Shopping at the Beaux Arts Holiday Sale at the Boise Art Museum

The Beaux Arts Societe is the volunteer organization that helps raise the necessary money to keep the Boise Art Museum running strong. Although it helps organize many money raising events for the gallery, the Boise community has two obvious favorites. The first is the wine festival, which takes place in the summertime, and is always a blast. The other is the Beaux Arts Holiday Sale, which takes place annually in November for one three day weekend. If you can catch it, the Beaux Arts Sale is a fantastic place to buy Christmas gifts and help out a great cause at the same time.

The Holiday Sale takes place in the very spot that it’s raising money for: the Boise Art Museum, located centrally in Julia Davis Park (right next to the history museum, and close to the zoo.) If you’ve never been to the Museum, I highly suggest it. You’ll definitely want to support it after you see one of their installations. Although Boise may not be considered one of the foremost art cities in the country, they really do a good job here to help change that. And the effects are definitely starting to spread throughout the community: downtown Boise grows more aesthetically pleasing every year, and I am always amazed when I go back for a visit, The Museum is gorgeous, and is a fun place to shop.

For three days, the museum is transformed from a gallery into an arts and crafts market. More than 200 artists display their wares, and almost everything is for sale. Although the artists come from all over, many of them are local. You’ll find amazing ceramics, one of a kind jewelry, paintings, baskets, and stained glass. You’ll also find an a ton of really unique, handmade toys for kids, as well as blankets and home dÃ?©cor items. The pottery is usually pretty awesome: you’ll find hand thrown bowls, slab pots, figurines, ect. The jewelry is always the thing that impresses me the most: they have some really beautiful pieces, and the prices aren’t that bad. Someone bought me an Idaho star garnet ring from there when I was a little girl, and it is still my absolutely favorite piece of jewelry. When I lived in Boise, I always bought gifts for my mom and my brother’s girlfriend here, because everything is really beautiful and made well. You could also be sure that no one else in the city would have it. They also have some neat accessories, like handmade gloves, hats, and sweaters.

And if you want unique Christmas decorations, this is definitely the place to buy them. It is, after all, a Christmas sale, and there is a huge selection of decorations. They usually have exquisite hand painted bulbs, beautiful centerpieces, festive linens, and your general Christmas decorations that don’t serve a purpose other than to celebrate the holiday. The tree ornaments are awesome- they have everything, so no matter what kind of theme you’re going for, you’re bound to find something. My mom got the most amazing hand welded star for her tree about twenty years ago at the Beaux Art Holiday Sale, and it still looks amazing. I have never seen another like it.

In addition to all of that, they have a huge selection of cards and gift wrapping materials (and they will gift wrap for you, if you’d like.) The Holiday Bizarre is a great place to either buy someone the gift of art, or to just add an artistic element to your home when you are decorating for Christmas. Definitely check it out next year, and help out a great cause.