Borrego Springs Circle of Art

The Borrego Springs 24^th annual Circle of Art festival was a neat added bonus during our recent trip to the area.
Held each March in the town’s Christmas Circle Community Park, the fest is a clearly a celebration of art and community. My husband and I had a nice time strolling the Christmas Circle lawn, checking out the booths of dozens of artists, listening to live music, and grabbing a gyro and sausage sandwich for an impromptu lunch.
If you’re accustomed to driving your own vehicle to festivals in bigger cities, then a real treat at Circle of Art is the parking situation. It’s all free, doesn’t result in a headache, and there’s plenty of it. While in town we found ourselves in the festival area several times each day during the 2-​day fest, and each time we noticed open street parking spots right there at Christmas Circle. If you don’t mind walking a quarter mile down Palm Canyon Drive, tons of parking is available at The Mall.
Here’s some fest info from the Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce website (
):
«Circle of Art is a juried show of quality paintings and art works representing a variety of media including oil and watercolor, photography, sculpture, ceramics, pottery, weaving, and jewelry. Artists exhibit in a beautiful and relaxed environment. Booths are spacious and the layout achieves good traffic flow and interesting vistas. The volunteer organizers work all year to produce just this one show. The show attracts a large following of visitors from southern California including Palm Springs, Palm Desert and San Diego regions and is marketed in these regions.»
«The Circle of Art is sponsored by BASIC (Basic Assistance for Students in the Community) a 501 (c)(3) non-​profit organization providing educational scholarships for residents of the Borrego Valley. All proceeds from the Show go to the scholarship fund.»
Particularly enjoyed a booth featuring clay/​pottery pieces made by local children and run by local teachers. We were happy to contribute by purchasing a few inexpensive, charming pieces created by children in Grades 6 – 12 as well as a couple more substantial pieces, one of which was made and nicely signed by Ms. D, the art teacher.
Our time at Circle of Art was certainly time well spent. What a nice event!