Tickets to the first half of the Society of the Four Arts' 2026-27 season go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, and this year a good share of the Palm Beach institution's calendar will play out somewhere other than its own auditorium. With the west half of its Cocoanut Row campus fenced off for the largest renovation since the Four Arts was founded in 1936, its concerts are moving a short walk away to the Royal Poinciana Chapel, its film and opera screenings are moving to Palm Beach Day Academy, and its first exhibition of the season will hang outdoors in the sculpture garden.

What is on sale Oct. 22

The Oct. 22 release covers programs scheduled for November, December and January. Members have been reserving in tiers since Sept. 28, with all Four Arts members able to book starting Oct. 15. Programs for February, March and April go on sale in January, with dates still to be announced. Tickets can be reserved online through the Four Arts ticket site, by phone with Customer Service at 561-655-7226 on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or in person at the box office in the Dixon Education Building. All sales are final.

Concerts move to the Royal Poinciana Chapel

The Sanda and Jeremiah Lambert Concert Series, normally staged in the Walter S. Gubelmann Auditorium, will be held this season at the Royal Poinciana Chapel, 60 Cocoanut Row. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center returns there at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 9, with a holiday program of Baroque concertos for bassoon, oboe, flute and trumpet by Vivaldi, Benedetto Marcello, C.P.E. Bach, Torelli and Telemann. On Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2027, the same ensemble brings Grammy-winning organist Paul Jacobs to the chapel, joined by Canadian trumpeter Jens Lindemann, violinist Lun Li and cellist Dmitri Atapine, for organ chamber music closing with a work by Josef Rheinberger. Both concerts are $40 for the public and free for members, and parking at the chapel is complimentary valet only.

Closer to home base, the Four Arts is adding something new: cabaret in Johnson Hall inside the Dixon Education Building, 240 Cocoanut Row, which the organization says it is presenting for the first time. SiriusXM Broadway host Seth Rudetsky opens the format at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2, with a Broadway guest and Tony nominee Alan Campbell hosting. Tickets are $40. Faith Prince, with Lawrence Yurman, follows on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2027.

Films and the Met at Palm Beach Day Academy

Friday Films and the Metropolitan Opera screenings have relocated to Palm Beach Day Academy, 241 Seaview Ave. The film series starts at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, with The Cycle of Love, a 2025 documentary about a Delhi street artist who rode a bicycle 6,000 miles in 1977 to reunite with the woman he loved ($10, free for members). The opera season opens at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, with a recorded presentation of Mozart's Così fan Tutte in Phelim McDermott's staging set in a 1950s Coney Island amusement park. Opera tickets are $30, $25 for members and $15 for students with ID, and doors open an hour before start time. Macbeth follows Nov. 14, Samson et Dalila Dec. 5 and The Magic Flute Dec. 12.

An exhibition in the garden

Because the Esther B. O'Keeffe Building galleries are part of the renovation, the season's first exhibition is going outside. The High Life: Contemporary Photography and the Birds opens Saturday, Dec. 5, in the Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden and stays up through May 2, 2027. It brings together work by more than 50 photographers, including Tim Flach, Nadav Kander, Karen Knorr, Vik Muniz and Anastasia Samoylova, and was organized by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography with Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in association with the Four Arts. The garden is open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. when weather allows. The same lawn hosts Carols on the Lawn with the Palm Beach Atlantic University Concert Choir at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 13; it is free, no reservation is needed, and families are encouraged to bring chairs or blankets.

Talks on campus

Lectures continue in the Dixon Education Building. Hugo Burnand, the first official royal portrait photographer appointed by King Charles III, speaks at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 14, on the links between his work and Cecil Beaton's. The next morning, Tuesday, Dec. 15, at 11 a.m., Kerry Kennedy talks with Simon Doonan about her mother, Ethel Kennedy, with a book signing afterward. Each is $20 and free for members.

What the renovation will bring

Work began in May and centers on the Esther B. O'Keeffe and John E. Rovensky buildings, both designed by Addison Mizner in 1928. Plans call for a reconfigured auditorium of about 650 seats with the view-blocking columns removed, a true backstage for visiting artists, galleries with 20-foot ceilings and 300 more square feet of space, and a three-story addition holding the first purpose-built home for the Children's Library, close to 50 percent larger than its previous space. The work is funded through the Four Arts' $250 million Centennial Campaign, with Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners leading design, Spina O'Rourke as local architect and Suffolk as general contractor.

The east side of the campus stays open throughout. The King Library and the Children's Library, now on the second floor of the Dixon Building, reopened Friday, Oct. 16, after a short closure, and the Sculpture and Demonstration gardens are open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The details

  • Public ticket sales: 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, for November through January programs
  • How: online at tickets.fourarts.org, by phone at 561-655-7226, or at the Dixon Building box office
  • Venues this season: Royal Poinciana Chapel, 60 Cocoanut Row (concerts); Palm Beach Day Academy, 241 Seaview Ave. (films and Met Opera); Dixon Education Building, 240 Cocoanut Row (lectures, cabaret)
  • Prices: $10 films, $20 lectures, $30 Met Opera screenings, $40 concerts and cabaret; many programs are free for members

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