Every Presidents Day weekend, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival turns Bayshore Drive into an open-air gallery. For six decades, its commemorative posters have doubled as a visual diary of Miami, capturing how the city’s style, skyline, and creative identity have evolved year after year.
What began in 1963 as a modest outdoor exhibition has grown into one of the nation’s premier art festivals, and the posters have tracked that rise. Early designs reflected Coconut Grove’s bohemian roots, with painterly scenes of sailboats, banyan trees, and village streets. As Miami’s profile rose, the posters—and participating artists—became bolder and more global, tapping marquee talents such as Romero Britto, Guy Harvey, Clyde Butcher, Xavier Cortada, Lynn Fecteau, and Lisa Remeny. Collectors chase specific years the way some people collect concert prints, framing them as snapshots of the city at a particular moment.
When the sixty-second edition unfolds February 14-16, a fresh design will join that lineage as 285 juried artists line the streets with work in every medium. For longtime fans, the posters are more than souvenirs. They are a visual archive that charts Miami’s path from laid-back Grove enclave to international arts capital, one limited-edition print at a time.
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