The Exhibitions Opening on Pelican Bay Boulevard This Month Will Carry the Winter Season

"One of art's most essential gifts is its ability to imagine light beyond darkness," Alexander Shelley said when Artis Naples announced its 2026-27 season in July. Shelley is in his third season as Artistic and Music Director, and he chose To Light: The Art of Hope as the theme. For anyone living in Pelican Bay, the theme matters less than the location. The Kimberly K. Querrey and Louis A. Simpson Cultural Campus sits at 5833 Pelican Bay Boulevard.

The season is often pictured as something that arrives in January. On this campus, the pieces that shape the next eight months arrive over nine days, from Saturday, Oct. 17 through Sunday, Oct. 25. Two exhibitions open that will still be on the walls well into the winter. A ballet premiere, a chamber salon and a four-day film festival fill the space in between.

October 17: The Shows That Stay

The Baker Museum opens two exhibitions on the same Saturday. Neither is a short visit.

The Surrealist International: Fifty Years of Dreams draws its paintings, photographs, sculptures and objects from the collection of Tate in the United Kingdom. It includes the familiar names: Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. It also includes artists the curators say deserve to be better known, among them Kati Horna, Malangatana Ngwenya, Osamu Shiihara and Lionel Wendt. The show runs through Feb. 14, 2027.

Florida Contemporary 2026-27 is the 14th edition of the museum's annual survey of artists working in the state. This year it features Dustin Harewood, Nicario Jiménez-Quispe, Savannah Magnolia and Anastasia Samoylova. The published closing dates don't match. The Artis season announcement lists June 27, 2027, and WGCU's October museum roundup lists Feb. 14, 2027, so check before planning a late visit. The same roundup notes that Jiménez-Quispe is based in Naples. It also says access to this gallery is limited during ticketed performances in Hayes Hall, and recommends calling patron services at 239-597-1900 before you visit. The four artists return for a panel discussion on Thursday, Jan. 28 at 2 p.m. in the Ubben Signature Event Space.

Those closing dates are why this weekend carries so much weight. Both shows are listed through at least mid-February, so a show you first see on Oct. 17 can be seen again with houseguests in December and once more after the holidays.

Two shows are already in the galleries, and the new openings overlap them briefly. Linling Lu: Fugue in 3 Voices holds Lu's circular paintings inspired by Dvořák, Stravinsky and Beethoven, and stays through Jan. 3, 2027. The Passion of Collecting closes much sooner, on Nov. 1, 2026. This is the Sibrack gift of 74 works of contemporary glass and ceramics by 60 artists, including Dale Chihuly, Lucio Bubacco and Toots Zynsky. From Oct. 17 to Nov. 1, the museum holds glass, ceramics, color-field painting, Florida artists and Tate surrealism at the same time. That 16-day stretch is the only time this season the building will look that way.

October 20: A Tuesday With Three Rooms in Use

Tuesday, Oct. 20 shows how tightly the campus is programmed this month.

The salon pairs Mendelssohn-Hensel's String Quartet in E-flat Major with Beethoven's Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 1, No. 2. It is also offered on Sunday, Oct. 18 at 3 p.m. The trio is an early look at this season's Beethoven focus. Its centerpiece is Shelley conducting all nine symphonies over two weeks to mark 200 years since the composer's death.

That evening, Gary Sheldon conducts the Naples Philharmonic for Miami City Ballet. The program is Balanchine's Allegro Brillante set to Tchaikovsky, Robbins' N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz and a world premiere by Delgado. The company returns later in the season for a second program. For the first one, the premiere can only be seen in Naples on this single night.

October 22 to 25: The Film Festival Takes the Whole Campus

The 18th Naples International Film Festival closes out the nine days. Artis Naples chose 59 films from nearly 1,000 submissions: 10 narrative features, nine documentary features and 40 shorts from 13 countries. Forty-seven of them are premieres, counting two world premieres, four U.S., three East Coast and 38 Florida premieres. With 38 Florida premieres, most of the program will be showing in this state for the first time, a few minutes from the Pelican Bay gatehouses.

Thursday, Oct. 22

Opening night is a set of five shorts in Hayes Hall instead of a single feature. The red carpet starts at 6 p.m. and the films at 7 p.m. A party follows in Norris Garden, with a VIP option on The Baker Museum's Baird Terrace. Tickets are $40 for the films only, $125 with the party and $225 with the VIP party. The lineup is Will Niava's Jazz Infernal, Matthew Inman's My Dog: The Paradox, Pranav Bhasin's We Were Here about three retirees at war with household technology, Daniel Audritt and Kat Butterfield's Life Goes On, and Cassidy Rast and Odin Wadleigh's Body of Work. Body of Work follows Florida artist Eric Anfinson and his work as a painter.

Friday and Saturday, Oct. 23 and 24

Cinema Under the Stars moves the screen outdoors to Norris Garden at 7:30 p.m. both nights. Friday is the East Coast premiere of Rebecca Tansley's Tenor: My Name Is Pati, about the Samoan tenor Pene Pati. Saturday is Jeff Dickamore and Aurora Florence's Too Soon. One note on dates: Artis's general ticketing page lists these garden screenings for a different pair of days than the individual film pages do. The film pages show Oct. 23 and 24, so confirm your night when you book.

Two titles have a local connection. Jay Silverman's Yale is based on a true story written by Naples resident Van Billet and stars Caitlin McGee, Kevin Dunn and Rachael Harris. John Mossman's Line Cooks has its world premiere at the festival. The documentary competition includes Fork in the Road, featuring Nick Offerman. Festival panel discussions are free, but they require a reserved ticket.

Sunday, Oct. 25

The awards ceremony starts at 5:30 p.m. in Daniels Pavilion. At 7:30 p.m. in Hayes Hall, Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly leads the Naples Philharmonic in John Williams' score, played live under the 1978 Superman. This is also the second year of juried short-film awards, now expanded to separate live-action, documentary and animated categories.

The Second Screen, Up U.S. 41 at The Pavilion

Some of the festival takes place off campus. Screenings also run at the Paragon Theaters location at The Pavilion in North Naples. Standard seats there are $16 and Lux Box seats are $20. A 10-pack of standard seats is $140 and is sold only at the Paragon box office. For anyone planning to see several films, that box-office-only rule is easy to miss. Both garden titles, Tenor and Too Soon, also have Paragon screenings. That gives you an indoor option if a breezy evening outside doesn't appeal.

The Pavilion has changed since the spring. Sour & Dough Artisan Bakery opened there in early September, according to Gulfshore Business. The same roundup reports that the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema at Mercato closed in early September. Gulfshore Business also makes clear that the Pavilion cinema is a separate location from the one that closed. A Paragon matinee can now start with something from a new bakery in the same center.

Getting to Hayes Hall on a Busy Night

With events in three rooms on the same day, it helps to plan where you'll park. Artis Naples gives these directions for evening and weekend events:

1. Park on the cultural campus itself or in the partner lots across Ridgewood Drive.
2. If those are full, use the surface lots or levels 3 to 5 of the Waterside Shops garage. A free club-style cart runs from the garage to the east entrance of Hayes Hall.
3. For most Hayes Hall performances, 5 Star Valet offers curbside service starting when the lobby opens. Free events are not included.
4. Accessible spaces are near the Hayes Hall main entrance. Guests who may find the walk from Waterside Shops difficult should arrive early to get a campus space.
5. Three spaces on the east side of campus have EV chargers.

Heidi's Place, the café in Norris Garden, serves light fare and drinks. It usually opens about 90 minutes before a performance and stays open until the program starts. That timing works well before a 7:30 p.m. garden screening, when the café and the screen share the same lawn.

After the festival ends, the next date to mark is Dec. 5. That day Baron Wolman: Capturing the Sound of an Era opens, showing work by Rolling Stone's first chief photographer, organized with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A talk on Wolman and the Hall of Fame follows at 11 a.m. that morning.

Laurie Bellico has advised Naples buyers and sellers since 2001, and being close to Hayes Hall on a night like Oct. 20 is part of what Pelican Bay offers. If you're thinking about what your home is worth in a community this close to the Artis campus, start with an instant home valuation, and Laurie will be glad to talk through the details with you.