Winter Park Hosts 52nd Annual Autumn Art Festival

Crowds packed downtown Winter Park in October for the 52nd Annual Autumn Art Festival, one of the city’s most beloved and historic traditions. Under blue skies and a canopy of trees, artists from across Florida filled Park Avenue and Central Park to showcase their craft and creativity.

The Autumn Art Festival is the only juried art show in the state exclusively featuring Florida artists. It has run since the 1970s in partnership with different organizations and local businesses. 

“We have over 180 artists this year,” said Addison Cursey, chief marketing officer of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a really special selection to showcase the best we have in our state.”

An estimated 100,000 to 150,000 visitors attended the 52nd Annual Autumn Art Festival throughout the weekend. [Credit: Benjamin Mack-Jackson]

Rows of white tents lined Park Ave. as live bands played jazz and rock from a nearby stage. The scent of barbecue, lemonade, and popcorn drifted through the air as patrons from across the state, country, and world walked from booth to booth. Many restaurants along the route even spilled out into the road, transforming the quaint street into an open-air dining room.

The sensory overload was hard to ignore. Lindsay Roach of New Smyrna Beach left with a bright, whimsical artwork print she couldn’t pass up. 

Lindsay Roach’s purchase – one of the many mediums of art available for sale at the show. [Credit: Benjamin Mack-Jackson]

Shawna Lucas said she had been collecting art from one particular exhibitor, Tony Krysinsky, a Perdido Key resident, and traveled from Melbourne, Florida, for her next addition.

“I have two other pieces of his, and I’m always looking at new ones,” she said. “We’re redecorating a room in the house, and I thought this would work.”

Among this year’s exhibitors was Sam VanDyk, a first-time participant from the Florida Panhandle. VanDyk collects cypress driftwood from rivers and swamps, transforming naturally fallen pieces into impressive sculptures of all shapes and sizes. 

“It’s all natural,” he says. “I don’t cut them.”

What began as a hobby collecting antique bottles turned into this unique creative effort. 

From swamps and rivers to the streets of Winter Park, Sam VanDyk’s cypress sculptures were popular at this year’s show. [Credit: Benjamin Mack-Jackson]

“Stores started coming to my property to buy what I made,” said VanDyk of his business of 16 years.

Nicario Jimenez, another exhibitor, has been participating in the show for decades. Born in Peru and now based in Naples, Jimenez creates traditional Andean folk art in the form of retablos — a historically religious art form that often depicts icons and symbols.

Jimenez often chooses to address social and cultural issues through his retablos, combining traditional style with a more modern flair. Most of his art is made from boiled potatoes mixed with plaster, a rudimentary technique that produces extraordinary results.

“I started doing this when I was five, six years old,” Jimenez said. “I learned from my father and grandfather.” 

In 1992, he was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to create a retablo for a temporary exhibition. His creation has since become part of the museum’s permanent collection.  

He insists that his work is unique, different from any other traditional South American art form. “I take it to a different level, different directions,” he said. “The quality, color, message — everything.”