Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Boardwalk Art Show

The public is invited to the annual membership meeting of the scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 14.

The meeting will be held in the ballet studio at the Arts Center and will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boardwalk Art Show—"the jewel in the crown" of Ocean City's summertime cultural events. The show will be held this year Aug. 3 to 5.

Established in 1962, the Boardwalk Art Show not only was an immediate success in attracting art lovers from across the Delaware Valley, but was also the progenitor of the founding of the Ocean City Arts Center. The show demonstrated that there was such a strong interest in the arts among both the summer and year-round populations of Ocean City that city officials and local art enthusiasts used the event as a springboard from which to launch the Ocean City Arts Center.

The Arts Center was officially incorporated as a non-profit arts organization in 1967, and the Boardwalk Art Show immediately came under the 
Center’s aegis, where it has remained ever since—becoming, in the process, the Center’s signature arts event. 

Over the years, the dates of the Boardwalk Art Show (which is always held on the first full weekend in August) have been consistently placed on the calendars of art lovers across the region. Both visitors and the year-round population have become accustomed to attending the three-day event as an opportunity to purchase all mediums of the fine arts directly from the exhibitors themselves.

Through the generosity of the City of Ocean City, the Arts Center rents spaces on the Boardwalk between Seventh and 12th streets to qualified artists — thus the show falls into the category of a “juried show,” which means that artists 
must submit examples of their work to the Arts Center in order to qualify for admission. This process ensures a high-quality show of a diverse group of styles, mediums, and price-levels, and in so doing, guarantees a wide-range of artwork to satisfy nearly every taste.

The artists in the show also vie for a host of valuable monetary prizes that the Arts Center offers. Every spring, the Arts Center begins the process of selecting judges who spend an entire day during the show examining the paintings and photographs presented by the artists before arriving at a conclusion. Over the years, visitors and locals alike have enjoyed second-­guessing the judges, which makes the awards ceremony an exciting event.

The show generally attracts exhibitors of all backgrounds—seasoned veterans, 
recent art school graduates, self-taught artists, etc. It is the diversity among the exhibitors that makes the Show interesting and appealing. Although at one time, the show incorporated fine crafts, in recent years it has been limited to two-dimensional (and in a few categories, three-dimensional) fine arts. This makes it a rarity among outdoor shows on the Eastern Seaboard, some of which have lost their integrity as purveyors of the fine arts. 

From both anecdotal evidence and internal surveys by the Arts Center, it is evident that attendees at the Boardwalk Art Show—exhibitors and patrons alike—invest considerable monies in Ocean City’s many stores, restaurants, and hotels, not only on the Boardwalk itself, but in the Asbury Avenue commercial district and its environs. As one boardwalk merchant and Art Show award sponsor declared, the Boardwalk Art Show brings a high-quality type of visitor into town — the kind of visitor who is likely not only to invest in a painting, but also to seek out the city’s many fine retailers, hoteliers and 
restaurateurs. Thus the Show represents the kind of touristic synergy that has become so emblematic of “America`s Greatest Family Resort.”

The Ocean City Arts Center welcomes everyone’s participation—as exhibitors or patrons—in the Boardwalk Art Show as it celebrates its half-­century anniversary in 2012. 

For further information about the Arts Center’s annual Membership Meeting,call the Center at 609-399-7628.

— By Rosalyn Lifshin, Ocean City Arts Center