both in terms of attracting collectors from around the world and cultivating a genuinely international network of member galleries. The New Art Dealers Alliance is currently exploring the possibility of expanding into Asia. “There is nothing confirmed yet,” Hubbs clarified. “But personally, I would like to develop that direction. We are having talks about it.”

So many NADA members have grown alongside the organization to the point where it’s increasingly reductive to describe it solely as a fair for emerging galleries. “I’ve always considered the ‘new’ to refer to the alliance part more than its member profiles,” Hubbs said. “This was one of the first international alliances of galleries and the first to have an international breadth.” On the other hand, NADA recently launched a mentorship program in which more established members offer guidance to less experienced dealers looking for support.

One additional priority NADA has maintained over the years is a clear curatorial focus and a commitment to artistic integrity, as the association continues to highlight the best of contemporary art production. In line with this dedication to fostering curatorial thinking, the upcoming edition of NADA New York will see the return of the TD Bank Curated Spotlight. This year’s iteration centers on galleries and artists from Texas and Mexico and is organized and curated by Owen Duffy, director of exhibitions at Asia Society Texas.

NADA New York opens to VIPs on May 7, 2025, and is open to the public through Sunday, May 11.