Co-Producers Tony Fusco and Robert Four are pleased to announce the Eighteenth Annual Boston International Fine Art Show (BIFAS), to take place Thursday - Sunday, November 13-16, 2014 at The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for The Arts, 539 Tremont Street in Boston's hip and historic South End.  More than 3,000 original works of art will be on offer. The show opens with a Gala Preview on Thursday, November 13 from 5:30 to 8:30pm to benefit Friends of the Boston Park Rangers Mounted Unit (www.SaveBostonsHorses.org). Weekend hours are Friday 1pm-8pm, Saturday 11am-8pm and Sunday 11am-5pm.  Tickets are $15, under 12 free. Tickets include complimentary special guest speakers and panels, re-admission, show catalog, and coat check.  A bistro café, and discount and valet parking are also available.  For information, visit www.FineArtBoston.com or call 617-363-0405.

The Gala Preview will benefit Friends of the Boston Park Rangers Mounted Unit. Established in 2008 to preserve the Mounted Unit while Boston was under fiscal pressure, the six horses that patrol the nine parks of The Emerald Necklace were going to be cut.  Thanks to generous donations Mystic, Otis, Frederick, Liberty, Baron and Winston continue to provide a safety net in our parks. Each year, the funds raised by the Friends ensure the continuation of the Mounted Unit. Gala tickets are $250 for the VIP Reception at 5:30pm and $125 for the Gala at 6:30pm. Tickets may be purchased online at www.SaveBostonsHorses.org

The Gala Preview, bolstered by the show’s Honorary Committee, has blossomed in to one of Boston’s premier social and cultural events. In addition to Governor Deval L. Patrick, the Honorary Committee has attracted the participation of numerous museum directors including Judith Dolkart, Director, Addison Gallery of American Art; Jennifer Gross, Director, DeCordova Museum; Nick Capasso, Director, Fitchburg Art Museum; Malcolm Rogers, Director, MFA Boston; and a number of well-known Boston area museum curators.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer the Gala this year as a benefit for the Friends of the Boston Park Rangers Mounted Unit,” comments Co-Producer Tony Fusco.  “What makes Boston a great city?  Certainly the richness of our fine arts and our museums, as well as our parks and open spaces.  The Mounted Unit ensures that everyone can enjoy the richness of our city safely.  They deserve our support.”

All eyes in the art world will be on Boston the weekend of the show, as the long-anticipated public re-opening of the Harvard Art Museums in their new Renzo Piano-designed facility takes place on Sunday November 16, 2014.   The renovation and expansion of the museums’ landmark building in Cambridge will bring three museums - the Fogg Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and Arthur M. Sackler Museum - and their collections together under one roof for the first time.  It is the perfect weekend for art lovers to visit Boston this fall.

Diversity is the key word for BIFAS this year, the only show of its kind in New England.  With no restrictions on the type of work that may be shown, works on offer range from fine original prints priced at a few hundred dollars to museum-quality masterpiece paintings priced in the millions.  The show enjoys a stunning mix of blue chip traditional works, 20th Century modernist genres and today's outstanding contemporary artists. Last year, close to 3,500 people attended the show, which saw very strong sales.

It is fitting that the shows take place at The Cyclorama, which was built in 1884 for the express purpose of housing a huge circular painting - The Battle of Gettysburg - 400 feet in circumference and 50 feet high, executed by French artist Paul Philippoteaux.  Cyclorama

paintings were enormously popular in the 19th-century.  It is estimated that from 1884 until it was withdrawn in 1892, more than 200,000 people viewed Philippoteaux' s huge canvas.  Following a  $12 million restoration started in 2005 by Olin Conservation of Great Falls, Virginia, the painting was installed in the Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center in Gettysburg, where it reopened in September 2008.

For information on all of Fusco & Four’s Boston art and design shows and events, visit www.BostonArtFairs.com or call 617-363-0405.