So what in the heck is a beaux arts ball? And how do you even pronounce beaux?

First off, this beaux is pronounced bose, like the acoustic radio company. Secondly, the Beaux Arts Ball for more than 40 years was the social highlight of the Rehoboth Beach summer season and a major fundraiser for Rehoboth Art League.

After a 19-year hiatus, Rehoboth Art League is bringing back the Beaux Arts Ball as the signature event during this 75th anniversary year for the league. The Sept. 21 event, open to the public, will take place at Mark and Mary Ann Ronald's Belle Meade Farm on Route 24 just west of Route 1. Rehoboth Art League plans to transform the indoor riding arena of the new equestrian farm into a magical world in keeping with the It's All About Art theme for the ball.

As in the past, the Beaux Arts Ball will be a costume and masquerade black-tie event with artists, art league patrons and supporters encouraged to go all out with costumes celebrating the arts. The evening will include a grand march and prizes awarded for the most creative individual and group costumes. In addition to celebrating the Rehoboth Art League's 75th anniversary of teaching and inspiring the arts in southern Delaware, the Beaux Arts Ball will also raise funds for the league's education and outreach efforts.

Ginny Daly, cochair of the ball, said she plans for the event to attract an energetic crowd of 450 guests or more. “Seventy-five is the diamond anniversary, so we're celebrating our diamond past and our dynamic future,” said Daly during an event this week to announce that The Ball is Back. Mollie Vardell is researching the ball for the art league. Her mother was a chair of the event during the 1950s. “I'm rounding up some of the past chairs of the event to get their ideas and also to have them on hand for this year's return event,” she said. “People took the ball very seriously. The costumes and hats were awesome. One year a woman came with a hat that included an actual flowing river. I hope people will take their costumes as seriously this year as they did in the past.”

Bruce Lingo chaired the last Beaux Arts Ball in 1994 with a theme of the  Wild, Wild West. Rehoboth Art League founder Louise Corkran, who along with her husband Wilbur S. Corkran developed Henlopen Acres, was among those who started the Beaux Arts Ball in 1939.

Old photos displayed at the announcement party showed some of the merriment of past balls. (Source: Submitted)

Dancing in costumes at past Beaux Arts Balls provided great entertainment for the dancers and the other guests. (Source: Submitted)

The 2013 reprise of the Beaux Arts Ball will take place Sept. 21 at the Belle Mead Farm  on Rt. 24. (Photo by: Dennis Forney)