History of Mayfaire

In May 1971, a small group of local artists put on an outdoor art show on the front lawn of the library. With the sponsorship of the Polk Museum, this small art show marked the beginning of Mayfaire. In 1975, after a couple years of transition and with the participation of Polk County art teachers and schools, Mayfaire moved to the parking lot behind the Museum’s then-location in an old Publix building, and it has since become an anticipated annual May event. Indeed, Mayfaire has grown into what we now know as the Polk Museum of Art’s Mayfaire by-the-Lake Fine Art Festival, one of the premier outdoor art shows in the region.  

Mayfaire was canceled for 1977 but resumed in 1978 as a crafts fair under the leadership of Muffy Davidson. That year, the fair was given its current and familiar name, “Mayfaire by-the-Lake” and relocated to the shores of Lake Morton. With the help of a grant from The Florida Phosphate Council and over sixty craftsmen, the re-branded lakeside fair was a huge success, running Saturday and Sunday of Mother’s Day weekend.

In 1982, after Ken Rollins became the Museum’s director, Helen Ramsey and Lynne Fargher were hired as the first part-time coordinators of Mayfaire. For many years, the two were affectionately known as the “Mayfairies.” Dedicating their time to making Mayfaire bigger and better each year, Ramsey and Fargher helped the to initiate some big changes to the fair and its visitor experience.

For instance, in 1990 — as an addition to artists’ booths — Mayfaire began to include hands-on art activities for children of all abilities. The program, called “Very Special Arts Festival,” was a partnership between the Museum’s and the School Board’s Education departments. Today, the Polk County Exceptional Student Education (ESE) department runs this program and opens up our show on Saturday Morning each year by arranging student performances on the Library Lawn. 

During Rollins’ tenure as director, Mayfaire made some other important changes. In 1991, Mayfaire by-the-Lake began jurying its applications, meaning that a panel of jurors would now evaluate artist entries, narrowing the pool to the highest-scoring artists, whose booths would surround the Lake each May. With this new, more selective way of accepting artists, Mayfaire saw positive results and response from the public, and visitation increased to approximately 75,000 visitors annually.

But Mayfaire was not done growing yet: in 1993, Mayfaire Saturday Night, a street dance in downtown Lakeland, was added to the weekend festivities.  The next year, the Lakeland Runners Club joined in the fun, with their Mayfaire 5K sanctioned run scheduled to coincide with the Saturday evening festivities. Both wildly popular and key pieces of Mayfaire weekend, Mayfaire Saturday Night and the Mayfaire 5K have both become annual traditions, as much a part of Mayfaire as the fair itself.

By the turn of the 21st century, the little outdoor art show that had begun quietly on the Library lawn had transformed into a staple of spring in Central Florida — and, after more than two decades at the helm of the event, the original “Mayfairies” Ramsey and Fargher finally ceded their beloved titles, with Farger retiring after Mayfaire 2004 and Ramsey after Mayfaire 2007.

Over the years, Mayfaire has become a destination for artists who exhibit regularly at outdoor art fairs around the country and and boasts artists from all over the world. It has also been an important venue for artists to develop their careers.

Rocky Bridges, for example, began exhibiting at Mayfaire during his senior year at Cooper Union, when the Museum was still in housed in an old Publix Building. Along the way he became a working artist and teacher at Harrison School for the Arts, and, in 2006, he was awarded “Best of Show at Mayfaire.” In 2008, a highly textured version of his signature red folding chair was selected as the featured image for Mayfaire’s annual t-shirt and poster.  Similarly, glass artists Duncan McClellan and Susan Gott both launched their careers exhibiting at Mayfaire when they were just young artists. And although born in Bangkok, Thailand, Tony Eitharong has established himself in his own career and by exhibiting frequently at Mayfaire as very much a Florida artist.

This year, we were excited to celebrate our 49th Mayfaire by-the-Lake. We had over 250 artist applications and plans were well underway to have had the best Mayfaire yet, but circumstances we all know too well by now (and which were far beyond our control) necessitated our canceling the 2020 event. It was a hard decision, but the health and safety of our community, our artists, and our projected 75,000 visitors was at the forefront of our minds.

As disappointed as we are to not have been able to hold Mayfaire this year, the spirit of Mayfaire 2020 does live on, though . . . And now you can take a piece of it home with you! TRULY!

Barbara Rush’s image, Infused with Grace, was selected as the poster and t-shirt design for 2020. So in recognition of this most extraordinary and unusual Mayfaire 2020, we are printing limited edition Infused with Grace Mayfaire not-by-the-Lake 2020 posters that will be available for sale in The Shop at the Museum. We will announce when the novelty posters are ready for purchase, but make sure to grab yours before they are gone!

In the meantime, we now turn toward the future and look forward more than ever before to Mayfaire 2021, when we will continue decades of Mother’s Day weekend tradition on May 8 and 9, 2021.

Thank you for allowing us to bring you Mayfaire by-the-Lake each year! See you next year!