The City of West Palm Beach has named this year's Holiday in Paradise "The Art of the Holidays." The City lists the season as November 27 to December 31, but the parts people come for, Sandi's music-and-light shows and the Ferris wheel, start on December 3. The City's public art program set its own schedule well ahead of that. Its Art in Public Places office planned a new exhibition of sound-themed works for early November across three downtown sites. A large steel sculpture is already installed beside Stub Canal at the city's south end.
The holiday theme is about creativity. The City's working art is spread over four library floors, the walls of a downtown park, a plaza and a canal bank.
Five Local Artists, Three Addresses, One Theme You Listen For
This is the fourth round of The Commons: 5 Artists 5 Spaces. The program moves Palm Beach County artists out of their studios and into public spaces. The five were chosen through a competition open to county artists. This year's theme, "Feast for the Ears," asks each of them to work with sound, either by making it or by showing it visually.
Three of the five works are at the Mandel Public Library at 411 Clematis Street. That means a single building holds most of the exhibition, floor by floor.
| Work | Artist | Where to find it | What it does with sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| "The Forest That Remains in Memory" | Diana Garcia | Mandel Library first floor, elevators and third floor | Hand-cut landscape collages filled with the sounds of nature, mixing past and present |
| "Soundscape" | Pia Dugger | Mandel Library second-floor Teen area | Bird songs from the artist's South Florida morning walks turned into waveforms, patterns and native birds |
| "Through the Estuary" | Marcela Ramos Castillo | Mandel Library fourth floor | Hybrid botanical and architectural forms in a bold palette, built around listening as imagination |
| "Vibrant Currents" | Sitki Doğan | José Martí Park walls | Three-dimensional stylized murals that read as one continuous visual soundscape |
| "Tune In" | Angela Bulich | City Hall Plaza | Sculptures inspired by local seashells, with light and sound triggered by the viewer |
Bulich's "Tune In" is the only one of the five that changes when you walk up to it. Each sculpture works as its own encounter, and together they form one piece across the plaza. Doğan's murals on the walls of José Martí Park, at 351 N. Flagler Drive, are the outdoor stop. He drew on the park's natural setting so people would pause and interact with the work.
The City's Art in Public Places program posts updates on Instagram at @WPBAiPP.
Why the Art Outlasts the Holiday Season
Sandi's shows run for four weeks. Past rounds of The Commons have stayed up much longer.
The 2023 round, The Commons: 8 Artists 8 Spaces, included "Bear's Picnic" at 401 Clematis Street and "Play" at José Martí Park. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported in July 2023 that those works would be on view until summer 2024, about a year. The third round, "Endless Summer," was announced in February 2025. It used the library, the City Hall courtyard, the Urban Living Room in front of the library and José Martí Park. The City reported it open to the public that May.
The program keeps coming back to the same downtown sites: the library, City Hall and José Martí Park. That makes The Commons a long-running layer of downtown rather than a single event. If this round keeps that pattern, "Feast for the Ears" will be up for the Clematis by Night crowds in December and after the holiday decorations come down.
The South End Got a Permanent Piece
Petals of the Moon, by London-based British artist Sinta Tantra, who is of Balinese descent, is installed at The Sound, 8111 S. Dixie Highway, at the city's southern gateway. It is a public-private partnership between the City's Art in Public Places program and Woodfield-Flagler Venture, the developer of The Sound. That project includes 358 apartments and a Trader Joe's.
The sculpture is two organic steel forms anchored to reinforced concrete foundations below ground, so they seem to balance on the surface. They sit parallel to Stub Canal and reflect both sun and water. In the City's announcement, Tantra said she drew "inspiration from the history of pineapple cultivation and the waterways that shaped the area."
The pineapple link is local history. The piece ties the south end's farming past and its canals to the city as it is now. A public commemoration is planned for December 2026, timed to The Sound's opening. Tantra recorded audio commentary on the work, in English and Spanish, for the City's free Bloomberg Connects guide. The same guide covers the rest of the Art in Public Places collection.
When the Holiday Season Actually Starts
The art is in place first. Here is when the holiday program begins. The City calls Clematis by Night on Thursday, December 3 the official kickoff. It runs from 6 to 10 p.m., is free, and features Phoenix5 and Officers & Gentleman with the Rhythm Chicks, plus Santa photos and a holiday gift boutique. The concert and boutique close at 9 p.m., and Sandi's shows and the Ferris wheel keep going until 10.
| Date | Event | Where | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu., Dec. 3 | Holiday Tree Lighting at Clematis by Night, 6 to 10 p.m. | The Great Lawn, 100 N. Clematis St. | Free |
| Dec. 3 to 30 | Sandi's nightly music-and-light shows, 6 to 10 p.m., starting on the quarter hour | The Great Lawn | Free |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | 10th annual Winter in Paradise, "Rhythm on Rosemary," 6 to 9 p.m. | Heart & Soul Park, 825 N. Rosemary Ave. | Free |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Prix Pictet Storm opens, on view through Apr. 18, 2027 | Norton Museum of Art | Museum admission |
| Thu., Dec. 17 | Aloha Islanders Tropical Holiday Spectacular, 6 to 9 p.m. | NewDay USA Stage, Waterfront Commons | Free |
| Thu., Dec. 31 | Sandi's New Year's Eve with Ferris and Fireworks, 8 p.m. to midnight | The Great Lawn | Free entry |
Winter in Paradise brings the music theme to the Historic Northwest neighborhood. The evening includes a holiday park lighting, a rock climbing wall, the ReaXtion Band and DJ Scoobz, and performances by the U.B. Kinsey/Palmview Elementary School of the Arts Orchestra and Band and the Palm Beach Lakes Community High School Ram Regiment Band. The Aloha Islanders night features Polynesian music and dance, including hula and Samoan fire-knife performers. New Year's Eve features DJ Reflex and Wonderama, ending with a 15-minute fireworks show over the Intracoastal at midnight.
The Ferris wheel runs on the same nights as Sandi's shows. Its rules catch some families off guard:
- Rides cost $5 per person per ride, and tickets are sold on site.
- Hours are 6 to 10 p.m. nightly from December 3 to 30, and 6 p.m. to midnight on December 31.
- Children under 3, or shorter than 38 inches, cannot ride.
- Riders between 38 and 47 inches tall must ride with an adult, and everyone stays seated.
For parking, the City's directions page lists five City garages at reasonable rates. Boat docking is free for anyone arriving by water. The GreenMarket continues at Waterfront Commons on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. through the holidays.
An Afternoon Downtown Before December 3
The weeks before the tree lighting are the easiest time to see the downtown works without a holiday crowd. One way to do it:
- Lunch at The Daily Focaccia. The Palm Beach Post reported that it opened October 5 on Evernia Street, serving sandwiches on fresh focaccia. The Daily Focaccia lists its address as 410 Evernia St., Suite 118, and says its focaccia is baked fresh daily.
- Go through the Mandel Library from the bottom up. Start with Garcia's collages on the first floor, look in the elevators, then see Dugger in the second-floor Teen area, Garcia again on the third floor and Ramos Castillo on the fourth.
- Step into "Tune In" at City Hall Plaza, where Bulich's seashell sculptures respond to visitors with light and sound.
- Finish at José Martí Park on N. Flagler Drive, where Doğan's "Vibrant Currents" wraps the walls.
Check the library hours first. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays. That makes Monday and Wednesday the only evenings when you can see the indoor works after work. For the south end, Petals of the Moon is beside Stub Canal at 8111 S. Dixie Highway, and Tantra's audio commentary in the Bloomberg Connects app goes well with the visit.
When public art keeps landing in the same blocks year after year, it shapes how a neighborhood feels to live in. That is the kind of detail we track for clients across the city. If you'd like to know how downtown and the south end are changing around your own address, Greg Forest can help. Request a private market consultation, and we'll show you what's changing near your home.
