Thanks to a quirk of the calendar, the Palm Beach Art Weekend will debut Friday through Sunday in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach.
The concept has been on Palm Beach gallery owner Sarah Gavlak’s to-do list for some time. Gavlak, who also operates a gallery in Los Angeles, has attended similar art weekends in Berlin and Brussels as well as ArtCrush, a multi-day fundraiser for the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado.
The extra week between Thanksgiving and Art Basel in Miami Beach fair week spurred her to action. Usually fair week begins the week after Thanksgiving.
She floated the idea to collectors Beth Rudin DeWoody and Jane Holzer, as well as Yvonne Force Villareal, one of the founders of Culture Corps, a New York- based cultural programming producer. They agreed to schedule events in a tightly packed weekend designed to entice art lovers about to descend on Miami to trek north.
“People don’t necessarily think of Palm Beach when they think of contemporary art,” Gavlak said. “What’s going on in contemporary art down here is exciting.”
She hopes to add activities next year and make the weekend an annual pre-Art Basel event.
Several private events, such as a Sotheby’s reception at Holzer’s home on Friday and the opening of The Bunker, DeWoody’s private collection.