The Four Arts Season Moves Into Its Garden and Across Town

The Society of the Four Arts opens its 2026–27 season next month without its auditorium or its galleries. The Esther B. O'Keeffe and John E. Rovensky buildings sit behind construction fencing until late fall 2027. This winter, the open half of the Royal Palm Way campus is mostly its free half. Most of the concerts, films and talks that would normally fill the Gubelmann Auditorium have moved to other venues: Royal Poinciana Chapel, Palm Beach Day Academy and The Bunker Artspace in West Palm Beach.

So for anyone who treats the Four Arts as a regular stop, the habits change this year. On campus, you have a library, two gardens and an outdoor photography show you can walk into for free. Apart from the cabaret evenings in the Dixon Building, most ticketed programs now mean getting yourself to another venue.

What Sits Behind the Fence, and Until When

This is the biggest change to the buildings and grounds since the Four Arts was founded in 1936. Work covers the west half of the 10-acre campus, where Addison Mizner's 1928 O'Keeffe and Rovensky buildings stand. Mizner designed neither building for the Four Arts. Palmer PB reported that the design team is led by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, with Spina O'Rourke as local architect of record and Suffolk as general contractor. The renovation plans include a full renovation of the Gubelmann Auditorium, expanded galleries in the O'Keeffe Building and a new wing on the north side of the Rovensky Building.

The money behind it comes from The Four Arts Centennial Campaign. The $250 million goal covers both construction and the endowment, and Palmer PB put commitments at $216 million as of its September 25, 2026 article. The project follows a 2024 change to the island's zoning code. The Town unanimously approved Palm Beach's first Cultural Institution zoning designation, which the Four Arts and the Flagler Museum had pushed for.

According to the Four Arts, construction began in May, with heavy demolition timed for the off-season. WLRN reported a completion target of late fall 2027, in time for the 2027–28 season. The Four Arts' renovation FAQ lists the permitted work hours:

• Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Saturday, quiet work only from 8 to 9 a.m., then all work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• No construction on Sundays

Those hours shape the visits that follow. Weekday garden time comes with a working construction site next door. Sunday is the one quiet day.

The Half You Can Still Walk Into

The east side of campus stays open: the Gioconda and Joseph King Library, the Dixon Education Building, the Demonstration Garden and the newly enhanced Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden. Here are the hours from the Four Arts' general information page:

• Sculpture Garden and Demonstration Garden: daily, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., weather permitting, free
• King Library: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., free
• Dixon Education Building: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Children's Library: temporarily on the second floor of the Dixon Building, open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., free

The Children's Library still runs its regular programs in the Hulitar Garden. The public restrooms in the Pannill Pavilion are closed during the improvements, which matters if you're bringing small children for a garden morning.

Because the gallery is closed, the Four Arts is putting this year's main exhibition outdoors. The High Life: Contemporary Photography and the Birds brings work by more than 50 international photographers to the Sculpture Garden from December 5, 2026, through May 2, 2027. It keeps the garden's hours, daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., weather permitting. German photographer Kristin Schnell, whose work is in the show, arrives in March as the season's Beyer Artist-in-Residence. She'll give a lecture and lead a five-part workshop.

A five-month exhibition in a free garden open seven days a week is easier to drop in on than a ticketed show in an indoor gallery. You can see it on a dog walk or a short visit with houseguests, as often as you like.

The holiday tradition stays on campus too. Carols on the Lawn, with the Palm Beach Atlantic University Concert Choir, is set for Sunday, December 13, 2026, in the Hulitar Sculpture Garden. It's free and needs no reservation, and it falls on the one day of the week with no construction.

Where the Ticketed Season Went

With the auditorium closed, most ticketed series now meet at other venues. The Dixon Building's Johnson Hall is the main indoor room still in use on campus.

The screenings come back to the Dixon Building in April. Until then, the first weekend at Palm Beach Day Academy pairs a Friday film with the Met's Così fan Tutte on Saturday, November 7. The next weekend follows the same pattern, with The Christophers on November 13 and the Met's Macbeth on November 14.

According to Palmer PB, the Four Arts planned its organ programs around the Royal Poinciana Chapel's pipe organ. Grammy-winning organist Paul Jacobs performs on Wednesday, January 20, 2027, and German concert organist Felix Hell gives a recital and pre-concert lecture on Wednesday, April 7, 2027. Others in the series include pianist Gabriela Montero, the Aaron Diehl Trio with soprano Mikaela Bennett, Les Violons du Roy with mandolinist Avi Avital, Dailey & Vincent, and the Viano String Quartet with Sir Stephen Hough.

The Contemporaries series has a West Palm Beach host this year. The Bunker Artspace holds Beth Rudin DeWoody's collection, and the season includes a conversation between DeWoody and Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak on Tuesday, January 12, 2027, marking The Bunker's 10th anniversary. The Edmund Clark evening on December 8 starts at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $40 and free for Four Arts Contemporaries members, with reservations by phone at (561) 655-7226. Ebony G. Patterson closes the series on Tuesday, February 9, 2027, in conversation with José Carlos Diaz of Pérez Art Museum Miami.

The Lake Trail Has a Gap at Four Arts Plaza

The construction also affects people who never buy a ticket. With the Town of Palm Beach's approval, the Lake Trail is closed to pedestrians and cyclists where it crosses the Four Arts campus, because that stretch runs through the construction site. Signs on site point the way back to the trail. The FAQ says the west half of campus stays fenced for the whole project. Crossing guards and flaggers will redirect pedestrians at busy times.

For a morning walk or ride along the lake, that means a detour at Royal Palm Way through 2027. The trail may see more change after that. The Palm Beach Daily News reported in early October that king tides had Town officials and residents considering a higher Lake Trail.

Parking, and Pairing It With Whitehall

Parking on campus is limited and free. Street parking is paid by the hour through the Town's ParkMobile app, and the Four Arts suggests carpooling, drop-off and pick-up, or rideshare. With fewer spaces during construction, the garden's 11 a.m. opening on a Sunday, the day with no construction, is the easiest time to visit.

The Flagler Museum is one of the Four Arts' partner venues this season, and its own November dates fall right between the Four Arts' opening weeks. Per the Flagler Museum calendar:

• November 6 and 7: Four Arts films and the Met's Così fan Tutte at Palm Beach Day Academy
• November 10: Flagler's fall exhibition, America Takes the Stage: From the White City to Whitehall, opens and runs through May 30, 2027
• November 11: Flagler's 2026–27 Music Series opens with the Israeli Chamber Project, 5:30 to 8 p.m.
• November 18: Geoffrey Baer speaks at Flagler on the 1893 World's Fair and its legacy for Palm Beach
• December 5: The High Life opens in the Hulitar Sculpture Garden

When the Four Arts reopens, Palm Beach will have a renovated Gubelmann Auditorium and expanded galleries. Until late fall 2027, the on-campus season is the free garden, the library and the Dixon Building, and the ticketed programs are spread across the island and West Palm Beach.

If you want to talk through how a season like this fits into everyday life on the island, from garden mornings on Royal Palm Way to evenings at the Chapel, I'm glad to share what I know. Reach out to Abbey Adair - Main Site any time. Find Your Dream Home. I'll Get It Sold.