Between Halloween and the middle of December, the largest art openings on both sides of the Royal Park Bridge are almost all photography. The Norton Museum of Art opens Mimi Plumb's first museum exhibition on October 31. On Saturday, December 5, the Norton opens Prix Pictet Storm and the Society of the Four Arts opens a show of bird images by more than 50 photographers in its sculpture garden. At the same time, the Palm Beach Photographic Centre, the city's institution built around photography, says on its website that it is temporarily closed.
So the photography season is being hosted by the large museums, and their calendars are worth reading as one program. Here is how the program fits together, in the order it opens.
The Norton goes all-in on the camera
Plumb, an American photographer born in 1953, has photographed the human-altered landscape for five decades. Her show, Blazing Light: Photographs by Mimi Plumb, runs October 31, 2026 through March 14, 2027. It brings together the three bodies of work the Norton calls her most important. The White Sky runs from 1972 to 1978, Landfall and The Golden City from 1984 to 2020, and The Reservoir from 2021 to 2025. Her subject is California's harsh sunlight, printed in gritty black and white. That high-contrast light should feel familiar to anyone in a city that has just come through a South Florida summer.
The Norton opens Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery on the same day, with the same March 14 closing date. The museum describes it as the first nationally touring presentation of Abercrombie's art.
Plumb also joins a photography show that is already up. Visible Fictions: Photography and Artifice treats the camera as a tool for invention rather than neutral recording, through staged scenes, constructed sets and performed identities. The artists include Sophie Calle, Renée Cox, Gregory Crewdson, Thomas Demand, Tania Franco Klein, Nikki S. Lee, Cindy Sherman and Laurie Simmons. It runs through February 21, 2027. From October 31 the two shows hang in the same building. One shows photographs built in a studio. The other shows photographs found in the land around San Francisco.
Another image show, Cursed Images: Pictures Out of Context, closes November 1, the day after Plumb opens. The weekend of October 31 is the one time all three overlap.
December 5, on both sides of the bridge
On the first Saturday in December, photography's two biggest openings of the season fall on the same day, about five miles apart.
The Norton's Prix Pictet Storm runs December 5, 2026 through April 18, 2027. Prix Pictet is an award the Pictet Group founded in 2008 to draw attention to sustainability through photography. Each cycle starts with a theme and shortlists 12 photographers. An independent jury chooses a winner, and the prize is announced at the V&A. The Storm cycle takes severe weather literally, and also as a metaphor for environmental collapse, political turmoil, economic instability and social unrest. It leaves room for renewal and hope. The shortlist is Alfredo Jaar, Takashi Arai, Marina Caneve, Tom Fecht, Balazs Gardi, Roberto Huarcaya, Belal Khaled, Hannah Modigh, Baudouin Mouanda, Camille Seaman, Laetitia Vançon and Patrizia Zelano. Jaar won the cycle for his 2025 series The End. In a county that tracks hurricane season every year, a photography show called Storm opens just as that season winds down.
On the island, The High Life: Contemporary Photography and the Birds opens the same day in the Four Arts' Phillip Hulitar Sculpture Garden and runs through May 2, 2027. The garden is open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., weather permitting. It closes on holidays, in bad weather and during Four Arts special events. The show was curated by William Ewing and Danaé Panchaud, organized by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography and co-organized with Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. It includes Robert Clark, Tim Flach, Nadav Kander, Karen Knorr, Vik Muniz, Anastasia Samoylova, Kristin Schnell, Hans van Asch, Robert Walker and Kiki Xue among more than 50 photographers. Instead of grouping images by species, it looks at the relationship between people and birds, which the curators describe as beautiful, complex and sometimes dark. The box office in the Dixon Building sells the 272-page catalogue, Aviary: The Bird in Contemporary Photography.
One is indoors and about weather. The other is in a garden and about birds, and they sit on opposite sides of the Intracoastal. Here is one way to see both over that weekend:
- Friday, December 4. Start with the Norton's Art After Dark, which runs every Friday until 10 p.m. The first Friday of each month adds Jazz Friday at 7 p.m. Docent tours run at 5:30 and 7 p.m. Evening admission is $10 for adults and seniors and $5 for students.
- Saturday morning, December 5. Cross to the island for The High Life once the garden opens at 11 a.m. Daylight works in its favor.
- Saturday afternoon. Come back to the Norton at 1401 S. Dixie Highway for Prix Pictet Storm, which you can see before the 5 p.m. close. Bank of America cardholders get free Norton admission on the first full weekend of each month, which in December is December 5 and 6.
The quieter frames around the big openings
Photography continues at a smaller scale at Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens. Nick Mele Photography: Parked for the Season runs November 13, 2026 through January 10, 2027 and features Mele's photographs inspired by vintage automobiles and Palm Beach glamour. The other photography shows in this guide come from San Francisco, the Prix Pictet's international jury and a Minneapolis-Paris-Lausanne foundation. This is the one whose subject is local.
The rest of the fall calendar is mostly other mediums, and its dates set the pace around the photography openings:
| Opens | Venue | Exhibition | Runs through | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 16 | Cultural Council for Palm Beach County | Molded & Mannered | Dec 12 | Donald M. Ephraim Family Foundation Gallery |
| Oct 21 | Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens | In Full Bloom: Flowers in the Garden, Bruce Helander | Jan 10, 2027 | Pressed-flower collage portraits |
| Oct 23 | Cultural Council | Bogdan Kravchenko | Dec 5 | Reception Oct 22, 5–7 p.m. |
| Oct 31 | Norton Museum of Art | Blazing Light and Gertrude Abercrombie | Mar 14, 2027 | Same-day double opening |
| Nov 2 | Armory Art Center | Humorous: The Art of Laughter | Dec 26 | Juried, Florida artists; reception Nov 19; free |
| Nov 6 | Cultural Council | Sun, Sand, Surf, curated by Jessica Ransom | Dec 31 | Reception Nov 5, 6–7:30 p.m. |
| Nov 10 | Flagler Museum | America Takes the Stage: From the White City to Whitehall | May 30, 2027 | Lectures Nov 18 and Dec 9 |
| Nov 13 | Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens | Parked for the Season, Nick Mele | Jan 10, 2027 | Photography |
| Dec 5 | Norton and Four Arts | Prix Pictet Storm; The High Life | Apr 18 and May 2, 2027 | Same-day openings |
Helander, the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens' 2026/27 Artist in Residence, portrays subjects including the Mona Lisa, Marilyn Monroe, Marjorie Merriweather Post and Jacqueline Kennedy in pressed flowers. Both Ann Norton shows are open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. At the Flagler Museum, guest curator Mosette Broderick, an architecture historian, connects Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition to Henry Flagler's Whitehall. Geoffrey Baer lectures on November 18 and Gerald Larson on December 9. Both evenings start with cocktails at 5:30 p.m. and the talk at 6. In the commercial galleries, GAVLAK's group show Between Worlds runs through November 7. Its artists include Marilyn Minter, Nancy Lorenz, Pae White and T.J. Wilcox.
In the table, the painting, collage and history shows open in October and early November. The largest photography openings come later, and the season peaks on December 5.
Where the Photographic Centre stands
The Palm Beach Photographic Centre spent years as the place in West Palm Beach most closely tied to photography. Its website now says the Centre and its ProShop are temporarily closed, and it directs visitors to its feature-film master program. In July 2025, Stet News reported that the Centre had left its downtown premises and was still looking for a permanent home for its photo museum and store. Some county directories still list the former 415 Clematis Street address. That is not a confirmed place to visit, so check the Centre's own site before going.
For gallery visitors this fall, photography is on view at the larger museums. By December 5, Blazing Light, Visible Fictions and Prix Pictet Storm are all at the Norton at once, and The High Life stays in the Four Arts garden into May.
The practical details are simple. The Norton is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday until 10 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed Tuesdays. General admission is $20, seniors 60 and over pay $17, students with ID pay $5, and children 12 and under get in free. The free Saturday admission the Norton offered county residents this summer ended September 7. The Armory's Humorous is free to visit. The Four Arts' bird photographs are in an open-air garden, so they are best seen in the dry, mild weather of the season.
Exhibitions on photography, light and craft are part of what we program at Haven Palm Beach, in our gallery at 211 Royal Poinciana Way, a short drive from both December 5 openings. If you would like to talk about how a photograph holds a wall, or see residences with the volume and light to show one, request a VIP Tour and we will plan it around your season.
