The city has been quietly programming art at the Civic Center for more than a decade. What changed this year is packaging. From Sunday, August 9 through Saturday, August 15, the Cultural Arts Division has bundled a summer concert, the sculpture park, the Central Library galleries, and the long-running Newport Beach Art Exhibition into a single week and given it a name.
If you already live here, the interesting move isn't the branding. It's the timing. The city dropped ten new sculptures into Civic Center Park in July, and Art Week is effectively the block party for artwork you'll be walking past every time you drop a book at the Central Library through June 2029.
The Real News Happened In July, Not August
Every two or three years, Civic Center Park cycles its outdoor sculpture. This summer was a cycle year. Phase X of the Sculpture Exhibition in Civic Center Park brought ten sculptures selected from a national call for entries based on artistic merit, durability, practicality, and site appropriateness, with Arts Orange County providing professional services for the coordination of the artist selection and installation. They are scheduled to be on display in Civic Center Park for three years. Phase X sculptures will deinstall in June 2029.
That three-year window matters more than one week of programming. Selected artists receive an honorarium of $7,500 in exchange for a three-year loan of their artwork, which is a longer commitment than Phase VIII or IX carried. If you jog the loop or take kids to the dog park, these are the pieces you'll see roughly 300 times before they leave.
Two are worth knowing by name before you walk over. Tamara Robertson's piece works from a simple, poetic idea: that the heart contains seemingly infinite spaces within it, and puts forth the question, why is this particular heart so blue? Chris Plaisted's steel rods make imaginative use of material to evoke the shape of an ocean wave. They're the two easiest entry points for anyone bringing kids.
A Day-By-Day Read Of The Week
| Day | Anchor | Where | Why A Local Would Bother |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Aug 9 | Kickoff summer concert, 6–7:30 p.m. | Civic Center | Free, walk-in, doubles as your first look at Phase X in evening light |
| Mon–Fri Aug 10–14 | Satellite events at galleries, businesses, and cultural institutions across the city | Various | Programming submitted by local participants, not curated top-down |
| Fri Aug 14 | Artist drop-off, 3–6 p.m. | Civic Center Community Room | Not a public event, but the Civic Green is unusually busy |
| Sat Aug 15 | 59th Annual Newport Beach Art Exhibition + Art in the Park, 12–5 p.m. | Civic Center | Two events, one lawn, awards at 4 p.m. |
The Sunday concert is worth showing up to specifically because the 2026 Art Week takes place from Sunday, August 9, 2026, through Saturday, August 15, 2026, with the City Arts Commission kicking off the celebration with a summer concert on Sunday, August 9 from 6-7:30 p.m., and both the concert and closing Art Exhibition take place at the Newport Beach Civic Center at 100 Civic Center Drive. Show up an hour early with a picnic and you get a docent-free tour of the new sculpture rotation.
The Monday-through-Friday middle of the week is intentionally decentralized. The city welcomed local businesses, organizations, galleries, and cultural institutions located in Newport Beach to host art events during the inaugural Art Week. That means the strongest programming will sit outside the Civic Center, and the shape of it will depend entirely on which of your neighborhood businesses signed on before the April 30 deadline. Check the city's Cultural Arts webpage the week before rather than relying on a printed schedule.
Saturday Is Actually Two Events Stacked
The closing Saturday is the one to circle. Two long-running events collapsed onto the same lawn for the first time this year.
The Newport Beach Art Exhibition takes place in tandem with the Art in the Park Fine Arts and Artisan Fair, an annual event run by the Newport Beach Arts Foundation, and both events will take place at the Newport Beach Civic Center from 12-5 p.m. Art in the Park features artists and artisans selling their original art and fine crafts such as jewelry, sculptures, photography, paintings, textiles, and more.
The distinction between the two is real. The juried Art Exhibition is a competition with cash prizes. Art in the Park is a fair. If you're browsing for a piece for a hallway wall, you'll do better at the fair. If you want to buy work with an award ribbon still on it, the Exhibition is where you go, and you go after 4 p.m. once the jurors have finished. The Exhibition covers:
- Paintings in oil, acrylic, and watercolor
- Drawings in ink, pencil, and charcoal
- Photography
- 3D art and sculpture
Category winners receive $300 for first place, $200 for second, and $100 for third, with a $200 Juror's Choice, a $100 People's Choice, and an awards reception at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 15. The People's Choice ballot means your Saturday afternoon opinion actually influences a prize. It's the most participatory hour of the week.
One logistical caveat worth flagging for anyone planning to shop: all artwork must remain at the exhibition until 5 p.m., so if you buy at 1 p.m., you're picking up later or paying the artist to hold it. Bring a car you don't mind circling back to.
The Off-Site Move Most Residents Miss
Art Week markets itself as a Newport Beach event, but the strongest supporting exhibitions this August are one freeway exit away in Costa Mesa. The former OCMA has finished its merger with UC Irvine and reopened under a new name and, more usefully for locals, a new price.
In June 2025, OCMA and the University of California, Irvine signed a nonbinding letter of intent that would bring the museum under the university's control, effectively merging it with UC Irvine's Langson Institute and Museum of California Art. The museum's acquisition by UC Irvine was completed in September 2025. In February 2026, Kathryn Kanjo became the inaugural director of the new museum. The UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art now sits on the Segerstrom Center for the Arts campus, and admission is free for all visitors.
Three shows overlap with Art Week. Jon Serl: As One, As Many runs from February 20 through September 13, 2026. Staging California in Early Hollywood runs from June 26, 2026 through January 3, 2027. Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden runs from June 26 through October 18, 2026. The Saunders show is the one to prioritize if you only have one Saturday morning free before the Civic Center events start at noon.
Treat Art Week less as a festival and more as a scheduling cue. The programming is the excuse. The sculpture rotation is the reason.
How To Fold It Into A Regular Week
If you're already doing your normal Newport routine, this is what a light-touch Art Week looks like without rearranging your life:
- Sunday evening: Walk the sculpture loop at Civic Center Park before the 6 p.m. concert. Bring a folding chair.
- Any weekday lunch: Duck into the Central Library's Lobby Gallery. It's already on your errand path if you use the Avocado Avenue post office or the Newport Center medical offices.
- Wednesday or Thursday: Drive to Costa Mesa for the Langson OCMA. Free parking is validated nowhere, so budget for the Segerstrom garage.
- Saturday midday: Arrive at the Civic Center at 12 sharp, browse Art in the Park first while the fair is fresh, break for lunch, come back at 3:30 for the Exhibition and stay through the 4 p.m. awards reception.
- Sunday morning after: Do the sculpture loop again. Half the fun is watching how differently the pieces read once you've spent a week thinking about them.
The Phase X sculptures will be part of your walking routine for three more summers. Art Week is the introduction. Everything after August 15 is the long relationship.
Let's Connect
The Stephanie Young Group has been part of the Newport Beach community for years, and events like Art Week are part of what makes daily life here feel textured rather than transactional. Whether you're a longtime resident curious about how the neighborhood is evolving or you'd simply like a warm conversation about the market, Stephanie Young Group is here whenever you'd like to chat. Let's Connect.