Arts and Humanities People and Community

Beaux Arts Festival of Art on the Move

Now in its 67th year, the Beaux Arts Festival will move to the Foote University Green.
Beaux Arts Festival, Lowe Art Museum

The 67th annual Beaux Arts Festival of Art will move to the heart of the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus on January 13 and 14, when more than 200 acclaimed artists offer their sculptures, paintings, photography, and other original works for sale on the Foote University Green, in front of the Richter Library.

“This year’s festival will not only be larger but also more centrally located on our beautiful campus,” said Jill Deupi, director and chief curator of UM’s Lowe Art Museum. “The more spacious location will make an already special event that much more memorable. And, by overlapping with spring orientation, it will allow us to share one of our most enduring and treasured community events with new students and their families.”

The festival is moving because the University’s 600,000-square-foot Student Housing Village is under construction on its former location, the grassy area between the Merrick Garage and Eaton Residential College. That project is slated for completion in the summer of 2019.

But the festival will still emanate from the Lowe, which is fitting since the museum is the reason for and the beneficiary of the acclaimed art show’s existence. Beaux Arts, the volunteer organization that organizes the festival, was founded in 1953 specifically to promote and create community interest in art and to support what was South Florida’s first art museum when the Lowe opened in 1952 with a gift from philanthropists Joe and Emily Lowe.

The same year, local artists were invited to introduce themselves to the buying public by hanging their creations on clotheslines strung on the UM campus. Originally called the “Clothesline Sale,” the festival became an annual Beaux Arts project and, 66 years later, is one of the leading art shows in the country, attracting thousands of patrons and scores of acclaimed artists from around the world.

Today, the Lowe’s 17,500-object collection is among the most important in the southeast, and thanks to Beaux Arts, which has raised more than $7 million for the museum, it offers a variety of children’s art classes and camps in its recently renovated Children’s Pavilion. In 1987, Beaux Arts also established “HandsOn! – A Children’s Celebration in Art,” an outreach program that brings hundreds of underserved Miami-Dade County kids to the museum annually for a day of fun and learning.

The festival also includes a Student Artist Showcase at the Lowe, where the winners of a juried art contest for middle and high school students exhibit their entries and attend a reception in their honor.

Aside from its artists and activities, the two-day festival is known for the beauty and accessibility of its site, which will not change either. Festivalgoers can still park for free at the Merrick and Pavia garages, and visit the Lowe before strolling among the food vendors on Stanford Drive, and heading to the artist tents on the Foote Green. On the way, they’ll pass the entertainment tent at its new location, by the U statue at the Rock, the very heart of the Coral Gables campus.

For more information visit https://beauxartsmiami.org.