Sarasota Winter Fine Art Festival January 2027 (Paragon Festivals)

About the festival

Join us for the 14th Annual Sarasota Winter Fine Art Festival on January 2-3, 2027. It will be held at JD Hamel Park in beautiful downtown Sarasota. This boutique fine art event features under 100 juried artists and welcomes an engaged, art-loving audience that supports a wide variety of mediums.

Patrons are inquisitive, inspired, and purchase all art mediums. The Sarasota Winter Fine Art Festival remains a strong and growing fine art festival that has steady crowds from start to finish each year providing strong sales.

Media categories

• Ceramics: All original clay and porcelain work, other than jewelry, is accepted in this category. No machine-made or mass-produced work is permitted. Each piece must be signed if multiple pieces of the same design are displayed.
• Digital Art: Original works created or altered using a computer. Limited editions only, signed and numbered on archival materials. Digital photographs belong in the Photography category.
• Drawing: Work using dry media (e.g., pencil, charcoal, pastel) or ink-based techniques (e.g., washes, pens).
• Fiber: All work that is crafted from fibers, including basketry, embroidery, weaving, leatherwork, tapestry, and paper-making. No machine tooling, machine-screened patterns, or other forms of mass production are permitted. No factory-produced wearable items may be exhibited, regardless of additional modifications or enhancements by the artist.
• Glass: Original work created in glass by the artist. Pressed glass and mass production are not permitted.
• Graphic & Printmaking: Print works for which the artist hand manipulated the plates, stones, or screens, which have been signed and numbered as a limited edition. Offset reproductions are not allowed. Printmakers are required to disclose both their creative and printmaking processes.
• Jewelry: All jewelry, whether the work is produced from metal, glass, clay, fiber, paper, plastic, or other materials, must be entered in this category. No commercial casts, molds, or production studio work is allowed.
• Metalwork: Includes all non-sculptural, non-jewelry works crafted from metal. No production studio work is allowed.
• Mixed Media: This category includes 2D and 3D works that incorporate more than one type of physical material to produce. Includes non-sculptural work as determined by the artist. Jewelry and photography are not considered mixed media.
• Painting: Work created using such materials as oils, acrylics, and watercolor is in this category. Reproductions are allowed; however, they must be signed and in limited editions.
• Photography: Photographic prints made from the artist's original image (e.g., film or digital) processed by the artist or under their direct supervision are included in this category. Images printed through software such as Photoshop are to be entered in this category, not in mixed-media or digital. All images are to be editioned with editions of each image, not exceeding 250.
• Sculpture: Three-dimensional original work done in any medium (e.g., bronze, stone, acrylic).
• Wood: Original works that are hand-tooled, machine-worked, turned, or carved are accepted in the wood category.

Jury process

Jurying is conducted in-house by Paragon staff. This is a blind jury process which means artist scoring is based solely on the images presented without consideration of the artist's name, artist location, or reference to additional information such as websites. Juror decisions are based 70% upon the quality of work portrayed in the artwork images submitted for the jury process, and 30% on your booth presentation image. A booth image is mandatory. No images including the booth image should have the artist or any signage with the artist's name or business name visible and should represent the setup we will actually see at the event. Images are viewed simultaneously in a horizontal format, grouped by media.

Standards and rules

1. All work must be original handcrafted work created by the artist(s) present at the event. Each artist guarantees the accuracy of the description of the works presented and the authenticity of the work as the creation of their own hands.

2. Work done by a production studio is not accepted.

3. All work must be designed and executed by the accepted artist.

4. No more than two (2) artists may collaborate on work. Both must be included in the application. Both must be present at the festival for the duration of the event.

5. Artists must be present with the work for the entire duration of the arts festival. Representatives, including spouses and family members, may not attend in lieu of the artist(s).

6. Artists are required to show photo identification (in English) at check-in to ensure identity and compliance.

7. Artists may only show work in categories and bodies of work selected by the jury.

8. All work exhibited must be in the category applied to and exhibit the quality and body of work that was shown in the images used in the jury process.

Prohibited

No t-shirts, commercially manufactured items, items that employ the use of commercially available molds, velvet paintings, decoupage, or plants. Traditional crafts such as soaps, wax media (e.g., candles), scented oils, and homemade food items are not items juried into our fine art events. Please email us if you need clarification before applying. The Festival Committee reserves the right to exclude work that does not conform to show standards.

Artist services

• Overnight security, Friday and Saturday evening
• Friday afternoon setup
• Overnight RV parking Friday and Saturday evening
• Easy load-in and load-out

Booth information and fees

SINGLE booth fee: $495.00. DOUBLE booth fee: $990.00. CORNER fee: additional $100. Booth fees are paid directly to Paragon Festivals, not to Zapplication.

Display surface: Pavement/brick: no drilling into or anchoring to the pavement is allowed; tents must be anchored by free-standing weights only.

Calendar

Application deadline: November 2, 2026. Notification: November 3, 2026. Booth fee payment due: December 2, 2026. If booth fee payments are not received by the deadline, invited artists will automatically be moved to the waitlist. Thereafter, if a space becomes available, there will be a $50 late fee applied.

Friday, January 1, 2027: Check-in and setup: 12 pm - 6 pm.

Saturday, January 2, 2027: Check-in and setup continue: 6 am - 8 am; Show hours: 10am - 5pm.

Sunday, January 3, 2027: Show hours: 10am - 5 pm.

Refund and cancellation policy

Cancellation must be in writing, and submitted to the office by email. If cancellations are received from 8 to 30 days prior to the event, you will receive a 50% refund, or a 100% credit towards another Paragon event of your choosing, provided you apply to and are juried into that event. Credits are good for 2 years after the date given. Cancellations made within 7 days of the event will not receive either a refund or credit. No exceptions.

Jury details

Average of 200 applications submitted each year; average of 80 artists selected from the jury. Jury process is closed.