ARTS, ANTIQUES AND ALLISON

Art and antique lovers should! be in for a surprise next spring. That’s when the first issue of the “new” Art & Antiques magazine will hit the newsstands. Dallas-ites should have a special interest in the publication since Dallas-ite-gone-New Yorker and D Magazine founder Wick Allison is the man behind the effort.

The national magazine, found-ed in 1978, had a not-so-earth-shattering circulation of barely! 30,000 when Allison purchased it from Billboard Publications this summer. He officially takes; the helm September 1 and says that he will immediately suspend publication. He says he hopes to have an entirely new magazine by February 15.

The revamping of Art & An-tiques will begin with some changes in the art and editorial staffs.

Allison spent much of the summer seeking out staff members with collective experience from Portfolio, Art and Auction, Art in America, Harper’s and Time magazines. He says that the new publication will be geared to “upper demographic” readers and will focus largely on the visual and decorative arts.

An & Antiques will be the first magazine in 20 years to enlarge the size of its pages; it will be the size of the old Life magazine,

“When I started at D Magazine,” Allison says, “I wanted to do my part in changing Dallas. With this magazine [Arts & Antiques], my long-term goal is to reaffirm cultural values and] make a cultural statement for the United States.”

Since the look and content of the magazine will change, Alii-son says, so will the competition. He says that Art & Antique’s competition was formerly trade, publications; now he plans to rival Town and Country, Architectural Digest and Connoisseur.