La Quinta Arts Festival: The End of an Era

LA QUINTA — It is the end of an era for the La Quinta Arts Festival, which was created in 1983 to bring residents to the unincorporated city.

La Quinta Arts Foundation and the city of La Quinta jointly announced Thursday that the Festival will not be held in 2020.

In a statement issued earlier today, the Festival shared its decision to not renew the lease for the civic center park venue with the city. The civic center park venue, along with surrounding public and private areas have served as the Festival location since 2005.

“In 1983, La Quinta Arts Festival was created to bring residents to the newly incorporated city. That goal was achieved to great success. It is now time for the Foundation to pursue new opportunities,” Festival Chairman Frank Delany said in a prepared statement.

As the city grew, the Festival grew right along with it to become the top fine art festival in the nation welcoming 20,000 attendees each year., according to a statement on the Festival website.

Success did not come easily, the statement says.

Over the last three and one-half decades, the Festival has been reinvented on a periodic basis and relocated multiple times before finding its most recent home at the civic center park venue in 2005.

Over the years, the Festival has welcomed more than 650,000 fine art patrons to La Quinta, facilitated the livelihoods of thousands of artists, generated over $56 million in art sales, and awarded more than $1.3 million in college scholarships to Coachella Valley students.

“We have enjoyed hosting the La Quinta Arts Festival in our city over the years. We understand and support the Foundation’s decision and look forward to working with the Foundation on future projects.” Mayor Linda Evans said in a prepared statement.

The Foundation is looking at afforded by the city’s vision for the Village buildout. Recently the city requested that the Foundation consider becoming a cultural partner with it in an National Endowment for the Arts grant application to revitalize and activate arts experiences on the properties adjacent to La Quinta Museum. The Foundation is looking forward to working with the city on this and other prospective arts and culture initiatives, according to the statement.

Read the full statement by clicking here.