Lots of art and character at Beaux Arts Festival

 The beautiful Beaux Arts Festival of Art is back on Saturday and Sunday, January 16 and 17. It's right across the highway, a hop, skip and a jump away, at the University of Miami.

The yearly event benefits the Lowe Art Museum on campus. The festival runs from 10 am to 5 pm each day. This is the area's oldest juried art show. Along with the art there is lots of food, drink and character.

This is one of the most civilized art festivals in the area. It winds around the lake, it's free to enter and there is free parking. The entrance is in front of the Lowe Art Museum at Stanford Drive off of Ponce de Leon Blvd. 

Beaux Arts was started in 1953 by 50 founding members under the direction of Anne Atkinson, then Assistant Director of the newly built Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery. The purpose of the group was to provide improvements, equipment and financial assistance to the Lowe Gallery, renamed Lowe Art Museum in 1968.

Today, the 125 Beaux Arts volunteers and 300 plus associate members work together throughout the year to execute events and to make a difference in the community through many special programs.

During the past 65 years, Beaux Arts has raised over $6 million, which places the organization in the highest donor category for the University of Miami, The Gables Society.  

In 2014, Beaux Arts made a donation in the amount of $1.5 million to the University of Miami.  This gift has enabled the creation of the position of Beaux Arts’ Director’s Endowment Fund. The endowment which was the result of hard work from members, past and present, lives in perpetuity and will support increased programming, community outreach, facility upgrades and other projects at the Lowe.  Toward that end, Beaux Arts proudly welcomes the acclaimed art director, Dr. Jill Deupi as the new Beaux Arts Director and Chief Curator of the Lowe Art Museum.