Do you sometimes wander around fancy gallery halls thinking: “Why does it have to be presented in such a stale environment?” As Ned Flanders’s wife from The Simpsons always says: “Won’t somebody think of the children?!” Well the stiff, pretentious art shows of Copenhagen just got challenged. Gather the kids, your friends, mum and dad – hey even blind old grandma – and trot on over to the Copenhagen Art Fair for a fun-packed festival in the name of art.

The team behind the Copenhagen Art Fair 2012 has gathered artists from all over Denmark and abroad to exhibit art from almost every genre of the art world. More than 170 artists will show their latest works in the fields of painting, sculpting, jewellery, fashion and crafts at the massive Falconer Centret in Frederiksberg.

“My kid could paint better than that!” (There’s always some proud dad – or cynical critic – parading this claim about at an art show.) Well now he’s got the chance to prove it! The Art Fair has daily inclusive art shows for the youngest. Artist Lasse Palm Hansen will be administrating a series of workshops that will allow the children to express their artistic abilities … in a controlled environment. And who knows, they might get spotted by a talent scout and start pulling home the bacon even before puberty.

Another way to maybe secure a couple of million from a visit to the art fair involves ‘investing’ a few apt items from the family living room. Anything that might work as an alternative canvas will do. What about the old lamp from Aunt Susie, or the bathroom door maybe? Whatever you have at hand, bring it to the fair, and you might just come home with a unique piece of art and a funny story to tell. Cause this year the Copenhagen Art Fair is launching a new event to include the guests in the making of masterpieces. The event is called POSCA Live Event. It is an on-stage event where the audience hand over a piece of furniture to get it ‘artfied’ by the skilled artists of the fair. It used to be just a hideous lamp – now it’s a colourful piece of original art.

Actually the clothes on our body are signed pieces of art too. They might not be unique items like the Mona Lisa, but the artistic element in fashion design is hard to deny. To celebrate the art of fashion design the fair has installed a runway, and during the event there will be real-life fashion shows: catwalk, models, the works.

As a cherry on top you yourself can be a model. The Art Fair has invited the talented portrait artist Martin Vestergaard to perform the most classical type of street art: portraits on demand. Sit down, be very, very still and enter the immortal line of canvas-captured faces.

Now, if all these different possibilities of participatory art adventures make you long for the focused anonymity and cosmic solitude found in the relation between the work of art and its viewer, fear not. The art fair will be displaying hundreds upon hundreds of different works of art, nicely distributed on three floors – plenty of material to facilitate a journey into another dimension.

So, with such a variety of possibilities, no matter what your connection to art and culture-enriched entertainment might be, you’ll be sure to find something that’ll raise a brow and curve a smile at this years Copenhagen Art Fair.

Copenhagen Art Fair
Falconer Centret, Radisson BLU, Falconer Allé 9, 2000 Frederiksberg;

Starts Fri, ends Sun, open Fri 16:00-19:00, Sat 10:00-18:00, Sun 10:00-17:00;

Tickets: over-14s 100kr, under-14s free adm