Saturday and Sunday, February 1 - 2, 2025
Opening Night Friday, January 31, 2025

Saturday and Sunday,
February 1-2, 2025
Opening Night Friday,
January 31, 2025

ArtFest Fort Myers News Release Archive

Media Contact
Sharon McAllister, Executive Director
Click here to email
Phone 239-768-3602

Click here for more media resources

Russell Yerkes Won “Best of Show” in 2019 and Returns for 2020

We were delighted to have Russell Yerkes join us in 2019 after a hiatus of seven years! Image the charm of having this 2005 Best of Show winner repeat the honor in 2019 – Congratulations to you, Russ, for taking home the 2019 Best of Show award at ArtFest Fort Myers, along with our deepest admiration for your fabulous talent. And welcome back in 2020! yerkesworks.com

Call for Artists – Apply Now For ArtFest Fort Myers 2020

ArtFest Fort Myers, Southwest Florida’s premier fine art festival, is currently accepting applications from professional artists for participation in our 2020 juried show. Featuring the work of 200 artists, ArtFest Fort Myers will bring 90,000 art lovers and collectors to the largest outdoor gallery in Southwest Florida on the first weekend in February!

Why apply to participate at ArtFest Fort Myers? Creating an artwork-selling festival for artists is the focus of our year-round professional staff, with 20 years of consistent management. Targeting art buyers throughout Southwest Florida and beyond – from Marco Island to Sarasota and east to West Palm Beach – our promotional campaign includes all forms of media. We also understand the importance of providing great artist amenities over festival weekend, to ensure that our artists are stress free and ready to share their work with our dedicated attendees.

How are festival artists chosen? Each October, ArtFest Fort Myers brings together a panel of professional artists who view submitted images and score each applying artist on a range of 1 – 7 points. The artists with the highest scores are then invited to participate in ArtFest. Our Jury Panel varies each year but always represents a broad base of expertise with regard to artistic mediums – theirs is the difficult task of evaluating who is the “best-of–the-best” from the hundreds of artists who wish to join ArtFest Fort Myers! (Our jury process is open to artists and patrons – please contact us for more information.)

For Artist Application information, contact ArtFest Fort Myers at 239-768-3602, email
info@ArtFestFortMyers.com or visit our website at ArtFestFortMyers.com

RETHINK WASTE “We Are Overflowing”

ArtFest Fort Myers is harnessing the power of art to increase awareness and challenge behavior inspiring recycle, re-use, upcycling movement and conserving our natural resources. This creative look at how we deal with recycling will spark your imagination and, perhaps, begin a conversation about rethinking waste!

All-new in 2019, ArtFest is launching the collaborative project We Are Overflowing, a national juried exhibit of art crafted from re-purposed, discarded and cast-off materials. Professional artist, Donald Gialanella, is traveling to Fort Myers from St. Petersburg, FL to create “Dumpster Diving,” made entirely of single use recycled plastic. Amplifying the We Are Overflowing message, middle school students are also creating eight smaller sculptures made from 100% recycled materials and will be competing for awards.

We Are Overflowing, on display in the center of the art festival-at the intersection of Hendry St. and Edwards Dr., is sponsored by Covanta and supported by Lee County Solid Waste. In December 1994, Covanta Lee, Inc. became a public-private partnership with Lee County, operating the Lee County Solid Waste Resource Recovery Facility. Covanta’s commitment to sustainability comes with a commitment to programs that support the environmental issues – like fresh air, clean water and safe oceans. These are issues that affect people, communities and the precious home we all share, Earth.

Art Under 20, the high school exhibit and competition at ArtFest, has also created a Recycle Art category this season. As with We Are Overflowing, student artists must use all recycle materials in the creation of their artwork. The inspiration for this new category for student artists came from the Fewster Family who sponsors several awards at Art Under 20.

ArtFest Fort Myers, Southwest Florida’s premier art festival, takes place February 1, 2 & 3, 2019 in the Fort Myers River District. Join the experience with 200 professional artists from across the county and around the world; the largest high school art exhibit and competition in south Florida and free interactive art experiences for children of all ages.

ArtFest Fort Myers 2019 – Let Art Elevate YOUR Everyday!

Spend a few hours, all day or a weekend being surrounded by imagination, inspiration and incredible talent. ArtFest Fort Myers brings 200 exceptional professional artists to the heart of downtown Fort Myers, encourages 300 talented local high school artists to pursue their artistic dreams while providing an opportunity for thousands of children, their parents and grandparents to try their hand at creating a masterpiece. Join the fun on February 2 & 3, 2019, with an Opening Night Party on Friday, February 1st.

How do the festival artists get chosen? A jury panel of professional artists determines which 200 artists will exhibit at ArtFest from the 900 artists who apply. These artists are the best-of-the-best with plenty of incredible artwork for you to enjoy!

Meet the stars of the show – the artists! These incredibly creative folks, traveling from 43 states and many foreign countries to share their work with us, are sure to make us laugh, learn about ourselves, appreciate our past and wonder about the future—all through their art! Amazing ceramics, a gorgeous array of jewelry, handbags, clothing plus remarkable glass, unique paintings, and decorative await you at ArtFest Fort Myers. This family-friendly festival connects art and artists together with our community in a way that is so much fun – this is an art experience that delights every sense!

The Commemorative Poster and T-shirt, available for purchase at the fine art festival, feature the fabulous work of Ellen Negley. Joining ArtFest Fort Myers from West Palm Beach, FL, Ellen created “Fort Myers Flavors” to capture the downtown riverfront in her own distinctive and delightful style.

All new in 2019 ArtFest Fort Myers is harnessing the power of art to increase awareness and challenge behavior inspiring the recycle, re-use, upcycling movement and conserving our natural resources. We Are Overflowing, a professional sculpture created from re-purposed, discarded and cast-off materials recycling will spark your imagination and, perhaps, begin a conversation about rethinking waste!

Be sure to bring the entire family to this fabulous FREE outdoor fine art festival. Take time to enjoy our talented high school artists’ work at the Art Under 20 Exhibit and Competition and prepare to be astonished as the students create large street paintings in the Chalk Block. Check out the “We Are Overflowing” exhibit, artwork featuring the message about recycling and what, as a community, we dispose of. Always a crowd pleaser, the Publix Art Yard and Youth Stage are full of opportunities for children of all ages to create a masterpiece of their very own, while enjoying a variety of great performances. And be sure to visit the art festival’s Dining Galleries, where delicious culinary fare from around the world is the norm.

Join our VIP Club and take advantage of reserved weekend parking, admission to the Friday Night Opening VIP Tent with delicious food and drinks, plus unlimited access to the VIP Tent with breakfast treats, a delightful lunch & beverages all weekend long. The elite VIP Club is $125 per person and your support contributes to the year round art education outreach programs of ArtFest Fort Myers.

For more information visit ArtFestFortMyers.com – Like Us on Facebook – Connect with us on Linkedin – Tag us #artfestfm

ArtFest Fort Myers – Among the “Best of the Best”

ArtFest Fort Myers, Southwest Florida’s premier fine are festival, is honored to be among the Top 200 Best in Sunshine Artist Magazine’s all ranking. Garnering the #16 spot nationwide competing against art festivals from across the country, ArtFest Fort Myers was overwhelmingly endorsed by artists regarding their experiences and sales while with us. “Recognition that brings positive attention to our community is always the icing on the cake for us,” explains Sharon McAllister, ArtFest Fort Myers Executive Director. “We work year-round to bring a wide variety of talented artists to downtown Fort Myers the first weekend in February and it is gratifying to know that we have the support of our art buying patrons! Many of our friends and neighbors tell us that they wait all year to buy original art at our festival.”

ArtFest Fort Myers has also been rated as one of America’s Best Art Fairs by ArtFair Calendar and as Top 25 by Art Fair Sourcebook, in addition to earning numerous awards from the Florida Festival & Events Association and the International Festivals and Events Association.

ArtFest Fort Myers, the annual juried fine art festival, takes place February 1, 2 & 3, 2019 in the Fort Myers River District. Join the experience with 200 artists from across the county and around the world; the largest high school art exhibit and competition in south Florida and free interactive art experiences for children of all ages.

For more information visit ArtFestFortMyers.com – Like Us on Facebook – Connect with us on Linkedin – Tag us #artfestfm

Call for Artists – ArtFest Fort Myers 2018

ArtFest Fort Myers, Southwest Florida’s premier fine art festival, is currently accepting applications from professional artists for participation in our 2018 juried show. Featuring the work of 200 artists, ArtFest Fort Myers will bring 90,000 art lovers and collectors to the largest outdoor gallery in Southwest Florida on the first weekend in February!

Why apply to participate at ArtFest Fort Myers? Creating an artwork-selling festival for artists is the focus of our year-round professional staff, with 18 years of consistent management. Targeting art buyers throughout Southwest Florida and beyond – from Marco Island to Sarasota and east to West Palm Beach – our promotional campaign includes all forms of media. We also understand the importance of providing great artist amenities over festival weekend, to ensure that our artists are stress free and ready to share their work with our dedicated attendees.

How are festival artists chosen? Each October, ArtFest Fort Myers brings together a panel of professional artists who view submitted images and score each applying artist on a range of 1 – 7 points. The artists with the highest scores are then invited to participate in ArtFest. Our Jury Panel varies each year but always represents a broad base of expertise with regard to artistic mediums – theirs is the difficult task of evaluating who is the “best-of–the-best” from the hundreds of artists who wish to join ArtFest Fort Myers! (Our jury process is open to artists and patrons – please contact us for more information.)

For Artist Application information, contact ArtFest Fort Myers at 239-768-3602, email info@ArtFestFortMyers.com or visit our Artist Info pages on our website at ArtFestFortMyers.com.

ArtFest Fort Myers – much more than a great festival for our community

Once again — for the 17th year —ArtFest Fort Myers created a three-day art extravaganza the first weekend of February.

85,000 residents and visitors enjoyed exceptional art by top-notch artists from across the country and around the world. Every year close to 900 artists apply. A jury of professional artists, curators and academics choose only 200 artists to exhibit, bringing you the best-of-the-best.

That’s why ArtFest Fort Myers is the premier art festival in Southwest Florida – and ranks nationally among the top 100 art festivals.

Everyone “sees” the festival as it fills the downtown Fort Myers riverfront. But I’d like to take you behind the scenes — and let you know why we’re so passionate about creating ArtFest Fort Myers.

The anwer is simple: Art Matters. Supporting the arts defines the kind of community in which we wish to live and raise our children.
• Art builds community and brings people together.
• Art improves our quality of life, transforming and personalizing the places where we live and work.
• Artists bring creative thinking to community challenges and solutions.
• Arts organization leaders act as catalysts for learning, discovery, and achievement.
• Art encourages people to ask questions and even begin conversations with total strangers, whom they may not otherwise meet.
• Art inspires people to think about life in new ways.

Art Matters in a special way for children. After all, art encourages children to dream … to imagine … to expand the way they see the world. That’s why we’re devoted to making sure every child has a chance to enjoy art as part of a complete education.

What’s more, a study by Americans for the Arts found that young people who participate in the arts are:
• Four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement
• Three times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools
• Four times more likely to participate in a math or science fair
• Three times more likely to be awarded for school attendance
• Twice as likely to read for pleasure

Throughout the years ArtFest Fort Myers has supported art education year-round in countless ways, reaching more than 50,000 students in Lee County. Art Under 20 (the high school exhibit & competition) and Chalk Block (the high school street painting competition) are core aspects of art education at the art festival. Year-round after-school Art Clubs; Visiting Artist programs and Art Supply Grants have provided elementary and middle school students and at-risk-youth with the opportunity to experience art projects otherwise unavailable to them.

Art Matters for our economy, too. In a world where return-on-investment is important to so many decisions, we like to say “Give To The Arts – They Give Back.”

Local businesses benefit from ArtFest Fort Myers in a big way. Downtown restaurants and retailers report “it is the best weekend of the year for us.”
Creating the art festival’s infrastructure for 85,000 attendees provides business for local golf cart and radio rentals, port-a-let and equipment suppliers, IT support, food and beverage providers, parking lot company, security services, lighting designers, graphic designer and commercial printer, entertainers, and many other local businesses.

More broadly, Lee County’s non-profit arts organizations created 2,038 full-time jobs and $68 million in economic activity in 2010. (Numbers for 2016 will be available soon.)

The kind of community we want … growth for our children … economic benefits … well, I hope you see why we’re so dedicated to bringing ArtFest to the Fort Myers waterfront each and every year.

It does take dedication — it’s a huge project! Truly, it takes a community to create ArtFest Fort Myers. Our community includes our supportive sponsors, year-round efforts by a dedicated staff & board, a 55-member Volunteer Steering Committee, 450 enthusiastic festival-weekend volunteers, 200 incredible artists and 85,000 art-loving attendees. We thank each and every one of you for your support.

And we at ArtFest Fort Myers give back to our community. We provide free space for other Lee County art organizations to showcase their programs, as well as a Youth Stage for young performing artists to gain performance experience and showcase their organizations. We engage in on-going strategic thinking and planning with other arts organizations and public art intiatives to enhance our community.

In other words, we walk our talk. We ask ourselves what we ask everyone: How do YOU give to the arts, so the arts can give back?

Art Matters. I hope you’ll continue the conversation with us or the art organization of your choice, as we all use the arts to create the kind of community we can all love for years to come.

First Time Artist Wins Award

Gagiladze

Merab Gagiladze traveled all the way from the country of Georgia to grace us with his uniquely styled paintings. His work draws from history, religion, and mythology and depicts the joys, sorrows, and dreams of real life. Our judges were impressed and bestowed an Award of Merit on this “first appearance at ArtFest” artist.

Suncoast Partnership Brings Prestigious Award

suncoastArtFest Fort Myers recently received numerous Florida Festival & Events Association honors and was particularly proud to be recognized with a First Place Award for their successful sponsorship program with Suncoast Credit Union and the Art Under 20 high school art competition.

“When the arts are an active and vibrant part of a community, everyone benefits. Suncoast Credit Union is elated to know that ArtFest Fort Myers has been recognized as the jewel we believe it is, and that our members and the larger community get exposure to the arts in a way that might not happen without such an event,” said Greg Pasanen, Regional Vice President.

With the support of Suncoast Credit Union, the Art Under 20 exhibit and competition, which takes place over festival weekend, gives hundreds of talented high school students an opportunity to showcase their artwork to festival goers while competing for $8,000 in cash awards. Students artists from across our community exhibit in the categories of Digital, Drawing, Painting, Photography, 3-D and Mixed Media and student Entry Forms are available now for the 2017 competition. For more information, visit ArtFestFortMyers.com

ArtFest Award Named in Honor of Ben Essenburg

IMG_2999 (1)New this season, ArtFest Fort Myers is proud to announce the addition of a $500 Ben Essenburg Award to the professional artist awards. It is the festival’s intention to honor this Florida wildlife artist who has contributed so much to the fine art festival since its inception. We look forward to having Ben visit ArtFest Fort Myers in February 2017 to give out the award in person.

Ben Essenburg has been painting and exhibiting professionally since 1975 and was a key Artist Advisor in the early years of ArtFest Fort Myers. His incredible talent, generous nature and years of experience in the outdoor fine art festival venue made him uniquely qualified to provide valuable insights regarding the inner workings of a successful juried event. As a tribute to his award-winning artistic talent, Ben is the only artist who has juried into and participated in ArtFest Fort Myers for an incredible run of 13 consecutive years.

ArtFest Fort Myers is grateful to count Ben Essenburg among our dearest friends and colleagues. Over the years, he has gifted our community with his artistic vision of our natural world, opening our eyes to the astonishing beauty that surrounds us. We humbly institute the “Ben Essenburg Award” in his honor.

Pictured above is Ben Essenburg (center) receiving a 2012 festival award from Marv Weiner (left) and Judy Weiner (right), ArtFest Artist Relations Committee Chairpersons.

ArtFest Fort Myers, the annual juried fine art festival, takes place February 3, 4 & 5, 2017 in the Fort Myers River District. Join the experience with 200 professional artists from across the county and around the world; the largest high school art exhibit and competition in south Florida and free interactive art experiences for children of all ages.  For more information, visit ArtFestFortMyers.com

SAVE THE DATE FOR 2025!

Saturday and Sunday, February 1-2, 2025

Opening Night Friday, January 31

On the waterfront in historic downtown Fort Myers

Phone: 239-768-3602

Email: info@artfestfortmyers.com

Love ArtFest Fort Myers? Don't miss the Babcock Ranch Art Show!

Boutique Show • 60 Fine Artists
Great Food & Beverages
Youth Art Activities

March 9 & 10, 2024
10am to 4pm
Babcock Ranch

We're delighted to have helped Babcock Ranch launch this show with artists of the quality you enjoy every year at ArtFest Fort Myers.

LEARN MORE