Deborah Harris

LAUDED THE MOST IMPORTANT annual art event in New York, the Armory Show is fast approaching and the team behind the leading international contemporary and modern art fair is firing on all cylinders.

From March 8-11, the fair will take over Piers 92 and 94 in Manhattan, attracting art collectors, dealers and artists the world over. Haute Living stopped Managing Director of The Armory Show-Modern Deborah Harris in her bustling tracks to find out what her days look like just a month before the big show.

6 AM

I check my emails and make some phone calls to galleries that we work with outside of the United States, like Japan. Or I’ll speak to galleries in Europe and London or Paris just to check in and follow up on emails.

8 AM

I read the newspapers and blogs, check some online magazines and then I get ready.

9 AM

I have two children, so I get them off to school. Sometimes I go to the gym.

9:30 AM

When I’m in the office, I usually go through my emails and mail—invitations for openings or exhibitions that are coming up—and I add them to my calendar.

11 AM

Generally, we have an internal meeting around 10 or 11 a.m. We have a small team here, so we update each other on the progress of the fair.

1 PM

I try to have lunch around 12 p.m. or 1 p.m. in Chelsea or up on Madison Avenue with either a gallery person, director, artist or creator. We meet at Sant Ambroeus or something like that.

3-4 PM

When I come back to the office in the afternoon, there is a lot of follow up, like if I need to speak to someone in California. Literally the art world is so global now that it’s like 24-hours a day.

7 PM

My favorite new place for dinner in New York is a Peruvian restaurant, La Mar Cebicheria. But I also meet friends in Chelsea to go to lots of little tapas spots or we’ll go to Bottino for a drink. And I love my neighborhood; I live in Union Square so there are so many great places there.

9 PM

We all connect with each other about what’s going on that evening in the city, in terms of gallery openings, and often times we’ll go as a group or individually to openings.