Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County (Bayou Arts Center)

The Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County (CAA) is the county’s local arts agency, a nonprofit founded in 1993 to support the arts through leadership, advocacy, funding, programs and education. Its headquarters is the Bayou Arts Center in Santa Rosa Beach, and its fingerprints are on much of South Walton’s public art, from the Underwater Museum of Art off Grayton Beach to the Watersound Monarch Art Trail.

The Bayou Arts Center is at 105 Hogtown Bayou Ln, Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459; call 850-622-5970 or visit culturalartsalliance.com. Office hours are Monday through Thursday 9am–3pm. In 2024 the CAA brought its arts education programs together here and upgraded the space with new lighting, flooring and power to support added ceramics equipment for an expanded pottery program.

Programs include arts education and classes, pottery and visual arts, healing arts, a prison art program and the Emerald Coast Storytellers. The CAA’s Art in Public Spaces program has placed 72 sculptures above and below sea level and more than 35 murals around the county, including the Highway 98 pedestrian underpass and Anchored in Freeport. It also produces signature events such as the 30A Songwriters Festival and awards Art For All grants, with $38,000 given in its most recent round. Check the website for the current class calendar and registration.