From Tuesday, November 24, through Sunday, November 29, the touring Broadway production of Hamilton plays eight performances in Hayes Hall at Artis-Naples, the arts campus at 5833 Pelican Bay Boulevard. The Baker Museum, next to the hall, keeps its own schedule. On Wednesday, November 25, the museum stays open late for its free monthly Art After Hours.
Those two schedules overlap on one evening. That Wednesday, the hall has two Hamilton performances and museum admission is free. For someone who lives a few minutes from Ridgewood Drive, the campus offers more than usual that night, and it's also the hardest night of the week to park there.
The week, day by day
The season schedule Artis-Naples released in July leaves Thanksgiving Day off the Hamilton run, and the museum's admission page lists Thanksgiving among its closed days. That leaves the Thursday of the holiday week dark on both sides of the campus.
| Day | Hamilton in Hayes Hall | The Baker Museum |
|---|---|---|
| Tue., Nov. 24 | 7:30 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Wed., Nov. 25 | 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., then free Art After Hours 6 to 9 p.m. |
| Thu., Nov. 26 | No performance | Closed for Thanksgiving |
| Fri., Nov. 27 | 7:30 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Sat., Nov. 28 | 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Sun., Nov. 29 | 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. | Noon to 4 p.m. |
The campus calendar also lists an Actor's Workshop with Hamilton cast members on Friday, November 27. The same listing names a February 5 session with The Great Gatsby cast.
Wednesday, when the two crowds share the lots
Art After Hours runs on the last Wednesday of every month, 6 to 9 p.m. It brings live music from local musicians, concessions at Heidi's Place and free admission to every exhibition in the museum. November's edition is called Family, Friends and Harmony, with entertainment by Roman Fortune. This month, the last Wednesday is also the night before Thanksgiving. The 7:30 p.m. Hamilton audience starts arriving while the museum evening is already underway.
Art After Hours guests and Hamilton ticket holders use the same parking. The Artis-Naples parking page sets the same rules for every evening and weekend event:
- Park only in the spaces on the Kimberly K. Querrey and Louis A. Simpson Cultural Campus, in the partner lots across Ridgewood Drive, or on levels 3 through 5 of the Waterside Shops parking garage. A partnership with Waterside Shops also opens the shopping center's surface lots.
- A club-style cart runs free between the Waterside Shops garage and the east entrance of Hayes Hall.
- 5 Star Valet handles curbside parking for most Hayes Hall performances, starting when the Hayes Hall lobby opens. Valet isn't offered for free events.
- Accessible parking spaces sit near the Hayes Hall main entrance. Artis-Naples asks anyone who may have trouble walking from Waterside Shops to arrive early for a spot in the campus lots.
- Three spaces on the east side of campus have electric vehicle chargers for Artis-Naples patrons.
The valet rule matters most that night. A Hamilton ticket holder can hand over the keys at the curb. Someone coming only for the free museum evening parks on their own, in the same lots and garage levels as a sold Broadway house. The parking page's general advice is to arrive early. On November 25, an Art After Hours visitor who arrives close to 6 p.m. gets ahead of most of the evening theater traffic.
The gallery inside the theater
One exhibition sits inside the building Hamilton fills. This season, the Hayes Hall galleries and the Blair Foundation Gallery hold Florida Contemporary 2026-27, on view October 17, 2026, through June 27, 2027. The four featured artists are Dustin Harewood, Nicario Jiménez-Quispe, Savannah Magnolia and Anastasia Samoylova, and Harewood is making a site-specific mural for the Blair Foundation Gallery.
The museum's admission page notes that the Hayes Hall galleries are also open during Hayes Hall performances. The exhibition's own page adds that access to Florida Contemporary is limited during ticketed performances in Hayes Hall, and it asks visitors to call patron services at 239-597-1900 before they come to confirm the galleries are available. With eight Hamilton performances, including the 7:30 p.m. show during the free Wednesday evening, that call is worth making before any visit Thanksgiving week. The run continues into summer, so quieter weeks are coming.
Most of the Baker's best-known work this fall is in the museum building, on its own daytime clock.
What's upstairs, and when it closes
On the third floor, The Surrealist International: Fifty Years of Dreams draws on the collection of Tate in the United Kingdom. It includes paintings, photographs, sculptures and objects by Eileen Agar, Jean Arp, Leonora Carrington, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Dora Maar, René Magritte, Lee Miller, Joan Miró, Man Ray and Dorothea Tanning. It also includes artists Tate considers less widely known, among them Ithell Colquhoun, Kati Horna, Malangatana Ngwenya, Osamu Shiihara and Lionel Wendt. The show is organized around themes, including dreams, the natural world, the politics of freedom and unexpected objects, rather than one style. It runs through February 14, 2027.
Linling Lu: Fugue in 3 Voices, in the Springborn Gallery, closes much sooner, on January 3, 2027. The paintings take their cue from music by Beethoven, Dvořák and Stravinsky, linking the gallery to the Naples Philharmonic's season next door. Of the shows currently open, it closes first. After Thanksgiving week, only about five weeks of its run will remain.
During regular hours, adult admission is $10. Children 17 and under get in free, full-time students and active military with ID pay $5, and Friends of Artis-Naples members are free. Free docent-led exhibition tours run Tuesday through Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. from October through May, and Sunday at 1 p.m. Groups of 15 or fewer don't need an RSVP. The outdoor sculpture tour runs Thursdays at 10 a.m. from November through May, but with the museum closed on Thanksgiving, the holiday Thursday has none.
The week before, and the month after
Hamilton comes right after one of the busiest weeks on the fall calendar. Then the campus moves into its holiday programs and a new exhibition opening. In date order, from the July season release and the Artis-Naples event pages:
- Sunday, Nov. 15, 3 p.m. Sypert Salon: Beethoven's Septet, with musicians of the Naples Philharmonic, in Daniels Pavilion.
- Monday, Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m. David Foster and Katharine McPhee with the Naples Philharmonic, Hayes Hall.
- Tuesday, Nov. 17, 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The Sypert Salon repeats at 3 p.m. in Daniels Pavilion, and A Magical Cirque Christmas plays Hayes Hall that evening.
- Thursday, Nov. 19, 4 p.m. Konstantin Soukhovetski's The Nutcracker Origins, in which he plays Tchaikovsky's score live alongside archival ballet footage, in the Ubben Signature Event Space. Always Olivia follows that evening at 6 and 8:30 p.m. in Daniels Pavilion.
- Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20 and 21, 7:30 p.m. Naples Philharmonic Masterworks: Markus Stenz conducts John Adams' Scheherazade.2 with violinist Leila Josefowicz, then Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Hayes Hall.
- Thursday, Dec. 3, 7:30 p.m. Handel's Messiah, Hayes Hall.
- Saturday, Dec. 5. Baron Wolman: Capturing the Sound of an Era opens on the museum's second floor, with Wolman's rock photography from the early Rolling Stone years, Woodstock material and memorabilia. Artis-Naples organized the show with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and it runs through June 13, 2027. A related lecture is at 11 a.m. that day in the Ubben Signature Event Space.
- Thursday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m. Jodie DeSalvo's Home for the Holidays, with vocalists Kellie Cullinan and Matthew Swingle, in Daniels Pavilion.
- Thursday, Dec. 17, through Sunday, Dec. 20. Holiday Pops, five performances in Hayes Hall with the Naples Philharmonic, its adult and youth choruses, guest conductor Nicholas Hersh and vocalist Caroline Bowman.
- Wednesday, Dec. 30, 6 p.m. December Art After Hours, again free.
The December 30 Art After Hours lands during holiday week and doesn't overlap a Broadway run in Hayes Hall. Visitors that night can see Baron Wolman free, in its first month, with the Surrealist and Linling Lu shows still up.
If you're hosting family in Pelican Bay over Thanksgiving and want help planning the week around the Artis-Naples schedule, or you'd like to talk about the neighborhood around the campus, Abby Fraga is glad to help. Let's Connect.
