La Quinta's Art Season Now Starts in November

For decades, a big art festival in La Quinta meant March. This year the season starts on November 12. That's the opening day of La Quinta Art Celebration ENCORE 2026, a four-day juried show at La Quinta Civic Center. Sixteen days later, on November 28, Old Town La Quinta's free Art on Main Street opens its 2026–2027 run of Saturday shows.

The two shows sit a short walk apart, but they're built differently. ENCORE is ticketed, juried and packed into four days. Art on Main Street is free, open-air and returns on Saturdays into early April. Taken together, they turn the stretch from mid-November to spring into one long art calendar. Before, the town waited for a single week in March.

A March tradition that picked up a second date

The city's festival has a history worth knowing before you buy a ticket. As The Desert Sun reported in November 2019, the La Quinta Arts Foundation had produced the La Quinta Arts Festival together with the city since La Quinta incorporated in 1982. Then the Foundation announced it would end the event. In its final years, that festival drew 5,000 to 8,000 people a day.

The city didn't want to skip a year. City officials and artists told the paper a gap could send artists and patrons to other festivals for good. The council chose Paul Anderson, who had directed the Sausalito Arts Festival, as promoter. The Foundation owned the "La Quinta Arts Festival" trademark, so the new event needed a new name and became La Quinta Art Celebration. The first edition was planned for March 2020, with 220 artists invited from 674 applications.

So the name on the Civic Center banners is the city's event, not the Foundation's. That trips up a lot of people. The Celebration also now runs twice a year, in March and November. The spring 2026 show has already handed out its awards. The next spring edition is set for March 4–7, 2027. ENCORE is the fall half of that pair, so you get two chances a year to walk the Civic Center aisles.

Four days on Calle Tampico

ENCORE 2026 runs November 12–15, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, at La Quinta Civic Center, 78495 Calle Tampico. The details that shape a visit:

• Tickets: $25 for one day, with a $30 multi-day option on the ticket page. The event terms say each ticket covers one day, so check what the multi-day pass includes when you buy.
• Kids: Children under 12 get in free with an adult.
• Parking: $10 for self-parking, with valet also available. Parking at the Village of La Quinta is free.
• Dogs: Pets aren't allowed on the grounds. Service dogs are the exception.

Living ten minutes away helps here. Someone flying in for one weekend gets one look at the show. A local can walk the aisles on Thursday and come back Sunday for the piece they couldn't stop thinking about.

There's plenty to see. The organizers' October update counts 154 artists, and 43 of them are showing at the Celebration for the first time. A September post on the same site says 153 jury-selected artists, so expect a count in the low 150s. That's a smaller field than the 220 artists planned for the 2020 debut. Artists are juried and show original work across categories that include painting, photography, ceramics, glass, jewelry, fiber, sculpture and mixed media.

Three names are worth finding on the map:

1. Rebecca Molayem, an expressionist painter from Los Angeles who also sculpts. Her work "Desert Reunion" is this year's poster image.
2. David Palmer, a Los Angeles painter who mixes Pop Art with classical references. He designed the ENCORE 2026 T-shirt.
3. Doug Anderson, a ceramic artist from Rancho Mirage. His featured piece is a commissioned chess set with a tennis theme. In a valley that hosts a world-class tennis tournament every spring, that piece will get attention.

ENCORE also lands right after a civic date on the same campus. On Wednesday, November 11, at 9 a.m., the city's Veterans Recognition Ceremony in the City Hall Courtyard will honor 24 residents. Their names, ranks and service dates will be engraved on the monuments in Civic Center Park. The next morning, the art show opens on the same grounds.

Two weeks later, the art moves outdoors on Main Street

ENCORE is a concentrated event. Art on Main Street is the habit that carries the season. Old Town La Quinta's open-air show fills Main Street with more than 80 local and regional artists per show. Their work spans fine art, photography, jewelry, ceramics, glass, textiles, woodwork, sculpture and mixed media, with the Santa Rosa Mountains behind the booths. It's free, it runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Old Town's description includes live entertainment along with the shops and restaurants on the street.

The artist mix works differently, too. Old Town's artist application reviews vendors as space opens up and waitlists approved artists when no spot is available. ENCORE is a juried four-day field. Main Street is a rotating group spread across a whole season of Saturdays, so the booths can look different every time you go.

Here's how the two shows fill the calendar from now through early April:

The table shows the pattern. Between ENCORE's opening on November 12 and the last Main Street Saturday on April 3, the two shows put art on in town on 18 separate days: eight at the Civic Center across its two editions and ten Saturdays on Main Street. The December 12 show comes during holiday shopping season. The Saturday after Thanksgiving makes a good first outing when family is in town.

Where a show day ends on Main Street

Art on Main Street happens right outside Old Town's restaurants, so the shows and the eating go together. The Old Town directory, updated in September 2026, lists these dining spots along the street:

• Main Street Coffee, 78100 Main Street, Suite 102, for coffee and baked goods before the 9 a.m. start.
• YES PLEASE Café & Dessert Shop, 78065 Main Street, Suite 100, which serves coffee, pastries, breakfast, brunch and lunch.
• Stuft Pizza Bar & Grill, 78015 Main Street, with a full bar.
• RD RNNR, 78065 Main Street, Suite 200, a craft-American restaurant with cocktails and rotating taps.
• The Grill on Main, 78065 Main Street, with a full bar and an afternoon happy hour.
• DSRT Club, 78075 Main Street, No. 105.
• Lola's at The Cove, 78015 Main Street, known for its wine and cocktails.
• Nitroinfusions, 78010 Main Street, for ice cream after the booths start packing up.

Hours change with the season, so check with each spot before a show day. The city's summer guide, for example, sends Nitroinfusions customers to its Instagram for current hours.

ENCORE runs Thursday through Sunday, so breakfast is easy to plan too. Keke's Breakfast Cafe opened August 27 at 79892 Highway 111 and serves breakfast and brunch daily from 7 a.m., as The Gem reported in September. It's a newer option in town for anyone who wants to eat before the 10 a.m. gates open on Calle Tampico.

Art in La Quinta also tells you something about a home. Buyers notice the original pieces on the walls, the light in the room and the walk to Main Street, and we build those details into how we show a home. If ENCORE has you rethinking your own place, or wondering what it's worth before the spring Celebration comes back in March, Mike Read and the team at Read Group Real Estate are happy to talk it through. Request a Free Home Valuation and we'll put real local numbers behind the question.