Norton Hosting Free 'Art Around the World'

Credit: Norton Museum

(Press Release) West Palm Beach, Florida (July 31, 2026) -- The Norton Museum of Art invites the community to experience the Museum with fun activities, tours, music and classes during the second annual Art Around the World Community Day.
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The free community day will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, August 15.

For first-time visitors, the day offers an ideal introduction to the Norton’s galleries, programs, and creative spirit. For longtime Museum supporters, it is a chance to share the excitement of discovery with family, friends, and neighbors.

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Designed as a passport to creativity, connection, and rediscovery, Art Around the World welcomes curious kids, inspired adults, and everyone in between for a day of art-filled exploration.

“Community days offer a glimpse into the breadth of experiences the Norton Museum of Art provides throughout the year,” said Ghislain d’Humières, the Museum’s Kenneth C. Griffin Director and CEO. “They are especially meaningful because they enable us to welcome new visitors and create opportunities for everyone to discover something inspiring.”

Museum Educators will offer drop-in gallery art activations that include sketching and writing, and there will be artmaking in the classrooms with Joseph Velasquez, a printmaking professor from Florida Atlantic University. 

Adults and teens can sign up in advance for an immersive gesture drawing session with artist Shannon Walker and a live model, designed for those with prior drawing experience. Space is limited and online registration is required. 

There will be docent tours of the galleries, and there also will be live music and storytelling.

Visit the Ruth and Carl Shapiro Great Hall, where a guitarist and harpist will perform in the afternoon. Little ones can settle in for a storytelling session.

Visit norton.org for a full schedule.  

The community day comes as the Museum continues Summer at the Norton, during which Palm Beach County residents will receive free admission on Saturdays through September 5. Additionally, West Palm Beach residents receive free admission on Saturdays year-round.

Most important, the Norton’s galleries are filled with exhibitions curated to entertain, educate, and inspire:

• Danielle Mckinney: Shelter — Through October 4. A survey exhibition of paintings spanning the last six years of the artist’s practice. As the 10th artist to be exhibited as part of the Recognition of Art by Women (RAW) exhibition series, Danielle Mckinney (American, born 1981) creates artworks that depict her female subjects in private moments of solitude.

• Recognition of Art by Women: In Retrospect — Through September 27. This exhibition honors the past nine Recognition of Art by Women artists as the Norton ushers in its 10th recognized artist, Danielle Mckinney. Featuring artwork by Jenny Saville, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Phyllida Barlow, Klara Kristalova, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Svenja Deininger, Nina Chanel Abney, María Berrío, and Rose B. Simpson, In Retrospect reflects on the series' impact, seizing the opportunity to present a group exhibition that illustrates the breadth of talent the series brought to light. 

• Art & Independence: America at 250 — Through December 6. Works from the Norton’s Collection help tell the story of our nation as it marks its 250th anniversary.

• Ralph Coburn: Land, Sea, Sky — Through January 3. Ralph Coburn (American, 1923 – 2018) spent winters in the Miami Beach area from the 1930s through the rest of his long life. The Art Deco aesthetics and architecture inspired his artistic career. This exhibition marks the first Florida Roots project, a series exploring artists whose careers are connected to the stimulating setting of the Sunshine State.

• Cursed Images: Pictures Out of Context — Through November 1. This exhibition features a recent gift of 20th-century vernacular photographs (everyday, amateur snapshots) from the Peter J. Cohen Collection, one of the largest privately held archives of anonymous photographs in the United States. It highlights photographs whose subjects or object relationships evoke a subtle, inexplicable unease.

• 60 Seconds: Polaroids from the Collection — Through August 16. This exhibition celebrates photography’s signature immediacy, tracing how artists have embraced Polaroids, or instant film, for their ability to produce a unique image in mere moments. 

• Galloping Steed: Celebrating the Year of the Horse in Chinese Paintings — Through August 23. Galloping Steed brings together works by Xu Beihong (1895 – 1953) alongside paintings by He Qingtai (born Louis Antoine de Poirot, France, 1735 – 1813), a French Jesuit artist who served at the court of the Qianlong Emperor (reigned 1735 – 1796).

• Portrait Mode: Self-Reflections from Past, Present, and Future — Through August 16 (art by students).