Even in fast-growing South Florida there is still a “shoulder season,” beginning in May, when the snowbirds have flown and the locals are called upon to, well, shoulder a bigger share of the region’s livelihood. The Cultural Council for Palm Beach County recognizes this shift in the socio-demographic tide as an opportunity, and is diving right in with MOSAIC, a monthlong celebration of homegrown art, culture and other attractions.
Throughout May, MOSAIC — short for Month Of Shows, Art, Ideas and Culture — is offering museum discounts, studio tours, limited-time deals and unique cultural experiences to anyone interested, be it year-round residents, short-hop travelers or bargain-seeking tourists.
Allan Creary
Now in its seventh year, MOSIAC is a prime time for locals to explore their rich cultural surroundings and get half off admission while they’re at it. Take a stroll through the Norton Museum of Art, featuring exhibits from clay sculptor Rose B. Simpson and photographer Ellen Graham. Get up close to marine critters at Cox Science Center and Aquarium.
Or, by signing up for MOSAIC’s Insider Email list, score $15 off admission tickets to this year’s SunFest, happening May 3-5 with performers including Billy Idol, Nelly, Dashboard Confessional, Cassadee Pope, Brett Staska & The Souvenirs and The Fixx.
“When we’re speaking about the Palm Beaches, we’re talking about Florida’s Cultural Capital,” Lauren Perry, the the council’s associate vice president of marketing and cultural tourism, tells PureHoney, cheerfully invoking the county’s trademarked catchphrase as she talks about MOSAIC’s role in helping the region live up to that confident tagline.
It’s Perry’s job to bring visitors here all year round, but it’s MOSAIC that specifically attracts the “drive market” — Floridians who live around the state and even Georgians as far away as Atlanta who can scoot down the I-75/I-95 corridor. MOSAIC is, Perry says, “a wonderful showcase for cultural institutions on a national, local and regional level.”
Also returning after a stellar inaugural 2023 is Open Studios, with 90 area artists welcoming visitors into their personal workspaces. Now expanded to two days, May 18 and 19, Open Studios lets patrons take self-guided tours and meet with Palm Beach County-based creatives where they work, to see their process up close and purchase their art directly.
Open Studios will also be an opportunity to meet artist Allan Creary, the commissioned creator of MOSAIC’s official artwork for 2024. A Palm Beach County native, Creary served in the U.S. Navy for five years before returning to his first love. An invitation to Art Basel led him to start painting again in 2018. Inspired by pop art and the boundary-breaking inventiveness of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, Creary’s work is colorful, whimsical and — in May — visible in everything from MOSAIC posters to a collectible lapel pin series created for the occasion.
“We just loved his aesthetic,” Perry says,”and he had the right skills to help us create a digital advertising campaign.”
Creary’s flagship MOSAIC piece, “Pop Beach County,” is an ode to everything that makes the Palm Beaches great, rendered with postmodernist punch. In this assemblage of shaded frames-within-a-frame, tropical fronds sway, and origami flamingoes evoke the wildlife of the Palm Beach Zoo as well as the Japanese roots of the early Yamato Colony (in present-day Boca Raton) and the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens. There are MOSAIC’s iconic, wavy #ShadesOfCulture sunglasses, a towering Jupiter Lighthouse, a musical staff dappled with palm trees to represent nightlife, an artist canvas of a striped sun — all overlaid by the neon outlines of some very green, very pop palm trees.
The painting’s motifs recur on the six exclusive MOSAIC pins, which can be collected at different participating institutions throughout the county, making for a cultural scavenger hunt of sorts.
However you enjoy it, MOSAIC is dedicated to making shoulder season a bigger part of the whole, and making the Palm Beaches a place not just to work but to play creatively. By all means, hit the beach, drink and dine, and book yourself a downtown weekend hotel stay — but Perry says don’t stop there because “there’s just so many things to do.” Especially in May.
Sign up for MOSAIC offers and events at mosaicpbc.com. Follow Allan Creary on Instagram @allanscanvas ~ Olivia Feldman
