Visitors to Canada’s biggest modern and contemporary art fair—running from October 2 through 6 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre—are sure to notice something different about the eight-year-old event: It has a snappy new name, Art Toronto; its former one, the Toronto International Art Fair, now serves as a subtitle. That’s one result of what fair director Linel Rebenchuk calls “a great partnership.”

Rebenchuk is referring to the fair’s purchase last January by Merchandise Mart Properties (MMPI), the trade-show company that now owns six such events, including New York’s Armory Show; Volta, in Basel and New York; and Art Chicago and its new emerging-art fair, NEXT. The title change is one indication of how MMPI will boost Art Toronto’s image. Mark Falanga, the company’s senior vice president and head of the art division, says he wants to increase “participation, and get more cultural institutions involved.” Rebenchuk seems quite happy with the arrangements, saying that “we had offers in the past, but from people who didn’t understand what we are doing.”

While the new owner has played only a minor role in the fair’s 2008 edition, there will be more changes next year. Paul Morris, a founder of New York’s Armory Show, who was recently named vice president of art shows and events at MMPI, says he finds Art Toronto, more than half of whose 100 exhibitors hail from Canada, to be “a little like Art Cologne” in its regional strength, with “a specific audience buying work from specific dealers.” He wants to “give it more of an international profile” by bringing collectors up from the U.S., affording participants” a chance to cross-pollinate.” He would also like to make it edgier by beefing up the 15-gallery Young Avant-Garde section. Still, he doesn’t want to push too far, too fast. Art Toronto has “a great director who is doing a great fair,” he says. “You don’t want to fix something that’s not broken.”