Howard and Cindy Rachofsky are the powerhouse collectors behind the annual TWO X TWO for AIDS and Art event in Dallas, TX benefiting amfAR, the foundation for AIDS Research and the Dallas Museum of Art. This evning, TWO X TWO will have a pop-up at the foundation’s event celebrating men’s fashion and photography at the Soho Beach House in Miami. We sat down with Cindy Rachofsky a few weeks ago in New York to talk about the fair and amfAR’s first big event in Miami.
KATY DONOGHUE: Why is Art Basel Miami Beach one of the fairs you make sure you attend each year?
CINDY RACHOFSKY: It’s at a time of the year when it’s nice to get away to nice weather. It’s also a great fair, especially in terms of entertaining out of town guests. It is a great example of encouraging people to come and show them a good time, which is a model we used for our TWO X TWO events in Dallas. You have your entire weekend planned and you can go and see collections that you might not have access to otherwise. That was intriguing to us the very first year because we didn’t know a thing about Miami. We knew the collectors from Miami, but we’d never seen their collections.
KD: Are you at the fair to collect or does it take on more of a social aspect?
CR: Well I think art fairs for us are both. There are three reasons we go. First, I feel like when you live in Dallas you need to go to as many art fairs as possible because you don’t want to be forgotten in the art world from a dealer perspective, because you’re not living in New York and you’re not seeing them every day. It gives us an opportunity to reconnect, especially with European dealers that we might only see once or twice a year. Second, it helps us to stay current on what’s happening out there. And finally, it gives us an opportunity to go and thank the dealers that have been supportive of TWO X TWO. In the course of two or three days, we can hit 80% of the dealers that come to Dallas or support TWO X TWO and we can thank them face to face.
Even though some collectors say, “I’m going to the fair, but I’m not buying anything,” chances are most people find something they can’t live without. It’s in our DNA.
KD: Do you go with any other Dallas collectors?
CR: Oh, yes, absolutely. We have a little art travel group that we always go with. Deedee Rose and Marguerite Hoffman, we always sort of go together. Traditionally there are probably 20 people from Dallas that go, maybe more. It’s interesting because we’ll walk the halls of the fair and dealers will tell us that Dallas is always the most well represented city.
KD: Speaking of Dallas, and more specifically your annual TWO X TWO event for AIDS and Art, you’re involved in the Inspiration Miami Beach Party this year. The event is a celebration of men’s fashion and photography to benefit amfAR at the Soho Beach House on Thursday, December 6. It is amfAR’s first big event in Miami. As a board member of the foundation, can you speak to why holding an event during ABMB made sense?
CR: This was an idea that amfAR had. They don’t have a strong hold in Miami [and they’d like to change that]. Their thought was to do it during Miami Basel when there’s that party atmosphere. But how are we going to get people to go to an amfAR event when the timing is so art focused? So they came to me and said, what if we did a pop-up shop for TWO X TWO?
I said it would have to be a free event, you’re going to have to do it late, and it’s going to have to be a pretty chic party. I think amfAR parties people think of as being pretty chic. They decided they would do a small silent auction. This is going to be part of what they call their “Inspiration Series” and there will be vignettes of men’s fashion with male models wearing clothing from men’s designers. My idea was to do fashion photographs for the silent auction so it’s consistent, so we asked fashion photographers to give works.
KD: Who can we expect to see there?
CR: My invitation list was clearly all TWO X TWO supporters because I want them to know that we’re doing a TWO X TWO pop-up shop. Plus, our collectors in Dallas, whether they’re going to Miami or not, and then all of my art world friends that I think may or may not be going to Miami.
I think it will be great fun. What I hope is that we can capture these people for the future in Miami.
