Art on the Square is coming back to downtown Delray Beach for a fall weekend. The Cornell Art Museum will turn the lawns of Old School Square into an open-air gallery on Saturday, November 7 and Sunday, November 8, 2026, with nearly 70 juried fine artists from across the country setting up a few steps off Atlantic Avenue. Admission is free, and so is entry to the museum itself all weekend.

The bigger news is the rhythm. Art on the Square ran six times between 2017 and 2020, went quiet, then came back this past March. November makes it a twice-a-year show again, with a winter edition already on the calendar for February 27 and 28, 2027. For anyone who lives in Delray, that means the historic 1913 schoolhouse lawn on North Swinton Avenue is once again a regular seasonal stop for original work, not a one-time revival.

When and where

  • Saturday, November 7: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (judges walk the show from 10 a.m. to noon)
  • Sunday, November 8: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Where: Old School Square campus, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach, centered on the Cornell Art Museum
  • Cost: free for the show and for the museum galleries
  • Parking: paid spaces in the Old School Square garage and the Federspiel garage; no streets close for the event

That last point matters more than it sounds. Plenty of South Florida art festivals take over a downtown grid and turn a Saturday errand into a detour. This one stays on the museum grounds, so Atlantic Avenue, Swinton and the Pineapple Grove blocks to the north keep moving normally.

What is actually on the lawn

Every booth is juried, which is the quality filter that separates a fine art show from a craft fair. Organizers list painting, sculpture, photography, jewelry, ceramics and mixed media across the field. The format is built around meeting the maker: the artist is usually standing in the booth, so a buyer can ask how a piece was made, what it was meant to say, and whether there is more like it back in the studio.

Saturday morning is when the judging happens, with first, second and third place awards handed out over the weekend. Collectors who like to see what the jurors picked can plan a later Saturday or Sunday visit; people who want first look at everything before pieces sell should come early on Saturday.

One booth is reserved for something less common at shows of this size. Through an Emerging Artist Program, a selected newcomer gets free booth space and support for what is often a first professional show. It is a small detail that gives visitors a reason to walk the whole field: the next name local collectors talk about could be hanging next to artists with decades of shows behind them.

More than browsing

The weekend is set up for families as much as buyers. A Kids Zone will run activities and face painting, and local creative groups including Art Connect, the Creative Arts School at Old School Square and Urban Sketchers are planning hands-on ways to join in. Expect live music through both days, pop-up art moments scattered around the campus, and a cafe serving wine, beer and small bites. The show is also cross-promoting with the CRA Green Market, so a Saturday morning can easily stretch from produce to paintings without moving the car.

Go inside, too

Free museum entry during the show is worth using this fall, because the Cornell just refreshed its galleries. Three exhibitions are up now:

  • Ron Garrett: Impressions and Expressions. A retrospective of more than 100 works covering four decades of printmaking by an artist who works out of a studio in Boca Raton. It moves through intaglio and relief prints, large-scale bold pieces on the north staircase, and newer mixed-media work, with a selection of his 1980s and 1990s prints never shown in Florida before. On view through February 28, 2027.
  • River of Grass. A fiber and weaving installation built on custom six-foot square looms that form corridors through the two lower galleries, inspired by Marjory Stoneman Douglas and her 1947 book on the Everglades. It is a collaboration with the Fiber Artists Miami Association and The Center in Hollywood. On view through January 24, 2027.
  • Blooming in Color! Paintings by Marleen De Waele-De Bock drawn from nature, memory and place. On view through January 24, 2027.

Garrett is a familiar name to Palm Beach County art teachers and students: he spent more than two decades teaching art at schools and universities across South Florida and still gives lectures and workshops from his Boca studio. Seeing 40 years of one printmaker's output in a single building, then walking outside to buy directly from working artists, is a neat pairing for a single afternoon.

If November does not work, the museum's regular hours are Wednesday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., with free admission and donations welcome.

Make a day of it

The show sits in the cultural core of downtown Delray Beach, so the easiest plan is a loop: park once, walk the lawn, duck into the Cornell's galleries, then head a block south to Atlantic Avenue for lunch or east toward the Intracoastal and the beach. With the show wrapping at 5 p.m. Saturday, there is time for dinner downtown and a walk back past the lit-up schoolhouse. Visitors coming from Boca Raton, Boynton Beach or the rest of Palm Beach County will find it a manageable day trip with no tickets to buy and no timed entry.

Why it matters for Delray

A steady, free, juried art show twice a season is the kind of programming that makes Old School Square feel like the town's front yard. For residents, it is an easy November weekend with real art at the center of it, and a chance to buy a piece directly from the person who made it. Mark November 7 and 8, and keep February 27 and 28 in mind for the next round.