The historic Mandarin Community Club is home Easter weekend to the 58th Mandarin Art Festival. | Mandarin Art Festival
Published on April 2, 2026 at 12:09 pm
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Paintings, sculptures and other works of art will shine this weekend as the 58th annual Mandarin Art Festival gets underway on the oak-shaded grounds of the 154-year-old Mandarin Community Club.
Jacksonville’s longest-running art festival includes a children’s art show, bake sale and food court. More than 100 artists will vie for awards.
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Local ceramic artist Tim Bullard has displayed his works at the festival for about 50 years and will be back this weekend.
“It’s been a long time, and it’s a wonderful show. It’s the longest continuously juried art show in Jacksonville,” Bullard said. “Being a juried show, it is important to have a good crowd, and there’s a history to it too. … It’s like a neighborhood thing that it started as, and it has become a very well-known show, and I know several really good artists who come for it.”
Jacksonville acrylic artist Carolyn Veros will be a first-timer at the show, after a lifetime of painting and about five years selling her work. She said she is “excited and a little nervous” about her invite to the show.
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“I am also excited to meet all kinds of artists who have been there for years, and also new artists locally who I might not know,” Veros said. “I think the value of a juried show is it makes it a very diverse group of art. You don’t get much repetition, and I think for a person coming to the show, that makes it outstanding — every artist is different.”
The festival location is historic, around the community club’s church-like structure. It originally was called the Freedmen’s Bureau, which was built in 1872 with funds raised by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she lived across Mandarin Road. setting up the facility to teach the children of freed slaves.
The building then became the Mandarin School, before it was gifted to the community club in 1936. In 1968, club members created the art festival there.
Since then, the show has brought in 100-plus artists each Easter weekend to showcase their works, from carved wood to metal and ceramic sculptures and many kinds of paintings.
Festival chairwoman Susie Scott said there are a lot of new artists this year, from as far as Montana, New York and California, along with Jacksonville veterans like Bullard.
“It’s just developed into an Easter weekend tradition for generations of families,” Scott said. “The art’s always good. It is a juried show, so you have to qualify to even be accepted as an artist so you know when you come, it’s going to be good stuff.”
Art festival details
Organizers expect 6,000 to 10,000 people at the event Saturday and Sunday, with high temperatures in the low 80s expected and a chance of rain on Easter Sunday.
Along with artwork arrayed outside the clubhouse, artists from 15 local schools will set up inside for the Children’s Art Show, near the annual bake sale.
The show also has a Green Market in the Billard Park area behind the festival, with 16 vendors. And there are food vendors, with shaded seating next door at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Pavilion.
Proceeds from the show benefit the Community Club’s preservation, education and beautification programs in the Mandarin community.
If you go
Parking: There is no parking at the festival site, which is surrounded by tight two-lane roads. But free parking is available at Episcopal Church of Our Saviour, 12236 Mandarin Road; Alberts Field, 12073 Brady Road; and the Mandarin Masonic Lodge, 2914 Loretto Road. A free shuttle runs to and from the show during festival hours.
Hours: The show runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday:
Admission: $2 per person.
