Art Center Sarasota brings Beaux Arts Ball back to celebrate centennial

Guests at the revival of the Beaux Arts Ball costume gala honoring 100 years of Art Center Sarasota received a timely lesson in French pronunciation.

It went like this: Beaux Arts sounds like “boh-ZAR.” While the “x” in Beaux is silent, it sounds like a “z” here.  And please don’t pronounce the “s” at the end of Arts.

Anyone driving by the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium on March 21 might have assumed that a 1920s movie was being filmed. About 300 people milled about dressed in dazzling garb adorned with beads. Pinstripe suits and vests worn by men in driving caps filled the promenade in front of the building.

Fascinators were everywhere, bobbing atop coifs or pinned to the side of the head to reflect the Roaring Twenties fashion and the 1926 founding of Art Center Sarasota. 

Held next door to ACS, the Beaux Arts Ball celebrated the past while toasting to the creative future of Sarasota as artists painted, wrote poetry on demand and performed for guests.

With their elaborate dress, guests honored the history of the event, once Sarasota’s most-anticipated of the season and perhaps yet again. They were rewarded when costume contest winners were announced at the end of the evening.

All funds raised benefit ACS and will be used for exhibitions and for its accessible arts education programming, which serves all ages.