BOCA RATON, FLA.- David and Lee Ann Lester, founders of Next Level Fairs, who own and operate Art Palm Beach, SeaFair and more, are launching Art Boca Raton to take place March 18-21, 2016. The fair will showcase contemporary work, modern masters, and emerging art, sculpture, photography, works on paper and installations.

Boca Raton is on the national radar not only for its beaches and glorious (mostly) weather, it is on many “best of” lists including the nation’s best small city for starting a business, the best city in Florida to open a restaurant, and it is the major commercial center in Palm Beach County. Until recently, there was only one thing that Miami and Palm Beach had that Boca didn’t…a world class art fair.

“Boca Raton is the commercial center of Palm Beach County. Major luxury brands and retailers have large presences there. Launching Art Boca Raton in this culturally and commercially thriving community with the partnership of the Boca Raton Museum of Art and other local institutions creates an entirely new cultural environment and experience for residents and visitors,” says David Lester. “It offers an exciting new seasonal destination for serious art collectors from throughout the United States while generating revenue for area hotels, restaurants, and retail establishments,” continues Lester.

Approximately 50 regional, national, and international dealers have been carefully selected by a curatorial committee in order to assure dealer quality and exclusivity, 20 of whom participated in Art Palm Beach in January 2016.

Florida galleries include Vertu Fine Art (Boca Raton) bringing Alex Katz Lithographs and Donald Sultan’s famous Poppies series; Art Link International (Lake Worth), Art Media (Miami), Latin Art Core (Miami) and White Space (West Palm Beach). Art Clipper is coming from Helsinki, Echt Gallery from Chicago, and Evan Lurie Gallery from Indiana along with Habatat Galleries (Royal Oak, MI), Rim Gallery (Seoul, Korea) and Pushkin Gallery (Santa Fe, NM).

The fair will take place in the International Pavilion of the Palm Beaches on the grounds of the Research Park at Florida Atlantic University located at 3450 NW 8th Avenue, Boca Raton, FL 33431). The 65,000 square foot exhibition hall (a $500,000 build-out) will include a full service restaurant, sculpture garden and lecture hall. Ample self and valet parking adjacent to the pavilion makes it easy to visit more than once.

According to Forbes Magazine, Boca Raton has three of the ten most expensive exclusive gated communities in the U.S. Boca Raton has had a long history as a major high tech center for software and companies leading new technologies as it was the original headquarters of IBM. The Research Park at FAU, anchored by software company Modernizing Medicine, supports an environment where companies engaged in the research and development of new and innovative products can thrive. The Research Park is home to high-tech companies and support organizations as well as the Technology Business Incubator and angel investor groups and the Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research and other publicly funded research institutes.

“We have been working together, Florida Atlanta University, the Boca Raton Museum of Art and Art Boca Raton to develop an expanded creative campus that incorporates the full community of our city,” says Irvin Lippman. “This partnership has brought together east and west and the educational and cultural institutions, the art dealers, residents and tourists – a true community effort,” continues Lippman.

Mayor Susan Haynie and her Deputy Mayor, Robert Weinroth, showed their support of Art Boca Raton at a recent meeting hosted by the Boca Raton Museum of Art, bringing together the organizers, the museum board members, city officials, the Chamber of Commerce and the Tourism Development Council. According to the Chair of the Board of Trustees, Dalia Stiller who led the meeting, “the point of our coming together is to create a leadership committee to shepherd the fair through its inaugural year, setting the stage for a prestigious annual even that is a win-win for all involved.”

Troy McLellan, President & CEO of the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce said, “cultural opportunities such as Art Boca Raton build community.”