Under the Oaks Fine Arts and Crafts Show — Vero Beach, Florida

Under the Oaks is the Vero Beach Art Club's yearly juried show of fine art and fine crafts, set up for three days each March under the oak trees of Riverside Park in Vero Beach. The club's Under the Oaks page calls it a beloved tradition held each March in beautiful Riverside Park, and the show is the club's single largest fundraiser. Roughly 200 artists from across the country show work in tents spread across the park lawns, and admission has been free in every year documented by local reporting.

The show is old enough that its anniversaries are counted against the Art Club's own. A February 2011 Vero News report said that the Vero Beach Art Club had organized Under the Oaks for the past 60 years, and that the 2011 show coincided with the club's 75th anniversary. In 2026 the count reached 75: WFLX reported that the Vero Beach Art Club was rolling out the red carpet for the 75th anniversary of Under the Oaks, held March 13 to 15, 2026.

The show has a fixed home. The Art Club gives the location as 3280 Riverside Park Drive, a city park on the Indian River Lagoon that also holds the Riverside Theatre and the Vero Beach Museum of Art. The 2011 Vero News report described the show as held at Riverside Park in Vero Beach, nestled between the Riverside Theatre and the Vero Beach Museum of Art, and noted that no pets are allowed under city park regulations.

The calendar is just as steady. Under the Oaks runs Friday through Sunday on a March weekend, as the Art Club's page puts it: March 11 to 13 in 2011, March 13 to 15 in 2026, and, on the Art Club's page, March 12, 13 and 14, 2027 for the 76th show. The posted hours for 2027 are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, the same pattern WFLX listed for 2026. On admission, the 2011 report said that there are no admittance fees and parking is free at Riverside Park, in keeping with the club's policy of bringing art to the public.

Entry is competitive. In March 2017 the show's co-chair told Vero News that 600 to 700 artists apply to Under the Oaks each year and that the jury takes 220, so that less than one-third are invited. The 2011 report gave a similar ratio from the first year of online applications: over 750 applied and were juried to the 210-plus best and most unique artists, with applicants from the United States and Europe.

The Vero Beach Art Club runs the jury on a fixed calendar. According to an April 2024 Vero News account of the 73rd show, jurying begins in October and artists are notified by Thanksgiving of their acceptance. Club members are not waved in: the top 15 percent of members who apply are accepted alongside the general pool, and a 2023 Vero News report put it the same way, saying that 15 percent of the exhibitors juried in were VBAC members. The mediums listed in 2023 were oils, watercolors, acrylics, photography, graphics, sculpture, glass, jewelry, pottery and woodworks.

Prizes at Under the Oaks are decided by a panel of judges from outside Indian River County. Recent panels have drawn on Rollins College, the Boca Raton Museum of Art School, Daytona State College and Florida International University, according to Vero News coverage of the 2023, 2024 and 2025 shows. In 2021 the club kept its prize money at full strength after a difficult year, awarding a total of $23,000.

Attendance figures for Under the Oaks vary with the source and the year. The 2011 Vero News report said past shows had recorded between 75,000 and 80,000 visitors. More recent figures are lower and rounder: the Vero Beach Art Club and WFLX both describe more than 50,000 visitors a year, and Vero News described tens of thousands of visitors at Riverside Park during the 74th show in 2025.

National rankings come from the art fair trade press. The Art Club's page lists Under the Oaks at No. 17 in Sunshine Artist's 200 Best Fine Arts and Design Shows in 2019, No. 59 in 2020, No. 16 in 2021 and No. 8 in 2023, and states that the Vero Beach show has been voted among the Top 200 Art Shows in the Nation by Art Fair Source Book. The club notes that the 2020 ranking came in the year its show was cut short.

The 69th Under the Oaks, in March 2020, lasted one day. Vero News reported that roughly 198 vendors had set up in Riverside Park when city officials told organizers at 3:30 p.m. on Friday that the show would have to close at the end of the day as a COVID-19 precaution. According to that March 2020 report, this was the 69th year for the popular event, and in all that time this was the first real cancellation; the Indian River County Firefighters Fair, due to open the same evening, was called off as well.

The 70th show returned to Riverside Park in March 2021 with masks required and wider spacing between tents. The Vero Beach Art Club promised every 2020 exhibitor a place, and Vero News reported that 135 of the 216 artists from the shortened show came back. About a quarter of the roughly 200 artists that year were new or had not shown in several years.

Under the Oaks pays for the Vero Beach Art Club's teaching programs. Vero News described the show in 2020 as the club's largest fundraiser, providing funds for local scholarships and enrichment programs that promote art through education. In 2024 the event chair said some profit also goes to classes for veterans groups and for teens, and the March 2025 Vero News report repeated that a portion goes to classes for veterans.

The show also leans on other Vero Beach institutions. Indian River Charter High School generally sends some 150 students over the weekend to help with tasks, and in 2024 the club's junior group showed framed work in a tent next to the school's. That year the Cultural Council filmed Under the Oaks for a tourism video. In 2023 the club provided booth space in trade to the Cultural Council, the Vero Beach Museum of Art and the Vero Beach Film Festival, and organizers said a committee of 15 people plus the club president and office manager works on the show all year.

The most recent editions have held at about 210 artists. The 73rd Under the Oaks in 2024 drew tens of thousands of visitors to see work by some 210 artists, about a quarter of them new. In 2025, Vero News reported picture-perfect weather for the 74th annual show at Riverside Park and again about 210 artists. The 75th show ran March 13 to 15, 2026, and the Art Club's page lists more than 200 artists and a Best in Show and category winners for that anniversary year. The next confirmed date is the 76th show, set by the Vero Beach Art Club for March 12 to 14, 2027.