art&culture Best of 2006 - 2012

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art&culture of Palm Beach County

2006 – 2012

the best of issue

“culture has found its place in the sun” ®

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departments & features

welcome from the ceo

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This special best of issue will whet your appetite.

By Rena Blades

publisher’s letter

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Harry Benson

Choosing “the best of the best” is a daunting – yet satisfying – challenge.

By Robert S.C. Kirschner

upfront

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• The Uniquely Palm Beach Gift Shop offers one-of-a-kind treasures.

• A leading national advocate for the arts had something important to say to business leaders and arts organizations at the inaugural SmARTBiz Summit.

• Palm Beach Dramaworks prepares to make the move to a new, larger home.

• A Unique Palm Beach Picture Book sheds light on the architecture, personalities and eccentricities of “the island.”

• The Spady Cultural Heritage Museum celebrates 10 years in Delray Beach.

• The Norton Museum of Art celebrates its 70th birthday.

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art works!

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Join us as we introduce a new column celebrating the many ways that artists, cultural organizations and creative partnerships are working to make life better for the people of Palm Beach County.

features always in style

32 92

Tiffany & Co.’s latest book Tiffany Style, 170 Years of Design features photographs by celebrated photojournalist and Wellington resident Harry Benson and models from Ballet Florida.

By John Loring

74 86

underwater beauty Discover exquisite beauty and priceless gifts beneath Palm Beach County’s waves.

Photographs by Christopher Pulitzer Leidy and Tony Ludovico

richters of palm beach A fascinating tale of entrepreneurism and south Florida history.

By Frederic A. Sharf

92

the beat goes on Sit down with four famous drummers who are as comfortable in the world of rock and roll as they are at home in Palm Beach County.

By Thom Smith

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98

these four walls The museums, theaters, galleries, concert halls and other spaces in which we enjoy art present a creative challenge to architects and designers as well as a warm welcome to visitors.

By Christina Wood

the best of issue 2006 – 2012

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G I L B E RT S T U A RT (1755 – 1828) G E O R G E W A S H I N G T O N O I L

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{contents} profiles & protraits

profiles 24 42

Alexander W. Dreyfoos, founder of the Cultural Council.

by Hillary Hunter

42

The late Bob Montgomery and his wife, Mary, stood strong as a couple dedicated to the arts.

by Christina Wood

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Catherine Lowe found her calling as an ophthalmologist but it is through art and culture that she discovered her passion.

By Christina Wood

56

Burt Reynolds is home. He’s living, teaching and loving life in Jupiter, where the new Burt Reynolds Institute for Film and Theatre is attracting rave reviews.

By Christina Wood

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The streamlined lady that stands at 601 Lake Ave. in Lake Worth has stories to tell, from its origins as the Lake Theatre to its newest incarnation as the Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. Building – the new home of the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County.

By Leon M. Rubin

56 70

Inside the life of local philanthropist and arts enthusiast Milton Maltz.

by Hillary Hunter

portraits 30 62

Charlotte Miller offers a unique perspective on Palm Beach Opera’s 50th anniversary.

By Amy Woods

48

Digital arts pioneer Laurence Gartel breaks new ground.

By Amy Woods

54 84

West Palm Beach cartoonist Carlos Castellanos combines his artistic abilities and Latin heritage in a colorful career.

By Don Vaughan Singular talent and a unique perspective make visual artist and environmental designer Michael Singer a true original.

By Jan Engoren

inside culture 54

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The Cultural Council's popular Culture & Cocktails series returns with five fascinating new conversations; the presidential debate at Lynn University inspires a wide array of cultural events; the Norton Museum focuses on famed photographer Annie Leibovitz; the Women's Theatre Project moves to Boca; and much more insider news.

the best of issue 2006 – 2012

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J

ourney through the nationally recognized home, studio and gardens by the visionary sculptor Ann Weaver Norton (1905-82)

601 Lake Avenue, Lake Worth, FL 33460 | 561-471-2901 | www.palmbeachculture.com President & Chief Executive Officer

Rena Blades

561-471-2901 rblades@palmbeachculture.com

Vice President, Marketing & Government Affairs

Bill Nix

561-687-8727 bnix@palmbeachculture.com

Kathleen Alex

561-471-1368 kalex@palmbeachculture.com

Jan Rodusky

561-471-1513 jrodusky@palmbeachculture.com

Mary Lewis

561-472-3340 mlewis@palmbeachculture.com

Debbie Calabria

561-472-3330 dcalabria@palmbeachculture.com

Kristen Smiley

561-472-3342 ksmiley@palmbeachculture.com

Jennifer Lamont

561-471-2902 jlamont@palmbeachculture.com

Nichole Hickey

561-471-3336 nhickey@palmbeachculture.com

Margaret Granda

561-471-0009 mgranda@palmbeachculture.com

Laura Tingo

561-471-1602 ltingo@palmbeachculture.com

Lawrence Jean-Louis

561-472-3334 ljeanlouis@palmbeachculture.com

Jean Brasch

561-471-2903 jbrasch@palmbeachculture.com

Contributing Writer/Editor

Leon M. Rubin

561-251-8075 lrubin@palmbeachculture.com

Visitor Services Coordinator

Marlon Foster

561-472-3338 mfoster@palmbeachculture.com

Autumn Oliveras

561-471-2901 aoliveras@palmbeachculture.com

Director of Finance Director of Grants Director of Development Membership & Special Projects Manager Development Associate E-marketing and Website Manager Manager of Artists Services Grants Manager Public Relations Coordinator Marketing Coordinator Bookkeeper

Administrative Assistant Volunteer

Pat Thorne

Cultural Council Board of Directors T h e

h i s t o r i c

Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens

Plan your Journey Today!

Private and Group Tours Available

Officers Berton E. Korman, Chairman Craig Grant, Vice Chairman Michael D. Simon, Secretary Michael J. Bracci, Treasurer

Bradford A. Deflin Cecile Draime Shirley Fiterman Roe Green Christopher E. Havlicek Herbert S. Hoffman Irene J. Karp Raymond E. Kramer, III Beverlee Miller Bill Parmalee Jean Sharf

Directors Bruce A. Beal Carole Boucard Howard Bregman Christopher D. Canales

Kelly Sobolewski Dom A. Telesco Ethel I. Williams Ex Officios Jennifer Prior Brown Paulette Burdick Cheryl Reed

Cultural Council Founder

Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens 253 Barcelona Road West Palm Beach, FL 33401 www.ansg.org or (561) 832-5328 Wednesday - Sunday 10am - 4pm 6

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Alexander W. Dreyfoos

Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners Shelley Vana, Chairperson Steven L. Abrams, Vice Chair

Burt Aaronson Paulette Burdick Karen T. Marcus

Jess R. Santamaria Priscilla A. Taylor

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Sargent Architectural Photography

Smith Architectural group, Inc.

Palm beach â&#x20AC;˘ 561.832.0202 www.smitharchitecturalgroup.com

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art&culture of Palm Beach County

best of issue 2006 – 2012

publisher publisher & president

robert s.c. kirschner

561.472.8769 robert@passportpublications.com

editorial staff

Located in the heart of Palm Beach just steps from Worth Avenue, The Chesterfield features 52 beautiful guest rooms and uniquely decorated suites, a library and a heated pool and hot tub spa.

managing editor

christina wood

editorial coordinator

bradley j. oyler

editorial researcher

561.472.8778 christina@passportpublications.com 561.472.8765 bradley@passportpublications.com 561.472.8768 contact@passportpublications.com

jordan waterman

cultural council editorial staff editorial director

rena blades

executive editor

bill nix

managing editor

leon m. rubin

contributing writers m.m. cloutier, jan engoren, sheryl flatow, leon m. rubin, john loring, frederic a. sharf, thom smith, jean tailer, don vaughan, christina wood, amy woods

contributing photographers harry benson, steven caras, jim fairman, christopher fay, jacek gancarz, barry kinsella, michael price, robert stevens, corby kaye’s studio palm beach

The world-famous Leopard Lounge and Restaurant offers breakfast, “Executive Lunch,” afternoon tea, dinner, dessert, and late menus every day, and dancing to live entertainment every night.

art & design art & production director assistant production director

angelo d. lopresti

561.472.8770 angelo@passportpublications.com

nicole smith

561.472.8762 nicole@passportpublications.com

advertising sales director of advertising national advertising manager signature publications senior advertising manager contract administrator

richard s. wolff

561.472.8767 richard@passportpublications.com

janice l. waterman

561.472.8775 jwaterman@passportpublications.com

richard kahn

561.906.7355 rich@passportpublications.com

simone a. desiderio

561.472.8764 simone@passportpublications.com

donna l. mercenit

561.472.8773 donna@passportpublications.com

lithography by the printers printer

363 Cocoanut Row (561) 659-5800 • (Fax) 659-6707 Reservations (800) 243-7871 Email: ChesterfieldPB@aol.com or visit us online at www.ChesterfieldPB.com

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art&culture magazine is published by Passport Publications & Media Corporation, located at 1555 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., Suite 1550, West Palm Beach, FL 33401, on behalf of the County Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the expressed written consent of the publisher. All rights reserved.

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fromtheceo

Culture has found its place in the sun® − and that place is unquestionably Palm Beach County, Florida.

On any given day, powerful forces of creativity are at work within our borders. From artists’ studios and children’s classrooms to galleries and performance spaces, art and culture surround us – stimulating our thinking, expanding our horizons and enriching the lives of our residents as well as our many visitors.

Palm Beach County’s creative fabric is woven by more than 300 cultural organizations located in every community – from Boca Raton to Jupiter, the ocean to the Everglades. In fact, we’re home to more major cultural organizations than any other coastal area in the Southeast.

Collectively – and we can’t emphasize this point too much − these organizations represent a robust economic engine that generates jobs, drives development and enhances quality of life.

According to Americans for the Arts’ most recent economic impact study, Arts & Economic Prosperity IV, the direct economic benefit of Palm Beach County’s non-profit arts and culture organizations in 2010 was close to a quarter of a billion dollars. The indicators of this impact include:

Expenditures by arts, culture organizations and audiences − $249,948,308 Full-time equivalent jobs supported – 5,782 Total attendance to arts and culture events – 4,328,511 Revenue generated to local government − $11,348,000 Revenue generated to state government − $12,583,000 And these just scratch the surface.

Michael Price

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At the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, we strive to capture the very best of the passion, the excitement and the influence of the creative industries within the pages of art&culture magazine.

Since we launched this publication in 2006, we’ve been telling compelling stories about the people, organizations, events and art itself − past and present − that combine to produce the unique cultural mélange that we are privileged to call our own.

During this time – if we might be permitted to boast just a bit − we have received a number of prestigious “Charlie Awards” from the Florida Magazine Association. In 2012, art&culture magazine was honored for “Best Overall Magazine” and “Best Use of Photography” for an association in the entire state. That’s no small feat – and it makes us all very proud. We’re grateful to everyone who works so hard to produce this outstanding publication − among them Passport Publications & Media Corporation, the Cultural Council staff and many others, including our good friend John Loring, who has graciously shared his advice on design and editorial matters from the inception of the magazine.

We’re pleased to present this special best of… edition of art&culture to give you a taste of what it is that makes Palm Beach County’s arts and cultural community so remarkable. We hope that by whetting your appetite in this way, we’ll entice you to stay, to return or, if you’re already a resident, to delve deeper into everything that we have to offer. Yes, culture has found its place in the sun – and we’d like you to think of it as your place in the sun, too!

Rena Blades President and CEO Cultural Council of Palm Beach County

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E XC E E D I N G Y O U R E X P E C TAT I O N S . . .

2900 Hillsbor Hillsboro o Road,, West West e Palm Beach, FL 33405 (561) 835-040 01 | www.woolemsinc.com www w..woolemsinc.com 835-0401

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publisher

CHOOSING ‘THE BEST’ ISN’T EASY, BUT IT’S TRULY SATISFYING If someone asked which of your children is your favorite, it would be impossible – and incredibly foolish − to answer the question. We faced a similar task as we set out to compile this best of retrospective of the first six years of art&culture.

How, we asked ourselves, could we possibly pare down the content found in 18 issues of a magazine that has won 10 prestigious awards from the Florida Magazine Association in its short lifetime?

Still, publishing an 1,800-page volume was out of the question – and so we have done our best to present a sampling of the best work we’ve presented. We hope you enjoy it.

from

Within these pages, you will find profiles of – among others − Alexander W. Dreyfoos, the founder of the Cultural Council (page 24); one of Palm Beach County’s most recognizable residents, Burt Reynolds (page 56); and, in a slightly different vein, the historic Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. Building, where the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County makes its home (page 62). You will read about some of the unique personalities who attract international acclaim for their creative accomplishments, including digital arts pioneer Laurence Gartel (page 48) and environmental designer Michael Singer (page 84).

In our feature stories, you will uncover local history via Richters of Palm Beach (page 86), go behind the scenes with four noteworthy rock and roll drummers (page 92) and dive beneath

Studio Palm Beach

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the waves to view unbelievably beautiful underwater photographs (page 74). We have also spotlighted some of the most intriguing Upfront items of the past few years (page 16), made our case for why Art Works! (page 22) and, in our Inside Culture section (Page 107) brought you right up to the present with a wide array of today’s news.

As we put this magazine “to bed,” as they say in the publishing business, we must admit that we took just a moment to reflect on what we have accomplished since 2006. We humbly believe that we have been successful in helping the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County not only to tell its own story, but to demonstrate what a truly extraordinary arts and cultural community we have in our own backyard.

All of us at Passport Publications are grateful to have had the opportunity to bring this publication to life and to help it grow during its first six years. We are committed to sustaining the high quality you have come to expect and to reaching even greater heights in the years ahead. Thank you for your support of art&culture.

Please Enjoy.

Robert S.C. Kirschner President/Publisher Passport Publications & Media Corporation

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Celebrating 10 Years of PLAYERS. PONIES. POLO.

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Polo Every Sunday January 6 - April 21, 2013 International Polo Club Palm Beach 3667 120th Avenue South Wellington, Florida 33414 561.282.5303 | Internationalpoloclub.com

P O L O

C L U B

P A L M

B E A C H

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With a lifelong interest in the arts inspired largely by his highly creative parents, Leon Rubin has been writing about arts and culture for 35 years. A former Boca Raton resident, he helped to establish the Boca Raton Cultural Consortium and was actively involved in children’s theater. He now contributes to art&culture virtually from the home that he and his wife, Suzi, share in the mountains above Dahlonega, Georgia.

James W. Fairman

{contributors}

Jan Engoren is a freelance writer living in Boca Raton. Growing up with an artist father, Jan was exposed to art, culture and travel from an early age. She spent a year abroad studying French and traveling throughout Europe, Mexico and parts of the Middle East.

After college, Jan worked for the art auction house, Sotheby’s, where her appreciation of art was furthered. Though art is in her genes, Jan’s talent is writing; she combines her two interests by writing about art and culture. She is currently working on a future best-seller and in her spare time enjoys tennis, her two cats, Blanca and Latte, and a good dirty martini.

Born in the Far East and raised by mystics, Christina Wood developed a flair for the creative at an early age. Oh all right, she was born in Wisconsin and studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before making a move to Florida. After further studies at Oxford University, England, she received her degree from Florida Atlantic University.

Before launching her career as a freelance writer and editor in 1995, Christina enjoyed a variety of challenges working with both print and broadcast media.

She is the recipient of a Golden Ink Award, Communicator Award, numerous Addy awards and the President’s Award from the Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition.

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Before launching her freelance career, Amy Woods worked as the society editor of Palm 2 Jupiter and as the editor of Notables at The Palm Beach Post, a position she held for 11 years. An experienced editor, columnist, writer and reporter, Amy’s goal is to use her experience as a journalist and skills in public relations for the benefit of our local non-profit community.

Davidoff Studios, Palm Beach

During more than three decades at The Palm Beach Post, Thom Smith covered popular music, movies, television and the courts, served as the paper’s “Listening Post” (ombudsman) and produced a consumer column. For 20 years he wrote columns about people, places and events in the Palm Beaches culminating with the “Palm Beach Social Diary.” These days he freelances for international publications and writes the “On the Avenues” column for The Coastal Star, a monthly newspaper that covers Lake Worth to Boca Raton. He and his wife, Diane, live in Boca Raton.

Gigi Benson

Frederic A. Sharf is a collector, scholar and author. His interests lie in publishing and exhibiting original material which illuminates 20th-century events and in exploring the evolution of 20th-century design.

John Loring was a contributing writer and New York Bureau Chief at Architectural Digest. He served as the design director of Tiffany & Co. for 30 years and has written numerous books on style and social history.

John graduated from Yale University, completed four years of graduate studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and has an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute.

art&culture is again honored and privileged to have celebrated photojournalist and Wellington resident Harry Benson and models from Ballet Florida grace our pages in “Always in Style.” Arriving in America with The Beatles in 1964, he has photographed every U.S. president from Eisenhower to George W. Bush; was just feet away from Bobby Kennedy the night he was assassinated; in the room with Richard Nixon when he resigned; on the Meredith March with Martin Luther King Jr.; and was there when the Berlin Wall went up and when it came down.

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O n t h e M a p [1] The Arts Mean Business The inaugural SmARTBiz Summit was held September 12 and featured, among others, Robert Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts – the nation’s leading non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the arts in America. The summit brought together leaders from cultural organizations and the business community to discuss the positive results stemming from business and arts relationships and the ways that these are a driving economic force in our region and throughout the nation.

Palm Beach County’s cultural industry is a formidable economic force that has a long-standing symbiotic relationship with the business community. Art and culture continue to play an important role in revitalizing our downtown districts and attracting new businesses. What’s more, the most recent National Arts Index and Economic Prosperity Study reveal that the county enjoyed an impressive $209 million annual economic impact from its cultural industry, which supports 4,800 jobs.

Robert Lynch The summit is part of the SmARTBiz program, which is funded by a $200,000 grant awarded to the Palm Beach County Cultural Council by The PNC Foundation. SmARTBiz also provides operational support grants to non-profit cultural organizations and will help our community learn from the results of next year’s updated National Arts Index and Economic call 561-471-2901 Prosperity Study. or visit www.palmbeachculture.com

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B y T h e N u m b e r s [2] N o r t o n M u s e u m o f A r t C e l e b ra t e s 70 Ye a r s The Norton Museum of Art is celebrating a birthday but the gift, as always, goes to the community.

Since 1941, the museum has been pursuing a mission “to preserve for the future the beautiful things of the past.” After 70 years, it’s still going strong; preserving, developing, exhibiting and interpreting an outstanding permanent collection.

Through special exhibitions, publications and educational programs, it is reaching out to improve the quality of life throughout our community through an appreciation of the visual arts.

The Norton Museum of Art was founded by Ralph Hubbard Norton,

an industrialist who headed the Acme Steel Company in Chicago, and his wife, Elizabeth Calhoun Norton.

Before retiring to West Palm Beach, the couple developed a sizable collection of paintings and sculpture.

Wanting to share the joy he had found in art with the community he now called home, Norton commissioned noted architect Marion Syms Wyeth to design a building to house the collection. The late Art Deco/Neo-Classic building opened its doors to the public on February 8, 1941. Today, the Norton’s collection consists of more than 7,000 works concentrated in European, American, Chinese, contemporary art and photography.

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more information call (561) 832-5196 or visit www.norton.org a&c

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[1] Originally published Fall 2012 [2] Originally published Winter 2011

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PALM BEACH COUNTY THE PERFECT BUSINESS CLIMATE In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s highly competitive business environment, every advantage counts. It is a STRATEGIC decision to expand in a LOCATION that affords your company every opportunity for success. Your business will excel in Palm Beach County because of our: â&#x20AC;˘ ATTRACTIVE CORPORATE LIFESTYLE â&#x20AC;˘ PRO-BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT â&#x20AC;˘ LOW BUSINESS AND LIVING COSTS â&#x20AC;˘ EDUCATED WORKFORCE AND EXCEPTIONAL TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES â&#x20AC;˘ A-RATED PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT â&#x20AC;˘ SOLID INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEMS And Palm Beach County offers you a LOCATION STRATEGICALLY developed to capitalize on its unparalleled natural beauty, sub-tropical climate, and 47 miles of pristine beaches; offering over 400 cultural venues and organizations, world-class museums, art centers, concert halls, and performing arts theaters; home of the PGA and the â&#x20AC;&#x153;golf capital of the world,â&#x20AC;? The Winter Equestrian Festival, U.S. Open Polo Championship, ArtiGras, SunFest, and the Palm Beach International Film Festival; and six colleges and universities offering up to Ph.D. and M.D. programs.

Launch.

Relocate.

Expand.

Developâ&#x20AC;Ś We have it all, in the perfect business climate. www.BDB.org or phone 561.835.1008 to learn more.

Location: Delray Beach, Florida

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O n L o c a t i o n [1] Spady Museum Celebrates 10th Anniversary The Spady Cultural Heritage Museum in Delray Beach is dedicated to discovering, collecting and sharing the African-American history and heritage of Florida.

The museum, located in the historic West Settlers District of Delray Beach, has played host to a series of exhibits highlighting the talents and influences of AfricanAmericans, Caribbean-Americans and Haitian-Americans as well as a full schedule of community events, public education programs and children’s activities. Over the past 10 years, shows ranging from handmade quilts to pho“From Quilts in the Attic to Quilts tographs from the Civil Rights movement have been displayed on the Wall: Exploring Textile Art

by African Americans” exhibit on in the museum, which is located in the former home of the late loan from the South Carolina Solomon D. Spady (1887-1967), a prominent African-American educaState Museum, November 2009 tor and community leader in Delray Beach. at the Spady Museum.

This year, as the museum celebrates its 10th anniversary, expansion plans are underway. Right next door, construction crews are transforming the historic Munnings Cottage into the new Kids Cultural Clubhouse. The work on Munnings Cottage also signifies progress call (561) 279-8883 or visit www.spadymuseum.org toward a larger Spady Museum Complex, which will include a 60-seat C. Spencer Pompey Amphitheater.

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"Oh Freedom Over Me" exhibited January 2010 at the Spady Museum, on loan from the Center of Documentary Studies at Duke University. Caption: Summer volunteers, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) workers and local students singing freedom songs at Mileston, a community of independent black farmers in the Mississippi Delta near Lexington, Mississippi.

Matt Herron/Take Stock

N o w S h o w i n g [2] Palm Beach Dramaworks Growing Strong The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh opens at Palm Beach Dramaworks on May 6. When the show closes on June 19, it will mark the end of an era. The critically acclaimed company has outgrown its 84-seat theater in downtown West Palm Beach and is making a move. They’re not going far – the move will take them from the 300 block of Banyan Boulevard to 201 Clematis Street – but it’s a big step, nonetheless.

Dramaworks’ new home – the former Cuillo Centre for the Arts, which was purchased by the West Palm Beach Community Redevelopment Agency and subsequently leased to the theater – is currently being refurbished. When the project is complete, the facility will feature patron-friendly access, a tempting proscenium stage, expanded office space and 225 purple seats. Sue Ellen Beryl, managing director at Dramaworks, admits the color wouldn’t have been their first choice. She prefers to think of them as green; the redesign is being handled with a cost-conscious and environmentally friendly approach that incorporates as many preexisting fixtures as possible – including the ensconced purple seating.

The growth of the theater is exciting – for the community as well as the company – and, although Dramaworks is nearly tripling its seating capacity, according to Beryl, longtime friends and patrons need not worry. “Maintaining the intimate magic that everyone has call (561) 514-4042, or visit come to love and to expect from Dramaworks is our prime objective,” she says. The grand openwww.palmbeachdramaworks.org ing is scheduled for November 11, 2011.

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[1] Originally published Spring 2011 [2] Originally published Spring 2011

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F o r S a l e [1]

Gifts from the Heart – of Palm Beach County Looking for a special gift? How about delightful handcrafted work created by Palm Beach County artists and artisans, books penned by local authors or colorful gift items representing some of our leading cultural organizations? The Uniquely Palm Beach Store at the Cultural Council’s home in downtown Lake Worth is stocked with one-of-a-kind treasures. You will find everything from leather and Swarovski crystal bracelets by Heet and handmade soy candles with tropically inspired scents by Palm Beach Candle Company to hand-painted clutches by Susan Tancer on the shelves. And your gift will keep on giving: proceeds from all sales at the shop, which is located within the historic Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. Building at 601 Lake Ave., will provide support for future exhibitions, training and other programs for artists offered by the Council. call (561) 471-2901

FOR

more information

or visit www.palmbeachculture.com

S p o t l i g h t O n [3] Palm Beach County Makes a Cameo Appearance Palm Beach County is more than ready for its close-up! Our sandy beaches, film-friendly weather forecasts and an extensive base of on- and offscreen talent have combined with free production facilities and lucrative state incentive programs to attract a growing number of filmmakers and highprofile production projects.

Jennifer Lopez and Jason Statham created quite a buzz around town while they filmed Parker, a new feature film set to hit the big screen nationwide in October. According to the Palm Beach County Film & Television Commission, cameras also rolled locally for a variety of small screen projects, including the BarrettJackson Car Auction on the SPEED Channel, The Today Show on NBC, Today Show Correspondent Jamie Gangel Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files on films an Education Nation segment at the SyFy Network, Made on MTV, G Star School of the Arts.

Dateline NBC, My First Sale on HGTV, The Vanilla Ice Project on DIY Network, Royal Pains on USA Network, When Fish Attack II on Discovery Channel and Extreme Makeover: call (800) 745-FILM Weight Loss Edition and Extreme Makeover: or visit www.pbfilm.com.

Home Edition on ABC, among others.

FOR

P e r s o n a l T o u c h [2] A Picture – of Palm Beach– Te l l s a T h o u s a n d Ta l e s

What could be more uniquely Palm Beach than A Palm Beach Picture Book?

The homage to the island is, appropriately, available at the Uniquely Palm Beach Store at the Cultural Council’s headquarters in downtown Lake Worth.

The book, a candid, slightly irreverent look at the island’s architecture, nature, sports, clubs and celebrated homes that line the island’s byways – as well as the artists and eccentrics that inhabit them – is the work of local photographer and documentary filmmaker Leslie D. Weinberg. First printed in black and white in 1988, the new edition incorporates full-color images and hand-painted photographs taken by the author as well as the insights of James Ponce, the official historian for the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce and a living landmark in his own right, representing the “Old Guard;” event designer Bruce Sutka, speaking for the “New Guard;” and artist/publisher Bruce Helander, providing a voice for the “Avant Garde.”

FOR

more information visit www.LeslieWeinberg.com

more information

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[1] Originally published Spring 2012 [2] Originally published Spring 2012 [3] Originally published Spring 2012

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It’s Never Too Late To Learn.

Higher education is closer than you think.

Lynn University presents a world of opportunities, conveniently located right around the corner.

To advance your career or reach personal goals, the time is always right to get your college degree.

COLLEGES AERONAUTICS BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC

Day, evening, online and graduate degrees available

EDUCATION HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT

For more information, contact the Office of Admission at 561-237-7552, via e-mail at admission@lynn.edu or visit www.lynn.edu

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION LIBERAL EDUCATION

3601 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton www.lynn.edu 561-237-7552 Lynn University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, disability and/or age in administration of its educational and admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletic and /or other school-administered programs.

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A World of Possibilities

By Christina Wood

You don’t need to speak a foreign language to understand the charm of a Viennese waltz, the passion of an Argentine tango or the czar’s fondness for Fabergé eggs. From an Irish reel to a Japanese print, the arts speak to us in a language all their own.

Miami City Ballet swept audiences in Paris off their feet this past summer. Florida Classical Ballet told their story in Cuba.

Countless local artists have performed on the world stage while, here at home, on the stage at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts you can see the State Ballet Theatre of Russia, a children’s opera that originated in Czechoslovakia or the New Shanghai Circus. Festival of the Arts BOCA will feature performers from Spain, Ireland and the Ukraine, among others.

“It goes beyond words and the intellect,” says Cheryl Maeder, a fine art photographer who serves on the City of West Palm Beach’s Cultural Affairs Council and whose work has been exhibited in London, Paris, Istanbul and Beirut, as well as in galleries in Palm Beach County, Miami and New York. “Art goes beyond politics, borders and boundaries – all the things that separate us. Art allows us to connect as human beings.”

A song reminds you of a former home far beyond the waves.

Finely carved statues evoke the glories of a civilization long gone.

A splash of color conjures the warmth of an African sun.

And, when others want to paint a stark picture of our society in black and white, the arts counter with the irresistible hues and subtle shadings of reality. A powerful army of American piano players, cellists, tap dancers, painters, composers, choreographers, quilters, sculptors, horn blowers, guitarists, photographers, poets, potters and artists of every stripe roam

art rt works!

the world in a show of artistic force that reflects the strength and beauty of our values.

The U.S. Department of Defense has troops stationed in some 130 countries around the globe but, in a demonstration of what Joseph S. Nye Jr., a political scientist and the former dean of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, called “soft power,” the Department of State is engaging young people, educators, artists, athletes and future leaders in more than 160 countries through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Nye defined soft power as, “the ability to persuade through culture, values and ideas, as opposed to ‘hard power,’ which conquers or coerces through military might.” In today’s world, hard power is not enough. Our global economy demands new levels of cooperation and understanding. We must work together to overcome the threat of violent extremism. According to Demos, a British think-tank focused on power and politics, “cultural exchange gives us the chance to appreciate points of commonality and, where there are differences, to understand the motivations and humanity that underlie them.”

The arts build bridges.

“The theorists call cultural diplomacy soft power,” says James Bacchus, a former U.S. congressman from Florida and former chairman of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization who currently chairs the global practice of the Greenberg Traurig law firm. Soft power deploys an arsenal of symphonies, step dances and sculpture, opening the door to understanding and forging the kind of profound connections needed to create real solutions. As Bacchus says, it’s “very potent stuff.”

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Michael Price

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The

Alexander W. Dreyfoos Story

by Hillary Hunter

What Began With a Wish for an Arts Calendar Evolved into 28 Years of Leadership in the Palm Beach County Cultural Community

Academy Award winner, inventor, cultural catalyst, philanthropist, husband and father, Alexander W. Dreyfoos is truly the definition of a Renaissance man. Most know Dreyfoos as the driving force behind the creation of Palm Beach County’s cultural jewel, the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, where the stunning concert hall bears his name. What many are unaware of is the reason behind his philanthropic and volunteer board member duties. “Basically I wanted an arts calendar to hand to my electronic engineer employee prospects, while in town for interviews, so that they could get some idea of what was going on,” Dreyfoos explains.

used his influence, fortune and fame to become a pioneer in the local arts community.

Dreyfoos was born in New York City, grew up in Westchester County, N.Y., and spent his childhood summers with his mother, father and sister in the Adirondack Mountains of New York state, where he still spends his summers today. Although not musically inclined, Dreyfoos has always had a From founding the Palm Beach County Council of the Arts, the county’s powerful connection to the arts. His first multi-tiered arts organization, to opening the $67 million Kravis mother was a professional cellist and Center for the Performing Arts his father was a professional photographer. “I love listening to classical debt-free, Dreyfoos is unofficially music, but I don’t play an instrument.” the genius behind Palm Beach County’s thriving cultural landscape.

As chairman and owner of The Dreyfoos Group, a private capital management firm, and with a professional background as an engineer and inventor, Dreyfoos holds numerous national and foreign patents in the fields of photography and electronics. Over many years, he has

Following in his father’s footsteps, he began taking pictures at a young age and inevitably photography became one of his passions. Whether fiddling in the dark room or building a large model train system together, Dreyfoos and his father had a great relationship. “He was a father, but also a friend and mentor,” Dreyfoos explains. “My dad always encouraged me that I could do anything I set my mind to. He didn’t know anything about electronics but encouraged my interest. I built a TV set when I was 14 and earned my ham radio license while still in high school.”

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was developed, and in 1970, PEC received an Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for that invention. Today the VCNA is included in the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent exhibit, The Information Age: People, Information and Technology, which Dreyfoos feels, “is quite an honor.”

PEC began manufacturing VCNAs in an old church in Byram, Conn. They soon outgrew the small space and decided to move to Palm Beach County, setting their sights on building a proper manufacturing plant, which was completed in December 1968.

Dreyfoos discovered the area—like many—on a winter vacation with his family in 1967.

photo electronics corporation In 1963, after obtaining degrees from MIT and Harvard Business School and experiencing brief stints in the U.S. Air Force, Technicolor and IBM, Dreyfoos started the Photo Electronics Corporation (PEC) in the basement of his Port Chester, N.Y., home. The company set out to manufacture electronic equipment for the photographic industry. His partner and right-hand man was George W. Mergens. “From 1963 until 1986, when he was killed in a tragic bicycle accident, George Mergens and I were very close and almost anything technical I say I accomplished during that time was really created by both of us,” Dreyfoos says.

Together, they developed several photographic color negative analyzers that are still used throughout the world today. In 1964, Dreyfoos and Mergens invented the Video Color Negative Analyzer (VCNA), which Kodak marketed worldwide.

Subsequently, a motion picture version of the video analyzer

Once the plant was up and running, Dreyfoos, using his MIT connections, tried recruiting engineering employees from the Boston area. At the end of each interview, Dreyfoos would hand out real estate brochures, and tell them, “Why don’t you look around and see if you like the area?” Time and time again, potential engineers would return to Dreyfoos’ office and comment on the fabulous ever-present sunshine and beautiful white sandy beaches, but would add that, “This place is a cultural desert.”

“In fact,” Dreyfoos points out, “even in the ’70s it wasn’t a cultural desert. The Norton Museum was founded in 1941. Palm Beach Opera started in the early ’60s. Ballet Florida began as a dance school in 1973 and in the mid ’70s Leonard Davis was underwriting his Regional Arts program. There was even an orchestra in town at that time.”

Dreyfoos decided he needed to create a cultural calendar to hand out to employee prospects.

palm beach county arts council In 1973, Dreyfoos took a risk and purchased the local ABC affiliate, Channel 12, television station from John D. MacArthur.

Dreyfoos changed the call letters to WPEC and in 1987 switched the network affiliation to CBS. “In 1978, I asked Judy Goodman, a bright young station executive, to find out what other communities had done to promote their cultural climate,” Dreyfoos explains. Goodman discovered that many major cities across the country had initiated arts councils to advocate the arts. Dreyfoos wondered if he could use a television station as an advocacy tool.

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“We created and aired a public service announcement asking anyone interested in starting an arts council for Palm Beach County to show up at our studios on a certain date,” Dreyfoos says. A large crowd arrived and Dreyfoos was voted the first chairman of the Palm Beach County Council of the Arts, which in 1992 was renamed the Palm Beach County Cultural Council.

Once Dreyfoos had his cultural calendar, he didn’t stop there.

One of the major projects the council executed during the first year was conducting a survey on community needs for facilities.

Designed and executed by Goodman, the study sampled 1,000

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{upfront} community organizations and people interested in the arts.

The results showed that the community wanted a performing arts center.

Although Dreyfoos stepped down as chairman of the council after the first year, he did not stray far from the arts scene.

“I recall that after passing the baton, as I figuratively walked out of my term in office, the new chairman, [John R. Smith], asked me if I would take on the performing arts center project,” Dreyfoos explains. “At the time I thought I could just spend a year getting it organized and then pass it on to someone else, but here I am 28 years later—still chairman.”

The needs study became the nucleus for the development of the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.

Another mission fulfilled, the $67 million, largely privately financed, multipurpose Kravis Center opened debt-free in 1992. Early in the campaign, PEC had made a $1 million contribution and the board ultimately named the Alexander W. Dreyfoos and Raymond F. Kravis cut the ribbon at the Kravis Center’s opening dedication, September 1992 concert hall in Dreyfoos’ honor. Dreyfoos has diligently served as chairman of the Kravis Center’s board of directors station in 1996, Dreyfoos made a $5 million gift to the for more than two decades. When he sold the television Center’s endowment fund.

dreyfoos school of the arts Not long after the Kravis Center was built, the Palm Beach County school system established an arts magnet school adjacent to the Center’s campus. The school was initially named the Palm Beach County School of the Arts and admission to the school was, and still is, by audition.

“A group of interested parents and arts lovers started the School of the Arts Foundation to supplement the fact that the education dollars really weren’t there for the supplies artists needed,” Dreyfoos explains. “The Foundation was so taken by the success we had raising money for the Kravis Center that they came to me and said, ‘Alex, if you would lend us your name, we think some of it would rub off on the Foundation.’” Not to mention the $1 million donation request made to Dreyfoos by the Foundation.

“I wasn’t really sure how private money and public schools would work together,” Dreyfoos says. “But, I became excited after learning that students were only granted admission via an audi-

tion process. I realized that by conducting auditions, the school was cutting across economic lines, religious lines and racial lines, and all they were looking for was talent.”

In 1997, Dreyfoos pledged $1 million to support the school, the largest private contribution ever made to a Florida public school. Subsequently the Palm Beach County School of the Arts was renamed the Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr. School of the Arts (DSOA) and today it offers concentrations in visual arts, theater, music, communications and dance.

On a couple of occasions Dreyfoos has agreed to be the commencement speaker at graduation ceremonies at the Dreyfoos School. “The most important advice I give the graduates is be in love with the career they pick,” he explains. “Don’t pick a career just for the sake of money; if you love what you are doing you will be much happier and chances are, if you are good at it, the money will come. Be willing to take a risk.

Be alert, and don’t forget about serendipity—be willing to take a risk when you see something connecting.”

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philanthropy & awards

Dreyfoos maintained his involvement with MIT over the years. For the last few decades he has been a member of MIT’s board of directors and he is now a lifetime trustee. In addition to his generous gifts to the Kravis Center and the DSOA, in 1997 Dreyfoos contributed $15 million to name one of the two buildings in the Frank Gehry-designed Stata Center at MIT. He also funded the Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr. Professorship at MIT’s Media Lab.

Shortly after The Scripps Research Institute announced that it would build a campus in Palm Beach County, Dreyfoos was invited to join the Scripps board of trustees. He has contributed $1 million to see Scripps Florida come to fruition. “I’m an advocate for Scripps so we don’t have to export our kids,” Dreyfoos explains. “Up until now, if you had a child who was very bright, the likelihood of them coming back to Palm Beach County after college was slim. I also believe that biotechnology research is the most challenging and exciting field today. I believe that if Mozart were alive today he would be a geneticist.”

Dreyfoos has received numerous community involvement awards throughout the country including The Palm Beach Post’s Man of the Year in 1980, MIT’s Marshall B. Dalton Award in 1997 and the American Diabetes Association’s Valor Award in 2005, to name just a few. In 2004, he was made a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and this year he was presented the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship. Additionally, Dreyfoos holds honorary doctorate degrees from the Kellogg Graduate School at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and Lynn University in Boca Raton.

life today Dreyfoos, currently the CEO and owner of The Dreyfoos Group, has a passion for being on the water. The Dreyfoos Group owned and operated the Sailfish Marina in Palm Beach Shores for 27 years, which became a staple in the county’s thriving marine industry.

Two of his grandsons received their scuba diving certificates last year and the entire family spent last Christmas in the Caribbean, “much of it under water,” Dreyfoos adds. Dreyfoos began scuba diving in 1954. When not in the water, the Dreyfoos family enjoys cruising and entertaining on “Silver Cloud,” their 143foot Feadship.

Dreyfoos has known his wife Renate since 1969 when she began as his secretary at PEC. Over the years, as vice president of human resources, she played a major role in creatively staffing the various divisions. In The Dreyfoos 2000, Alex and Renate were Family married. “The most enjoyable part of the last six years has been being with Renate, the love of my life,” he says.

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Alex and Renate Dreyfoos

Today the arts are a thriving part of our county’s fabric. “Support from the community has been tremendous and there is truly an arts-related activity available for everyone. Palm Beach County is now a cultural community. I think one important reason people are moving here is because of the diversity of the culture,” Dreyfoos concludes.

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Q&A With Alexander W. Dreyfoos 5 KRAVIS CENTER QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

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1

major contribution in the early years. Since that time, the surrounding areas have grown tremendously and while we are getting support from those areas now, I believe it will be very important for our new board members to reach out to those areas even more actively.

As chairman of the Encore Campaign I still have another $1.5 million to raise to have funds to pay off the bonds that financed the construction of the Cohen Pavilion. I would like the campaign wrapped up before I step down.

Are there any plans for additional building at the current site?

You were re-elected as chairman of the board of directors in May. How long will you continue to be at the helm of the Kravis Center as chairman?

I have already announced to the board of directors that I will step down as chairman on June 30, 2007. It is time for a new group to take over and we’ve got some neat people coming along.

With you as the chairman, why do you think the Kravis Center has evolved into the cultural jewel of Palm Beach County?

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The Kravis Center would not have been built without a very dedicated board. I like to think I am just a focal point for what a wonderful group has done. The Center wouldn’t be anything like what it is today without Judy Mitchell [CEO] and a great staff of dedicated people who have been doing, and continue to do, a terrific job. I’ve always advocated that we need to be first class; our building had to be first class; our programming has to be first class; our publications have to have a quality look and our Web site has to be outstanding and easily interactive.

It’s all a part of quality, quality, quality. People like to be involved with and identify with quality.

The Kravis Center is in a transitional period right now.

Board members have begun to rotate off the board and assume lifetime trustee status. In June of next year, all of the original board of directors will have been replaced.

What are some of the issues the new board will tackle?

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Well, one thing they have to do is broaden support with geographic diversification. When we built the Center, most of our board members came from Palm Beach and West Palm Beach.

In fact, I probably met or knew almost everyone who made a

4

I really believe the Kravis Center should be thought of as a campus. The community definitely does need a 1,200-seat theater, but the question is when. Clearly the next building is going to be built on the next watch, or maybe the watch after that. I believe the theater should be built on the southwest corner of the campus (at Tamarind Avenue and Okeechobee Boulevard). The Cohen Pavilion was sited so as to allow room for such a theater.

When the board of directors elects a new chairman, what advice would you have for your successor?

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I’m sure there are many things any new chairman will have in mind to want to pursue and it will be important for him or her to build their own team.

My own advice would be to continue to broaden the geographic support. I think there are some real opportunities for funding, which is the most important responsibility of the board. The Center needs to raise between $4 and $5 million on an annual basis and then once the Encore Capital Campaign is over, it will be important to step up the Campaign to increase the size of the Center’s endowment.

It is important to have younger people on the board to try new things. I am confident that I will be leaving the Center in very good hands.

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HIGH NOTES DEBUT DIVA CHARLOTTE MILLER RELISHES A 50-YEAR AFFAIR WITH PALM BEACH OPERA

By Amy Woods

The 94-year-old soprano with cheek bones as high as her voice gazed giddily at her handsome husband and said he’s the reason she became the first star of the Palm Beach Opera. The date was January 29, 1962. The performance: La Traviata. The lead: Charlotte Miller playing the role of Violetta.

“It just happened that my illustrious husband brought me here,” says Miller, who celebrates her 74th wedding anniversary this year. “It was fate.”

Donald served as a surgeon in the Navy and, when he retired in 1961, the couple moved to Palm Beach County, where he joined the staff at Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach. That summer, Miller met and socialized with several opera enthusiasts who eventually founded the Civic Opera of the Palm Beaches.

“There were a lot of very talented and interesting people in the area at the time,” Miller said. “We were very busy starting the Palm Beach Opera.” And they’ve stayed that way.

The Palm Beach Opera turns 50 this year. Miller and six other founders – Isabel Chatfield, Octavia Could, Rosita Franks, Alberta Grant, Thelma Miller and Princess Jane Obolensky – will be honored at the Golden Jubilee Concert and Gala on January 20 as the successful regional performing arts organization looks back on its history and peers into its future.

Neither would be the same without Miller.

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Charlotte Miller, Charlotte Murray (grand-daughter), Mary Greenman (daughter), Caroline Murray (great grand-daughter) at the 2006 Family Opera performance of The Magic Flute

Charlotte Miller and international opera legend Virginia Zeani (and local) in 2011

The delightfully dainty diva with the sweet, southern drawl said she always fancied opera. Her favorite performance is Manon

by Jules Massenet. “It was such beautiful music,” she says.

She started studying voice while raising her four children. “I had not had the chance to just devote myself to singing,” she admits.

Others always complimented her when she sang – mostly in church in her hometown of Faison, N.C. – and she realized she had a special gift.

“The high notes were God-given, actually,” she says.

She never had sung a full opera prior to La Traviata. “It’s very involved,” she explains. “First of all, you have to have a lot of study and prepare yourself to even audition for it. It takes a lot of rehearsals. I had to work very hard with Ms. Chatfield.”

Chatfield, who starred on stages from Philadelphia to Paris before helping Palm Beach Opera get its start, cast Miller in the lead role of Violetta. A half century later, Miller continues to support the organization and serves as one of five emeriti board members.

“You become like a family in the opera,” she says.

Over the year, Miller’s “family” has included the likes of Paul Csonka, the company’s original artistic director and principal

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Charlotte and (husband) Dr. Donald Miller at Opening Night December 2010

conductor; Arthur Silvester, one of the opera’s big benefactors; Bob Montgomery, its chairman from 1985 to 2005; and Anton Guadagno, artistic director from 1983 to 2002, who will be remembered for shaping the opera into the South Florida showcase it is today – a $4.7 million operation with 1,200 subscribers, a 65-piece orchestra and a 50-member chorus. “He always had the idea of starting off with a bang,” says Guadagno’s widow, Dolores. “He always wanted to start things with something important, something that would catch people’s eye.”

As the opera celebrates its golden anniversary, it has begun to take into account the ways of the high-tech world, where high-definition broadcasts of major operas worldwide play in movie theaters, download onto computers and come out on DVDs. “The last three years have been quite interesting for cultural organizations,” says Palm Beach Opera General Director Daniel Biaggi.

Some things, however, never change. “Our primary, core mission,” he says, “is still quality.” Perhaps that’s what keeps Miller – and all the other loyal supporters of the opera – coming back for more, year after golden year.

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Always in Style

By John Loring • Photography by Harry Benson

Edward C. Moore (1827-1891), Paulding Farnham (18591927), Louis Comfort Tiffany (1849-1933) — only the last of these geniuses of the decorative arts in America enjoys universal acclaim today. Yet Edward C. Moore’s work in silver shown in Paris during the world’s fair in 1867 was awarded the first medal ever given to American design by a foreign jury and, with all due respect to Paul Revere, he was the greatest silversmith America produced. The legendary Parisian dealer, writer and collector Siegfried Bing (1838-1905), whose Maison d’Art Nouveau gave the Art Nouveau movement its name, wrote of Moore that he was “a man whose country should forever enshrine him in grateful memory.” His pupil and successor as Tiffany & Co.’s chief designer, Paulding Farnham, won gold medals for jewelry at the Paris exposition of 1889 and the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, topping those with the grand prize for jewelry at the Paris Exposition of 1900. (He also designed the Belmont Stakes trophy in 1896, America’s most famous horse racing trophy.) Yet these two extraordinary artists — whose careers once brought such glory to America’s decorative arts — are today known almost exclusively to collectors, curators and connoisseurs.

In a continuing effort to write the names of such all-butforgotten giants of design back into history, Tiffany & Co.’s latest book on style and design —Tiffany Style, 170 Years of Design — spotlights magnificent jewels by Moore, Farnham, Tiffany and other Tiffany designers in photographs by celebrated photojournalist and Wellington resident Harry Benson using the dancers of Palm Beach County’s Ballet Florida as models.

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Opposite: Marifé Giménez of Ballet Florida modeling the Aztec collar designed by Paulding Farnham for the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle and shown again at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. Set with 45 Mexican fire opals and 64 red tourmalines, it originally had a ball-shaped pendant set with 26 pink and red tourmalines. Paulding Farnham’s Tiffany jewelry designs won the grand prize for jewelry at both World’s Fairs.

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Opposite: GimĂŠnez modeling Japanesque gold jewelry designed by Edward C. Moore at the time of the 1878 Paris exposition. Tiffany won a gold medal for jewelry design at the 1878 exposition. A pair of identical Japanesque bracelets is in the permanent collection of the British Museum. Photographed by Harry Benson at the Brazilian Court Hotel in Palm Beach.

Above: Stephanie Rapp of Ballet Florida modeling Paulding Farnhamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s circa 1890 pink conch pearl and diamond corsage ornament. The pink pearls from queen conch shells were found on the Caribbean islands.

Photographed by Harry Benson at the Brazilian Court Hotel.

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Opposite: Lorena Jimenez of Ballet Florida modeling a stylized floral gold brooch set with baguette emeralds and white and yellow diamonds shown at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

She also wears a 1937 cuff bracelet with detachable clips, each set with a cabochon emerald, cabochon sapphires and diamonds.

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Above: Yuan Xi of Ballet Florida modeling Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Antique Revival grapevine-motif necklace with amethyst grapes and drops as well as stylized nephrite jade leaves. The necklace was shown at the Société des Artistes Français in Paris in 1906 and illustrated in the December 1906 issue of

International Studio.

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GimĂŠnez modeling long green tourmaline and diamond pendant earrings and a 5.51-carat emerald-cut diamond ring.

On her right wrist is a circa 1938 diamond bracelet; on her left, a floral diamond bracelet made in 2007.

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Above: Rapp modeling a circa 1893 Paulding Farnham Orientalist brooch set with a large pink sapphire, yellow sapphires, diamonds, demantoid garnets and varicolored American freshwater pearls. Photographed by Harry Benson at the Brazilian Court Hotel.

Opposite: Xi modeling three Croisillons paillionné enamel and gold bangle bracelets by Jean Schlumberger and a sixteenstone diamond ring. Schlumberger designed the first of these bracelets in 1963 for Jacqueline Kennedy. They have been popularly called “Jackie Bracelets” ever since.

Photographed by Harry Benson at the Brazilian Court Hotel.

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Bob and Mary Montgomery:

A PAIR OF ACES

by Christina Wood

PATIENCE IS NOT ALWAYS A VIRTUE. In 1966, when Bob and Mary Montgomery first came to Palm Beach County, no one had yet

seen

the

cultural

forest

through

the palm trees. In those days, people came to Palm Beach to bask in the sun, play a few rounds of golf or practice their backhand on the tennis courts. If you wanted a night at the opera, a gallery opening or a theater premiere, you went someplace cold like New York or Chicago. Palm Beach was all about building sandcastles. For most people. The Montgomerys, however, are not most people.

In Memoriam - Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. - 1930 - 2008

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BOB AND MARY MONTGOMERY

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Michael Price

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“We are people who don’t, in anything we do, just kind of drop by and then move on to something else. You plant the seed and we like to stay around and watch the oak tree bloom and get acorns on it before we leave.”

—Mary Montgomery

Above and left: Once an actual armory, today the Armory Art Center flourishes as a visual arts education and exhibition center.

Below: Cultural Council President and CEO Rena Blades with Bob Montgomery and Marta Batmasian.

As children of the Depression and World War II, Bob and Mary’s exposure to the arts had been limited. “We took that adventure together,” Mary says of their early exploration of the world of opera, orchestras and ovations.

“And we found out what SRO meant,” Bob adds.

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“Standing room only!” they laughingly chant in unison.

Once the curtain had gone up, there was no turning back. Art and culture was destined to play a starring role in the couple’s life.

Bob and Mary met at the University of Alabama. She majored in art; he was working toward a Bachelor of Science degree.

After graduating in 1952, Bob served in the U.S. Army for two years. Then, with Mary at his side and the G.I. bill paving the way, he was off to law school. Bob graduated from the University of Florida Law School in 1957. He began his legal career in Jacksonville with a firm specializing in insurance defense before moving to Palm Beach. In 1975, Bob started his own firm.

Despite his success at the defense table, he switched sides, choosing to represent personal injury victims.

Since then, Bob has made a name for himself handling a number of high-profile cases. He was the lead attorney in the state’s lawsuit against Big Tobacco, which netted a $13.5 billion settlement for the citizens of Florida. He is also a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, a prestigious group composed of the nation’s top 100 plaintiff lawyers.

“When we transferred down here, I really was lost,” Mary says, quickly putting the past into perspective. “There were garden clubs and bridge clubs and things, but I needed to get involved with making art.”

While Bob was earning a reputation as a fierce litigator, Mary had continued to study and develop her skills as a painter. In Jacksonville, she had been part of a group of artists that opened a small nonprofit gallery and art school. She was on her own when she arrived in Palm Beach, though.

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Left: The Armory Art Centerʼs Kaplan Building houses ceramics and the foundry, where the lost wax bronze casting is done.

Below: Bob and Mary Montgomery at the 2007 Palm Beach Opera Gala.

“The lack of culture was forced on us growing up and then we come down to this community and there’s so much money and so much opportunity and yet they’re not taking advantage of it,” she says, frustration still evident in her voice. “They just said, oh, it’s much nicer to go to a movie or sit on the beach.”

“They” were the part-time residents that the economic, social and recreational life of the county had revolved around for decades. The Montgomerys were a new breed. Unlike the snowbirds of that era who flocked to our temperate shores every winter to preen their feathers, the Montgomerys were making a year-round home for themselves. And they wanted to be able to enjoy a rich cultural life right in their own backyard.

“Everyone said, we’ve got our opera back in New York or Chicago or Dallas; we have our symphony and theater. We come down here to play; we don’t come down here to be a part of the community, we don’t need to be involved,” Bob says. “That was the changing of the attitude, like the changing of the guard so to speak, and it was a very difficult thing to do.”

Confronted with the Montgomerys’ passion, finessed by their charm or, perhaps, simply overcome by the force of their convictions, the community began to see the light.

“People who have deep and serious passions and who are also smart about what they’re passionate about are attractive people to be around,” Blades says.

The Montgomerys might have too much Southern blood flowing charmingly through their veins to contradict her, but exciting probably isn’t the first word they would choose to describe their early efforts. “Just think about how recently it’s been and what a difficult time it was to build the Kravis Center,” Bob says.

The Montgomerys didn’t hesitate to use their charm, their home, their time or their money in pursuit of their cultural vision for the community. “They are a rare couple,” says Muriel Shapiro, who has served for many years with the Montgomerys on Palm Beach Opera’s board of directors. “They will meet any challenge head on.”

Politics and personalities were only part of the challenge. “You had to change the attitudes before they’d give the money to build (the Kravis Center),” Mary explains.

“They didn’t see the need.”

“He’s an incredibly intelligent man,” observes Nancy Lambrecht, who serves on the board of directors

“Thirty years ago almost nobody was doing that,” says Rena Blades, president and CEO of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council.

“You try to imagine what Palm Beach County was like then, it must have been exciting to get things started.”

at the Armory Art Center. “If you are going to approach him about something, you better have done your homework because he will ask a lot of very difficult, very probing questions and he will know whether or not you know what you’re talking about. I would not go to him unprepared.”

“She is the most balanced woman I have ever met,” Shapiro says of her friend Mary. “Her day would exhaust the average human being. She has meetings and meetings and meetings at these various

Lucien Capehart

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AND MARY MONTGOMERY

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organizations. She’s setting up lunches, she’s setting up dinners, she’s underwriting this, she’s chairman of that. She accomplishes so much. She is in there pitching with every single bone in her body to whatever they are committed to, and they’re committed to everything.”

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County, Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. Cancer Research Fund at the Albert Einstein

“We are people who don’t, in anything we do, just kind of drop by and then move on to something else,” Mary says. “You plant the seed and we like to stay around and watch the oak tree bloom and get acorns on it before we leave. I can’t think of any group that we’ve joined that we haven’t stayed and almost worn out our welcome.”

For the Montgomerys, philanthropy isn’t about getting your name in the paper; it’s about getting things done. “They have strong opinions about things, which is great,” Blades says. “To me that makes for a good leader. You may disagree with something about their philosophy but at least they have one. That’s what it means to be a leader.”

The list of organizations the Montgomerys have actively supported is a long one that includes Palm Beach Opera, The Children’s Place at Home Safe, Inc., International Museum of Cartoon Art, WXEL, Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, Museum of Contemporary Art, Florida Philanthropy, Economic Council of Palm Beach

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Palm Beach County Cultural Council and the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.

They sponsored the Be Sm art public awareness campaign to promote arts education and cultural programs through after-school activities, weekend activities and integration of the arts into school curricula. Earlier this year, Bob was the recipient of the 2007 Muse Award for Advocacy, presented by the Palm Beach County Cultural Council.

“You’d be hard pressed to find an organization here that hasn’t benefited from them,” Lambrecht says. “If you picked up the phone and started just randomly calling different not-for-profits, every one of them would have the Montgomerys listed as donors at some level.”

“I don’t know how there are enough hours in the day or the night for them to do everything that they do,” Shapiro says.

Comprehensive Cancer Center, Palm Beach County Cultural Planning Committee, Florida ArtsPAC, Gulfstream Goodwill Industries of Palm Beach County, Palm Beach Community College Foundation, Palm Beach Community Chest - United Way, Palm Beach Festival, Miami City Ballet, Ballet Florida and Florida Stage.

The Montgomerys are also founding members of the Armory Art Center, the

French Impressionist Edgar Degas once said, “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” In opening the community’s eyes to the need for art and culture, you could say that the Montgomerys created a masterpiece in Palm Beach County.

Bob and Mary, however, would probably just say that, with a little more work, it could be even better. And so they continue to make the time.

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A

Q &

Q: What motivates your philanthropy?

Bob: I guess it was just kind of instilled in us by our families, to be very frank with you. They were very, very generous people so far as those who were less fortunate were concerned.

Mary: We came from families who believed in neighbors helping each other.

During the Depression and World War II people had to help each other.

Bob: Philanthropy has to be taught. You can’t be born with it; I think, somewhere along the line, you have to be taught to be charitable.

Q: When did your love of the arts develop?

Mary: Bob grew up in a musically talented family. His mother was in show business, if you will; she had an all girls orchestra and could play several musical instruments on a professional level. My background was in the visual arts.

We grew up in the Depression and a war when people didn’t travel. I think I’d heard Jimmy Fiddler play his flute in our high school auditorium in a little town in Georgia; up to that point, that’s about all I’d been exposed to. Then, in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, I started seeing performances when I was in school in Virginia. We had these traveling programs, kind of like

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our regional arts now. They certainly weren’t as elaborately staged, but it was live on stage with professional people. I saw my first opera when I was a sophomore in college. That just knocked me out.

Q: What is it about opera that appeals to you so much?

Mary: One thing you notice about opera when you see it, it’s not just singing, it’s not just symphony, it’s not just visual arts, but it’s all these things on stage at the same time and how they interact. It’s got everything. You’ve got beautiful sets, you’ve got beautiful voices, you’ve got a fantastic orchestra in the pit and you’ve got acting as well, so you’ve got wonderful drama. It’s the excitement; your heart beats so fast and you wake up the next morning thinking about it. Those experiences are, I think, one of the main things that make life worth living, the thrill of having heard something unique and wonderful.

Q: A person’s home can say a lot about them. In your home, the artwork of Douglas Ferrin is prominently displayed. Some people find that surprising. What is it about his work that appeals to you?

Mary: Well, the world has been on the dark side most of my life, from one war to another. You can either put your head in the sand and paint fairy princesses … or you can just observe reality and learn a way to live with it. In my mind, I think Doug has kind of done that. He paints like the Renaissance painters, that wonderful quality of paint, but you’ve got the contemporary (setting). There’s no abstraction in them, it’s just, to us, beautiful art and that transcends the subject matter.

Q: Would it be fair to say that the Armory Art Center is particularly near and dear to your hearts?

Bob: No question about that! You hit the nail on the head as far as that’s concerned.

Q: But, didn’t you ask to have your name taken off the letterhead there?

Bob: Yes, we did.

Mary: We’ve always believed that, in raising money from the community, you have to do something to entice others to come in. I think it is generally acknowledged that people give for bricks and mortar. It occurred to us that if we took our name off, it would be free for somebody else to come in and get to know what the Armory was all about as a result of a naming opportunity. Now we have a building and the sculpture garden named for someone else.

Bob: But be sure to put in your article that the main naming opportunity is still out there.

Q: Is your philanthropy a team effort?

Bob: (laughingly) No, Mrs. Montgomery is the leader of this group. She’s in charge.

Mary: (apparently ignoring him) We depend on each other a lot. It’s like all relationships, we have our disagreements, but mostly we like the same things. If I hadn’t had Bob as a partner, I don’t think I would have been able to do this. You can’t go off, in my mind at least, and do all this without somebody you can talk to about it and take the journey with. I feel very lucky that Bob and I met and have had this opportunity.

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DIGITAL-ART DYNAMO Continues to Break New Ground

By Amy Woods

Electric. Provocative. Daring. Complex. Viewers of Laurence Gartel’s imaginative creations might use such adjectives to describe the digital artist’s work, as each meticulously plotted piece evokes a sense of urgency and an element of danger, amid a riot of comic-book color.

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The tools of the trade differentiate digital art from traditional art. A digital artist uses pixels, while a traditional artist employs paint. In the end, the fractal design on paper or the pallet knife on canvas convey a message that moves the human spirit. Gartel forayed into the field of computer-generated art in 1975 and pioneered his own palette at a time when mainframes and central-processing units took up entire walls.

“When I started in 1975, there were less than a half dozen facilities in the United States that had computers,” the New York City School of Visual Arts graduate says. “What to do with them was a whole other story and challenge. Suffice to say my vision caught on and the rest is pure art history.”

Gartel’s most recognizable work remains the Absolut Gartel advertising campaign for Absolut Vodka that ran in dozens of U.S. magazines from 1991 to 2001. His tools: Adobe Photoshop 2.0 and Canon’s first-generation digital-video camera, the 760. “In the year of 1991, a handful of people owned a digital camera,” he says. “Film still completely dominated the field of photography. I was looked at as a pure freak.”

One year after the Absolut Vodka commission, Gartel, a New York City native, received an invitation from the Norton Museum Above: Laurence Gartel with Coney Island Baby (c) 1999 - 63”x72” Digital Print

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{upfront-portrait}

Celestial Woman (c) 2011, 30”x40” Digital Print

The Laurence Gartel 1959, Fleetwood Cadillac Limousine, commissioned by SXLiquors

Motor Head (c) 2006 - 36”x47”Iris Print

of Art in West Palm Beach to display an exhibition titled Laurence Gartel: A Cybernetic Romance. The exhibition revealed his passion for fine art and desire to create never-seenbefore imagery. “Laurence Gartel: A Cybernetic Romance opened the eyes of South Florida residents and the world,” the artist boldly proclaims.

It also opened the eyes of the boy from the Bronx to the beauty of coastal living. “I love it here,” says Gartel, a Boca Raton resident since 1992. “You can wear a T-shirt 11½ months of the year. The international mix of people here also opens up a fantastic mix of dialogues.”

His latest project involves wrapping an antique car in vinyl graphics for an SXLiquors advertising campaign. Given the South Beach theme of the Miami company’s initiative, he will interpret the haute hotels that line the famed oceanfront on the curvy canvas of a 1959 Cadillac. “Wrapping cars is something that I didn’t do before,” Gartel says. “I’m in a completely different realm. I have a feeling there will be things next year that I didn’t do this year.”

The next wave of technology will usher in dramatic advancements in interactive digital video for both the art world

Moziac Lady (c) 2000 - 30”x40” Digital Print

and the real world, he says. “You will be able to experience things visually, and you’ll actually be able to move around images,” he says. “There’s so much to really talk about. In summary, the future of my medium is endless. It is a continuum that will forever flow.”

Gartel’s iconic images hang in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History, Bibliotheque Nationale Paris and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, to name a few. Locally, his work has appeared at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre, where he teaches Photoshop courses to beginner children and advanced adults.

“I am so proud of having him involved with the center,” says Fatima NeJame, president and CEO of Palm Beach Photographic Centre. “When it comes to digital art, he’s definitely a pioneer.” NeJame, who describes Gartel as a big kid willing to do anything to help the center, selected the brash artist as the recipient of the FOTOmentor Award during FOTOfusion 2009. “That’s how much I respect him,” she says.

“He does things that nobody else does. He’s really creative.

He’s just out there. He’s always in the forefront.”

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Catherine Lowe

SHAPING HOW OTHERS SEE THE WORLD

by Christina Wood

eople think Catherine Lowe collects art – and who could blame them? Her home and office walls are dripping with color, sculpted figures watch over her daily progress, well-read books on art rest on her coffee table. Ask her about her collection, though, and you’ll quickly discover the truth. What Catherine Lowe really collects is stories.

Paintings, pastels, photographs and metalwork share a common link. Soft watercolors and unforgiving stone combine to tell a story as she moves through a collection of art and images pointing out details — not of brushwork or artistry but of names and of history.

A painting by Jones Gilbert entitled Steel Drums breathes life into the stories of the islanders in Trinidad and Tobago who once relied on the drums to communicate.

The contemporary image of an African American man with a child in his arms carries a powerful social message Dr. Lowe believes children need to hear. The stories surrounding the life of Edmonia Lewis, the first professionally-trained African American female sculptor — not the classic lines of the artists’ work — are what attracted Lowe to the bust of Hiawatha that now adorns her home.

“It’s not just the visual appeal of the art; it’s the story behind it,” Lowe explains. “So much of our history, our heritage, our culture is in our art.”

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Lowe says she found her calling and purpose as an ophthalmologist but it is through art and culture — especially, she says, ethnic visual arts — that she has discovered her passion.

HOMEGROWN TALENT Lowe claims her story is “rather simple and uncomplicated.” She was born and raised in Belle Glade, better known for its winter vegetable crops and sugar cane than its artists. “As a child I was blessed with a loving, supportive blue-collar family, along with a concerned and close-knit community structure that encouraged high achievements in education, business and sports.

I learned very early about respectable, honest work and setting high goals.”

She attended the University of Florida, where two of the many professors she encountered on her way to a bachelor’s degree in zoology made a significant impact on her life. One, impressed by her academic abilities in science, encouraged her to pursue a career in medicine. Another tried to dampen her enthusiasm and quell her pride when, as a sophomore, she wrote a paper linking Picasso’s cubist images to traditional African masks. “When you’re young, you always like to identify with success,” she says in retrospect. “We need validation.” Her professor told her she was wrong to make the connection between African culture and great art.

A lot of students in that situation would have been discouraged; Lowe was determined. She chose to believe in the possibility of a positive cultural identity rather than in the criticism of her instructor.

She had a poster on the wall of her room in those days that was adorned with images of hummingbirds and a few simple words by the famed African American poet Langston Hughes. She recalls the quotation fondly, “Birds fly simply because they think they can.” Today, a number of butterflies hang on Lowe’s office wall alongside the work of a Korean artist and a Picasso.

POSITIVE ENERGY Lowe attended medical school at the University of Minnesota. She received additional training at Columbia-Harlem Hospital in New York, the National Institutes of Health’s Eye Institute and Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. She completed a surgical residency in Minnesota before returning to Palm Beach County to set up her practice as a general and comprehensive, board-certified ophthalmologist.

Throughout her 27-year career, Lowe has been a high achiever, seeking not only professional success but a role in the community. “For many years, I have taken an active role in health and medical issues on the state and local levels,” she says. “I frequently serve as a child advocate, mentoring young students as well as encourag-

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Dr. Catherine Lowe, MD, pictured with art work from the Artists Showcase.

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ing and nurturing young, talented visual and performing artists throughout the county.”

She is a member of the American Medical Association, National Medical Association, American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Florida Society of Ophthalmology. She served on the boards of the Palm Beach County Medical Society and FLAMPAC and has campaigned for several local and national politicians. To honor her maternal grandparents, who were farm owners and entrepreneurs, she established The Hampton & Isabella Brown Memorial Scholarship at the University of Minnesota. Lowe is an active member of St. Paul AME Church and, in her spare time, works with the Republican Black Caucus, University of Minnesota’s President’s Club, Executive Women of the Palm Beaches and the Palm Beach Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, among other organizations.

“I have a high energy level,” Lowe says in a classic understatement. “I used to function on four hours of sleep but now,” she laments, “I need six and a half hours. I think if you talk to most physicians and most surgeons, you’d

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get similar numbers.” It’s not all in the genes though. On the numerous occasions when her efforts have been publicly honored, she has been quick to share the credit. “It takes a good team,” she says. “I have a really good staff, they keep me on track.” And, of course, she adds, “Art does charge my batteries.”

A MEANINGFUL COMMITMENT Lowe, a self-professed workaholic who married late in life and has one step-daughter, admits that her husband, Patrick Orlando, has, on occasion, recommended that she take a “chill pill.” Over the years, she has been involved in a variety of organizations, too numerous to list, including the Palm Beach County Cultural Council, which she chaired from 1999 to 2001. Currently, her efforts are focused primarily on the goals of two organizations that have special meaning in her life, the T. Leroy Jefferson Medical Society and the Artists Showcase of the Palm Beaches.

“T. Leroy Jefferson was one of the first African American physicians in Palm Beach County,” Lowe says. “He made rounds on a bicycle.” He also delivered Lowe’s uncle.

Art and culture are important because they make a statement about the heart and essence of what a community is all about. Events and programs that entertain, enlighten and impress audiences with a rich cultural heritage reflect both current and historic events that have made a community grow and evolve. Art and culture, from an economic point, enrich our community by creating jobs, businesses, beauty and ecologically friendly growth.

Why is it important for the cultural community to include representation from diverse groups?

There’s a universality of human experience; different groups have different challenges but to break through that, that’s what artists struggle to do. We have a very culturally rich and diverse community with well over 150 different dialects and languages spoken here. Art and culture cross over social, religious and ethnic lines to connect a community.

The cultural community should reflect the makeup of its citizens.

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“My uncle showed me his birth certificate and there was T. Leroy Jefferson’s name on it.”

The organization that now bears Jefferson’s name is comprised primarily of local African Americans, although, membership is open to healthcare professionals from any ethnic and racial background. The organization’s core objective is to provide health education and medical screening to school children and the minority community. “We had done some work on cultural competency and diversity in health care,” Lowe says. “Right now we’re working on a childhood obesity project in conjunction with the Urban League.”

Nineteen years ago, she founded the Artists Showcase and continues to serve the organization as its president. “I got involved with Artists Showcase of the Palm Beaches because I saw a large void in the cultural of-

with Catherine Lowe

Why are the arts and culture important to our community?

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Lowe with Bob Montgomery at a Florida Highwaymen exhibit in 2004.

How has the cultural community changed during the time you have been in Palm Beach County?

My dad was born here in West Palm Beach. He remembered when there was nothing past the first railroad track and he remembered hunting rabbits at the Palm Beach Mall. During my 27-year history of professional medical practice and community involvement, I have seen this community grow in the cultural arts arena with greater recognition of our diverse populations and I have worked with others who continue to strive for this kind of positive growth in other arenas here in beautiful South Florida. We are the cultural capital of the state. This is the best place to live, work, play and raise a family.

What was at the top of your agenda when you chaired the Palm Beach County Cultural Council?

I was really concerned about the local community artists and a lot of the grassroots organizations. We worked very hard to establish the Category C grants [Cultural Development Fund for small and emerging organiza-

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LEFT: Cutline RIGHT: cutline BELOW:

Lowe and Artists Showcase instructor Peter Marshall with students at the PACE Center for Girls in 2006.

lets them know that they too can achieve and create great things.”

BOLD VISION He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother by Gilbert Young, part of Lowe’s collection on permanent loan to Artists Showcase & the Historic Jenkins House.

ferings for African American and other ethnic artists to display and showcase their art. There were and still are not many galleries or theaters where you can find art by artists of color,” she explains. “Children need to learn and know about great artists who came from backgrounds similar to theirs and who look like them. It gives them hope, aspirations and

“She’s just one of those shining stars in the community that continues to shine bright,” says Patrick Franklin, president and CEO of the Urban League of Palm Beach County, which presented Lowe with its 2008 lifetime achievement award. “We need more Cathy Lowes to get involved and to be active and to bring their passion to reality and provide a path for others to follow.”

Between taking care of her patients and promoting her pet projects, Lowe still finds time to dream. “I would like to see a countywide and a statewide Cultural and

tions]. I really took that on to make sure that there was more inclusion for a lot of the smaller ethnic organizations so that there would be ways for them to promote their festivals, their parades, their celebrations. Alex Dreyfoos had a great vision for the development of our arts community.

Bob Montgomery was very passionate about the arts and has been one of the most generous philanthropists. George Elmore has been steadfast in seeing that the arts community lives up to its goals. And I think I have brought a voice for the local, community and grassroots artists and organizations that early on did not bring large amounts of tourists to the area but have significant local community impact. We make up the four Chairs Emeriti of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council.

What gives you the most satisfaction?

Restoring sight to the young with spectacles, contact lenses and/or muscle surgery; cataract removal, laser surgery for glaucoma, diabetes and macular degeneration for the elderly — treating young and old alike has, to date, been at the pinnacle of rewards for me.

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Historic African American Heritage Trail that is fun-filled, exciting and educationally rich that most everyone would enjoy seeing again and again,” she says.

She also wants to continue mentoring the area’s youth. “When we first moved into the historic Jenkins House, the home of the Artists Showcase, our first show was called New Beginnings,” she recalls, “A young lady, probably about 8 or 9 years old, was upstairs in the gallery looking at some of the artwork and she stopped and looked at her mom and she said, ‘Mommy, all of the people in these pictures look like us.’ The two of them started to cry. I was so touched and so moved by that.

I told myself, we’re doing the right thing. It’s all about self-esteem.”

Why have so many of your community efforts been focused on children and youth?

I believe we have a responsibility to attempt to motivate young people to develop excellent academic and social skills and talents, then encourage them to pursue their dreams, their goals and to enjoy the journey. They are our future and we have to invest in them if we expect them to have a better way of life.

What are your hopes for the future?

As Charles Dickens said, “These are the worst of times and the best of times.” We have a major challenge, an energized charge and a new commitment. Now that we have new leadership coming into national office we have new hope for positive change, a renewed sense of trust and confidence in the character and judgment of our political and financial leadership. My hope is that this will spark a renewed interest in funding and supporting the arts.

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PALM BEACH COUNTY’S LATINO COMMUNITY KEEPS

ARTIST GROUNDED

By Don Vaughan

When the comic strip Baldo debuted in 2000, it gave newspaper readers something they had never seen before in the funnies: a contemporary American Latino family.

Baldo isn’t the first strip to feature Latino characters – Gus Arriola’s Gordo broke that barrier back in 1941. But whereas Arriola’s strip was set in Mexico, Baldo is set in the United States and features characters that could be anyone’s next-door neighbors. Only funnier.

“What I find most interesting is the dual cultural viewpoint that we deliver,” says West Palm Beach artist Carlos Castellanos, who co-created Baldo with writer Hector Cantú.

“Baldo’s father and aunt represent the old world, while [teenage] Baldo and his younger sister, Gracie, are the new generation who are mostly Americanized. I like the conflict that creates.”

In many ways, that dynamic mirrors Castellanos’ personal story. Born in Cuba in 1961, he was sent to Miami as an infant

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in the care of a total stranger because his parents were unable to get visas for themselves. He lived with his grandmother in New York until his family finally made it over five months later.

Castellanos moved to Miami with his mother in the 1970s, then to West Palm Beach about 18 years ago. “The Latino community in Palm Beach County keeps me grounded,” he notes. “It’s a good reminder of where I come from and how I grew up.”

Baldo currently runs in approximately 240 newspapers, including The Palm Beach Post and the South Florida Sun Sentinel . It wasn’t a difficult sell, Castellanos notes, because at the time of the strip’s creation, America’s Latino population was booming and newspapers were eager to capitalize on that demographic.

The strip is a collaborative effort, with Castellanos providing the art and the occasional gag. “Mostly what I do now is play editor,” he notes. “I’ll look at the gags and say,

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‘this one doesn’t quite work’ or ‘maybe it’ll work better in two panels,’ that kind of thing. Hector and I are partners so we both need to be happy with the process.”

Cantú agrees. “In the early years, we had to figure out what our roles were,” he says. “But now it runs like a well-oiled machine. Carlos is a real comics pro. He has a great feel for what makes a good comic, and his art perfectly complements the words.”

Castellanos was a fan of comic books growing up. In college, he discovered the appeal of comic strips. “Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes really struck a chord with me,” he says. “I loved the writing and the fantasy elements of both strips.” Today, he combines his early interest and artistic abilities in a successful career.

In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Castellanos was honored with an exhibition at Palm Beach State College that ran September 8 through October 14. Exhibits included original Baldo artwork and scripts, storyboards and a trailer from the unaired Baldo television series. In addition, Castellanos spoke and answered questions from students.

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“My hope was to bring awareness and a deeper appreciation for all of our stories, not just Latinos,” Castellanos notes. “We all have the ability to inspire, connect and succeed if we take the time to nurture that which is already within us.”

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BURT REYNOLDS: A CLASS ACT

By Christina Wood

A

t 73, Burt Reynolds would still look damn good in a tux. Now that the curtain has gone up on what he likes to call the third act of his life, however, the irrepressible hometown favorite isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t much interested in formal wear. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sworn off Hollywood parties, passed on a number of high-profile cameo appearances and adopted a dog named Precious.

Reynolds is home, living and teaching in Jupiter.

And these days he seems perfectly comfortable in his own skin.

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Most people, of course, are familiar with Reynolds’ acting career; with turns in more than 100 films, six television series and a handful of stage productions as well as a couple of Golden Globes, an Emmy Award and an Oscar nomination, it’s kind of hard to miss.

A respectable number may also be familiar with his directing and producing credits. Some may realize that he shared his success with us, bringing tens of millions of dollars in film production to the county. Hard core fans can probably rattle off football stats from his days as a first-team All-State, All-Southern tailback at Palm Beach High or talk about Reynolds’ appearance as a guest host on the Tonight Show as if they were there.

Then there are the fortunate few, those who gather on Tuesday and Friday nights to see Burt Reynolds in the role of a dedicated teacher.

It’s actually a familiar role for Reynolds. “There’s a saying in our business,” Palm Beach County Film Commissioner Chuck Elderd says, “You have an obligation when you succeed to pass it on. Burt is the epitome of that. Passing it on is tattooed on his heart.”

Soon, Reynolds will be passing on his gifts to a growing

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number of students. “We’re in the planning stages of developing the Burt Reynolds Institute for Film and Theatre,” says Suzanne Niedland, who is in Reynolds’ class on Tuesday and Friday nights as well as on the executive board for the Palm Beach County Film and Television Commission, the advisory board to the Documentary Institute at the University of Florida and a member of The Kennedy Center National Committee for the Performing Arts. “It will be something the community will be very proud of.” The new non-profit organization is sure to become known as BRIFT, even by those who might not remember its predecessor, the Burt Reynolds Institute for Theatre Training, commonly known as BRITT—which, along with the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater, put Jupiter on the map in the 1980s.

As the newly appointed chair of BRIFT, Niedland talks about mission statements, business models, educational opportunities and the need for funding. Reynolds talks about making magic.

“It’s all brand new,” he says. “My dream is to have a little 99-seat theater. You can create magic in a10-foot space if you’ve got the right people.” Classes in acting and filmmaking are currently

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forming. (For information, please call (561) 743-9955 or visit www.BRIFT.org.)

Reynolds has more than a dream and a slow, warm smile to offer students. The man has an impressive knowledge of film and stagecraft, a treasure trove of stories and a true appreciation for history. He draws generously on the experiences of a career spanning 50 years as well as those of a rebellious son, injured athlete and an angry young man. Some of the lessons he’s now passing on, he learned the hard way. He stopped counting after 40 broken bones and he bears countless scars that will never show up on an x-ray.

Palm Beach County is the place where he could always come to heal.

Even at the height of his success, when he was living in a beautiful home with a beautiful swimming pool surrounded by beautiful people, he still thought of Jupiter as home. “In L.A., I always had the feeling that I was going to be diving in the pool and somebody would say cut and it would all disappear and I’d land on the street. There’s this whole sense of unreality. This,” he says, stretching out his arms as if to embrace Jupiter’s blue skies, “is where I found peace.”

Reynolds has taught classes on acting in New York and L.A., he’s worked with students at his alma mater, Florida State, and he’s enjoyed every minute of it. “The difference now,” he says, “is that when I finish, I can come home. I have my dog, I can look at the inland waterway and I can sit out on the porch. I just feel there’s no pretension here.”

“For him, teaching is absolutely the ultimate in satisfaction,” says Niedland, who happens to be a BRITT alumna, Class of 1990.

“Burt is so alive when he teaches. It’s something I know he looks forward to. During a class, 100 percent of his attention is focused on the students. Seeing him in action is amazing.”

At a recent class, held at the Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum in Jupiter, Reynolds stepped onto a stage that could barely contain him. Students, arrayed in two rows of chairs before him, listened attentively as he paid tribute to Spencer Tracy. He spoke softly and gently; when you have an audience in the palm of your hand there’s no need to raise your voice. As a young man, Reynolds told the group, he visited the set of the 1960 classic Inherit the Wind; in the parking lot afterwards Tracy gave him a singular piece of advice:

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“Don’t let them catch you acting.” Heads bob and nod around the room. Reynolds has never forgotten that advice. Chances are good that his students will now remember it for a lifetime, too.

The small crowd, a mix of Coach bags and earnest faces, shifted in their seats as three actors replaced Reynolds on the stage; the red light came on as cameras rolled. Reynolds sat at an editing console in front of three monitors, a package of decongestant and a pencil cup containing a single pen, a small American flag and a white feather. “Action,” he called.

Before long, he was up, out of the chair, moving to the side of the stage, questioning the choices an actor had made, challenging another to take a risk, shouting encouragement. A dash of his self-deprecating humor often eased the actors’ way into unfamiliar territory. They all wanted desperately to please him, to shine in his eyes, and so, in the space of an evening, they grew.

“People have a lot of ideas about who Burt is from his films,” Niedland says, “but when they spend time with him, they see how much he really cares. He’s an articulate, nurturing, fascinating man and a phenomenal teacher.”

BRIFT is a 501c3 and currently undergoing a major building fundraising campaign for a new home at the Burt Reynolds Park in Jupiter. For information, please call (561) 743-9955 or visit www.BRIFT.org

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The clock was pushing midnight when Reynolds, once again, took the stage. “I remember a director putting his arm around me and saying I’ve got to tell you something. I thought well this is it, I’ve been waiting 30 years for a director to put his arm around me and tell me the secret of life or what it is that I’ve got to do to make the scene work.” They had been shooting on location, he told the students, and the long day—like the class—was drawing to an end.

“He said, ‘The sun’s going down, we’re losing this location, give me a good one.’

“You know what,” Reynolds says, savoring the memory. “I did.

I gave him the best one I could.”

Reynolds apparently has no plans to retire. Ever. “My parents, God love ‘em, always had the ranch,” he says. “I really believe it had something to do with why they got to be 90. They both felt like they had a job to do and they had to get up in the morning to do it. When that stops I think you’ve got nothing to wake up for. Maybe that’s part of what I’m doing. I’m scared to stop.”

Besides, as he says, “I really think my best work is ahead of me.”

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&

BURT REYNOLDS:

Did you always want to be an actor?

I had no interest in the theater; that was a total accident. I was recovering from a really bad knee operation; the reality that I wasn’t going to play football again hadn’t set in yet. I was picking up some credits at the junior college [Palm Beach Junior College] and I had this English literature class. I sat, like all football players, in the last row. I had this amazing teacher; his name was Watson B. Duncan III and he truly changed my life. I slowly moved from the back row to the front row. One day, I was sitting in the front row and he said, “We’re having readings for the play.” I said, “What play?”

What is the key to your success?

It is luck — no really good actor won’t admit that—and I have been incredibly lucky. As corny as it might sound, that’s truly what teaching is about, passing it on in some way.

Would you consider yourself an overachiever?

I certainly was an overachiever as an athlete. I had more heart than ability. In football you could get away with it. Baseball and basketball are skill sports; football is all about getting knocked down and getting up. I suppose I had a lot of anger in me, too. I needed to put it somewhere. You can do that in football. I loved the sport.

You obviously take great pride in your students, both past and present. Have any of them gone on to successful careers in the industry?

It’s amazing. We’ve had four or five kids on Broadway. We had one young man, Tommy Thompson, who wrote and produced Quantum Leap. Another young lady, Lisa Soland, is an awardwinning playwright. Mark Fauser has a great theater in the Midwest. The list goes on and on.

S. Niedland

Why did you decide to base the new Burt Reynolds Institute for Film and Theatre in Palm Beach County?

I wanted to give something back. Whatever success I had, I wanted to share it. I always felt a tremendous affection for this area; it’s a magical, wonderful place. The world of film and the theater is a magical place, too, a place where you go and can forget your troubles for a couple of hours.

What advice would you give someone who is considering a career in acting?

I think you have to commit to being a little ridiculous and not to be embarrassed by it. You have to be prepared to make a fool of yourself. You have to have a sense of silly. I think you have to hold on to the spirit of a child. If you can hold onto it, then it will help you. We shouldn’t put all of our toys away. If you’re going to be an actor you have to believe in things that are not there.

Are there still acting challenges you would like to tackle?

I want to do something that’s kind of a surprise to everybody; I’d like to do something that’s quite wordy. I certainly am not going to try to do Shakespeare — the English eat our lunch at it but they can’t do Tennessee Williams and we can. I’d like to do something that Mr. [James] Cagney would be really proud of, something my age that has a little grit to it and hopefully some humor, something that would allow me to stretch some muscles that I haven’t used as an actor. Someday, somebody’s going to offer me something that’s going to scare the hell out of me. That’s the part I should play. Cagney was fearless and that’s what I’d like to be.

How did you wind up with a dog named Precious?

She was named by the wonderful people at Safe Harbor Animal Sanctuary, where I adopted her. It’s not a name I would have considered on my own, but after spending time with her it was so fitting that I could not change it. Precious—“Of such great value that a suitable price is hard to estimate.” Seems like a perfect name for a beautiful lady.

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our generous major donors to the campaign Marta Batmasian Bruce A. Beal and Francis V. Cunningham John and Rena Blades Christopher D. Caneles and Stephen Nesbitt Cecile Draime Alex and Renate Dreyfoos The GE Foundation Craig and Merrell Grant Estate of Nancy Grayson Roe Green Foundation Herbert and Diane Hoffman Irene and James Karp Berton E. and Sallie G. Korman Maltz Family Foundation Sydelle Meyer Montgomery Family Northern Trust PNC Bank Lawrence A. Sanders Foundation Jean S. and Frederick A. Sharf Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency

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Stories to Tell: The Remarkable History of 601 Lake Avenue, Lake Worth

By Leon M. Rubin

When The Palm Beach Post announced on July 1, 1939, that a new theater would soon be constructed in downtown Lake Worth, it stated that the owners planned to make the 1,000-seat house “one of the finest in South Florida.” The announcement heralded the arrival of a structure that – seven decades later – is once again making news.

From its origins as the Lake Theatre to its newest incarnation as the Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. Building – the exciting new, permanent home of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council − this architecturally significant Streamline Moderne building has featured a storyline with as many twists and turns as the plots of the some of the films that once were shown on its silver screen.

That 1939 front page Post story about the new theater − to be built by Florida Theatres Inc., operator of 110 theaters in the state – projected that the cost of the structure and its equipment would be approximately $75,000.

“The new theater will be of the most modern design…and it has been especially designed to embody the latest features of sound and moving picture projection,” the article said. “There will be 800 seats in the orchestra section with an additional 200 seats in a special loge balcony above the theater doors. All seats will be of the newest deluxe spring edge type with deep upholstery.”

Architecturally, the theater would reflect the

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popular influences of the day: “The structure…will have a front of modernistic design trimmed with stone, glass and stucco and will be ornamented with sidewalk marquise of porcelain enamel and stainless steel. The entrance foyer will be heavily carpeted and the walls will be treated in the latest wall design.”

It was also noted that “careful study has been given to ventilation…so that the theater will be properly ventilated and cooled to the satisfaction of patrons.” The building was designed by well known Florida architect Roy A. Benjamin, who had a number of other theaters in the Southeast to his credit, including the strikingly similar San Marco Theatre in Jacksonville.

Construction was slated to begin in August with completion scheduled in time to “afford the public of Lake Worth the benefit of the new theater before the winter season.”

A PROUD OPENING The new Lake Theatre opened on February 29, 1940; the fact that it was Leap Day likely made it all the more special. Mayor Grady Brantley called it “something for Lake Worth to be proud of.” The Lake Worth Herald said it was “hailed as Palm Beach County’s most modern movie palace.” It was reported that telegrams were read from such Hollywood luminaries as Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power, Mickey Rooney, Don Ameche, Fred MacMurray, Bob Hope, Shirley Temple, Bing Crosby, Alice Faye, Clark Gable, Jack Benny and Linda Darnell. The first feature was Little Old New York, starring Faye and MacMurray. “A throng of moviegoers had crowded about the box office and formed a long line along Lake Avenue,” The Herald reported.

In its heyday, the Lake was considered the city’s predominant theater. It showed first-run films and did its part to support the war effort – hosting benefits for the USO and offering free admission for purchasers of war bonds. The theater had another

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direct connection to the war, albeit a sad one. Alexander R. “Sandy” Nininger, Jr., a 1941 graduate of West Point and the son of the Lake’s second manager, was killed in action in the Philippines during a heroic effort to capture an enemy position.

He was posthumously awarded the first Congressional Medal of Honor of World War II. As time went on, the theater filled numerous entertainment needs for the community. It screened re-releases of Hollywood classics and later offered Summertime Fun Shows for kids that cost just 50 cents – or 10 RC Cola bottle caps with a newspaper coupon.

By the early 1970s, however, as suburban multi-screen theaters with plentiful parking began to proliferate, the Lake Theatre could no longer sustain itself. It finally went dark after a June 16, 1974, showing of Disney’s Robin Hood. Employees gave the once-glorious movie palace a rather checkered send-off with an after-hours party where they drank beer and threw crushed ice snowballs at the screen.

TRYING AND FAILING Several attempts were made to give the theater new life, but each was relatively short-lived.

In November 1975, the Pasta Palace opened in the building with a menu featuring “29 complete dinners priced under $5” and free movie screenings. There was an Italian delicatessen in the lobby where patrons could “buy homemade noodles from our pasta machine.” The bar and lounge were located in front of the movie screen and the former loge seats were utilized as “special dining areas for more privacy,” The Lake Worth Herald reported. By February 1976, it had closed.

The building’s next occupant (from November 1976 until late 1978) was Horsefeathers – a restaurant that continued the practice of showing films while diners ate their meals on the former theater floor or, for larger groups, in the balcony. The décor featured movie stills, posters and memorabilia. After 10 p.m., according to an article in The Herald, “the ‘Boogie in the Balcony’ discotheque comes to life with lights flashing to the beat of disco music engineered by a professional disc jockey.”

After Horsefeathers closed, another disco – Kaleidoscope – took up residence. Opening on June 1, 1979, it was geared to 12- to 18-year-olds, who could “dance the night away with destiny” on South Florida’s largest dance floor with the “greatest super disco sound and light system in Florida.” Drinks were nonalcoholic, proper dress was required and parents were welcome.

Despite initial success, however, The Lake Worth Herald reported that, “Kaleidoscope quietly closed its doors in January 1980, leaving behind a long line of unpaid bills.”

July 1, 1939 – Palm Beach Post announces construction of the new theater

September 11, 1939 – building permitted for use as a theater

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February 29, 1940 – Lake Theatre opens with Little Old New York

December 31, 1946 – model/repair permit issued to the Warrick Estate

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LANNAN ERA BEGINS

November 8, 1954 – waiver requested to install sliding doors on alley

challenging idioms, such as bizarre sculptures and heavily colored canvases. The works are provocative and frequently surprising.”

While its primary focus was to exhibit Lannan’s remarkable collection, the Lannan Museum also became a venue for a wide array of cultural pursuits. Earlier in 1983, in fact, the Daily News reported that dancer Pamela DeFina was teaching the Isadora Duncan style of dance at the museum. In April, the Daily News noted that Gordon Getty’s song cycle The White Election, based on the poems of Emily Dickinson, had been performed there as part of the Palm Beach Festival. In October, pianist Shigeru Asano was scheduled to perform a concert at the museum to benefit the Palm Beach County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

On September 25, 1983, Lannan died unexpectedly of heart failure in New York at age 78. In 1986, the Lannan Foundation received a substantial endowment from (his) estate. It continued to expand the collection, but eventually the board chose to relocate the foundation’s headquarters from Lake Worth to Los Angeles.

According to the August 12, 1988, edition of the Miami Herald, “The Lannan Museum in Lake Worth, home of one of the most important modern art collections in America today, will cease to exist.” The next chapter in the old Lake Theatre’s history was about to begin.

PBCC TAKES THE REINS According to the Lannan Foundation’s website, “The Lannan Museum in Lake Worth was donated to Palm Beach Community College (PBCC). In addition, the foundation donated a collection of more than 1,000 American craft objects, approximately 20

Barry Kinsella

Later in 1980, J. Patrick Lannan, Sr., a well-known financier, entrepreneur and part-time Palm Beach resident, would take steps to breathe new life into the former theater – although with a radically different purpose. He purchased the building to house his extensive and acclaimed collection of contemporary and modern American and European art. “Architect Mark Hampton of Miami spent about a year and a half, under Lannan’s direction, renovating the building for the collection,” The Lake Worth Herald reported. “Multilevel floors, nearly hidden alcoves and the old theater balcony all add to the building’s new character.”

The former Lake Theatre appealed to Lannan on several levels. “Mr. Lannan really liked this community and the feel of the area,” said Nancy Mato, who was then curator of the museum, in The Herald. “The area is quiet and it is not overdeveloped and this particular building has phenomenal space for this sort of art because of the ceiling height.”

Furthermore, she added, Lannan was “saving a marvelously constructed building.” (Nancy Mato is now executive vice president and curator of the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach.)

The February 7, 1983, edition of the Palm Beach Daily News noted that, “The official celebration of the opening of the Lannan Foundation Museum in Lake Worth, which will benefit the Palm Beach Festival (a multidisciplinary arts festival of the day), will take place at 7 p.m. March 6.” Tickets for the “world premiere” cost $125. The event was slated to begin with tours of the collection, champagne and seafood cocktails. “A formal dinner will follow and chairmen of the event, Mrs. Robert Dodge, Mrs. J. Bradford Greer, Mrs. Lee Olsen and Mrs. Jim Lyons are planning a gourmet repast.”

The Lannan Foundation Museum hosted the gala opening.

“This is the greatest place in the world for contemporary art,” said Richard Madigan, director of the Norton Gallery of Art, as quoted in the Daily News. “He is such a brilliant and creative man.”

Donald Miller, in a 1983 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, wrote, “When Lannan’s collection was shown to the public in his home, it was written about in magazines. One of the collection’s most unusual aspects was the display of large abstract paintings flat on ceilings.” According to the Lannan Foundation, “Included in his collection were important early works by emerging artists who went on to develop international reputations.”

Miller went on to say, “The new installation…takes advantage of the existing building elements with a series of carpeted levels, half-walls and mezzanines. Two paintings are affixed to the ceiling.”

It was noted that 400 works, “which are one-tenth of the art (Lannan) owns,” were on view. “Lannan has an eye for both delicacy, as seen in fine drawings, glass and ceramics, and strongly

View of part of the Lannan Foundation Collection in Lake Worth, circa 1985

November 1975 – Pasta Palace opens

June 16, 1974 – Lake Theatre Closes with Robin Hood

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works of kinetic art dating from the 1960s and 1970s and a Tom Otterness frieze, Battle of the Sexes, which had been commissioned especially for the building.”

As fundraising to support the transition began, the college clearly stated its intentions for the building.

“We’re going to keep the standards set by the Lannan,” said Reuben Hale, chairman of the PBCC Humanities Division, in a Palm Beach Post story by Gary Schwan.

“It’s going to be a showplace for pertinent, important art.”

In February 1991, Skip Sheffield wrote in the Boca Raton News, “The building is still the same: a striking ‘art moderne’ structure that opened as the Lake Theatre, but the landmark edifice at 601 Lake Ave., Lake Worth, is now known as the Palm Beach Community College Museum of Art.” It had been closed for a year and a half to allow for the transition, he continued. Museum Director Kip Eagen, who had come from the University of Cincinnati, “has hired a receptionist who greets one and all. He has also created a permanent education center, where visitors can learn more about the artists through written materials and video tapes.”

The new musuem’s first exhibition featured paintings by five emerging or mid-career artists – Charles Clough, Judy Ledgerwood, Dennis Ashbaugh, David Mann and Peter Hopkins, The Palm Beach Post reported. Said Eagen, “We want a dynamic museum, not a didactic one that bangs people over the head. I view this museum as a laboratory. The college has a chemistry lab and a biology lab. This museum will be the visual arts lab – a place where new ideas in the visual arts are experimented with.”

In 1999, the building would change hands once again. “The Palm Beach Community College Foundation board recently voted to sell its Museum of Contemporary Art in Lake Worth, Fla., to local philanthropists and museum trustees Robert and Mary Montgomery for $500,000,” Art in America reported in its June edition. “The Montgomerys will receive both the building and the entire contents of the museum, which includes some 1,200 glass, ceramic and kinetic sculptures by artists such as Dale Chihuly, Len Lye, Peter Voulkos, Beatrice Wood and Viola Frey.” Bob

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Montgomery had been the chair of the PBCC Foundation board when it acquired the building and recognized its promise.

After purchasing the building and the art it housed, Robert and Mary Montgomery moved forward with the creation of a new entity, the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art. According to its website, “The PBICA was founded on the premise that contemporary art is a vital means of understanding ourselves and our culture. Artists have often been called the prophets of our time and we believe it is the artist’s voice that can speak most eloquently to our minds and our hearts. PBICA is intended as a place of pleasure and significance, a place where large questions are posed and investigated. It is a venue for major national and international art in all media and a meeting ground for the diverse populations who live in and visit the Palm Beach region.”

PBICA was fresh, popular and exciting. In 2002, readers of New Times named it the “Best Museum in Palm Beach.” The publication wrote, “PBICA has quickly established itself as an institution willing to take enormous risks. Among the highlights: a New Media Lounge and two inaugural shows in 2000 − a landmark examination of film and video as art and a provocative exhibition that wrenched design elements from their context and repositioned them as art; and last year’s large group show of artists from Brooklyn.”

Writing in New Times, Michael Mills said that PBICA “promises to showcase the sort of cutting-edge art not typically found north of the Miami-Dade County line.” He said Robert and Mary Montgomery had “sponsored a facelift on a scale that’s dramatic even by Palm Beach standards.” Visiting Curator Amy Cappellazzo, who assembled the inaugural exhibition – “Making Time: Considering Time as a Material in Contemporary Video & Film” − praised their commitment to media that challenge traditional assumptions about art, New Times reported. “Video art is now more than 30 years old, and people are still arguing about whether it is really art,” she said.

Despite such critical acclaim, it appeared that there was not enough local demand to support a full-time museum of contemporary art. In March 2005, Art in America wrote, “After a five-year run, the privately funded Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art will close its doors.”

Longtime Palm Beach Post art critic Gary Schwan lamented the closing. “Openings were crowded, and respectable numbers would turn out for lectures and such,” Schwan wrote. “Former PBICA Director Michael Rush brought some intriguing artists here. He also made a special effort to introduce the latest in video and computer art. The irony is that PBICA had a larger reputation in, say, New York than it did in its back yard.”

Sidney Brien, acting director of PBICA and a longtime adviser to Robert Montgomery, had the job of “closing the building in an elegant way,” Schwan wrote. “The future use of the building Continued on page 38

February 1976 – Pasta Palace closes

November 19, 1976 – Horsefeathers opens

Late 1978 – Horsefeathers closes

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‘A PLACE FOR ART’ Then, Now and in the Future

As it takes up residence in the Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. Building in downtown Lake Worth, the Palm Beach County Cultural Council finally has a home of its own more than three decades after its birth. From a practical as well as a psychological standpoint, this long-awaited move represents a monumental step forward.

“It is critically important for the umbrella organization for art and culture in Palm Beach County to have a hub,” says Board Chairman Michael J. Bracci. “The building will help people understand the importance of art and culture to our quality of life. It provides a place for the cultural community as well as our residents and visitors to gather and find information. It is also vitally important to the strategic goals of the Cultural Council. We couldn’t be more pleased.”

Finding a place for the Cultural Council to finally put down roots has been high on the agenda of Rena Blades, President and CEO, since she took the helm of the Council in 2004. “As an organization that is over three decades old, with a major impact in this region of the United States, this is a logical move to a permanent and more visible home,” Blades says.

Beyond the obvious advantage of owning (debt-free, no less), rather than renting Blades explains that the move to the new building will make it possible for the Cultural Council to expand its programming in a number of key ways: • Support for artists – “We have a history of helping artists, but this will exponentially grow our programs,” Blades observes. The building will include 2,500 square feet of exhibition space and also enable the Council to offer many more training and networking opportunities for local artists.

• Connections and capacity building – “For years, we’ve had to move our 70+ meetings and gatherings all over the county. We will still visit different parts of the county,” Blades says, “but by being centrally located it will be just as easy for someone to reach us from Boca, Belle Glade or Jupiter.”

• Promoting art and culture – “We will have an information center in the lobby dedicated to culture,” Blades points out.

“Residents and visitors can pick up literature, view our online cultural calendar and access a touchscreen powered by the Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau to search for cultural attractions and hotels.”

• Celebrating local culture – A store in the new building will be dedicated to Palm Beach County art and culture. “We’ll have objects made by our artists and craftspeople as well as proprietary materials from our museums,” Blades says. “It’s part of the Council’s mission to help artists be more successful as artists and entrepreneurs. This is a way to highlight their work.”

She envisions the store as a place where people can go to send a gift to friends out of state to show that they’re proud of Palm Beach County’s cultural treasures.

“The icing on the cake,” Blades says, “is that we are continuing in the footsteps of other visionaries who saw that this building could be a place for art. From its origins as a movie theater, to J. Patrick Lannan’s repurposing it for his collection, to its years as Palm Beach Community College’s Museum of Contemporary Art and the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art under Robert and Mary Montgomery’s leadership, this building has a remarkable past.

“We feel incredibly blessed with that history,” she continues, “and also an awesome sense of responsibility to continue such an impressive legacy of arts programming and visibility.”

For Mary Montgomery − who along with her family has made all of this possible by so generously donating the building to the Cultural Council – it is the right move at the right time. “As the new home of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council, the cultural heritage of this wonderful facility is certain to be preserved. I know that my husband would be incredibly pleased to know that our vision and the community’s vision will continue to be realized.”

Mary & Robert Montgomery

March 27, 1979 – change to “Dance Hall, Entertainment;” owned by Cracor Corp

June 1, 1979 – Kaleidoscope opens

January 1980 – Kaleidoscope closes

March 6, 1983 – Lannan Museum opens

J. Patrick Lannan in his house in Palm Beach, 1976

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is still up in the air, although Brien said some groups have expressed interest in using it for temporary art exhibitions.

Montgomery said he’s taking a wait-and-see attitude,” Schwan continued, quoting Montgomery as saying, “I’m not going to let somebody throw just anything in there. I’d want to see something commensurate” with cultural use.

THE NEWEST CHAPTER And so the former theater, museum, educational facility and performance venue once again stood shuttered. Still, hope remained that this storied facility would once again occupy a place of prominence in Palm Beach County’s cultural landscape.

Enter the Palm Beach County Cultural Council.

More than five years ago, the Cultural Council’s strategic plan articulated the importance of securing a new physical location for the organization to house its programs, which touch more than one million people annually through services to cultural organizations, artists, citizens and tourists. It was strongly felt that the Cultural Council should own, rather than rent, its building – and that it should be centrally located within the county.

In 2010, the pieces that would make this vision a reality fell into place. The city of Lake Worth – recognizing the power of the creative industries to inject energy and economic vitality into communities – had embarked on a Cultural Renaissance Program that focused on attracting artists, cultural centers and institutions. Its goal is no less than making Lake Worth the hub of Palm Beach County’s cultural scene. As part of this effort, the Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA)

March 4, 1989 – Lannan Museum closes

committed a substantial amount of money to the Cultural Council to help it renovate a building in downtown Lake Worth to serve as its headquarters.

Then, in a truly magnificent gesture, Mary Montgomery and the family of the late Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. donated the building at 601 Lake Ave. to the Cultural Council.

And so the remarkable story of this venerable landmark − which has played such diverse roles as movie theater, cuttingedge museum, Italian restaurant and even disco – continues to be written.

The Cultural Council has remade the building once again under the watchful eye of consulting architect Gene Lawrence, upon whose vision and artistic sense the Montgomerys relied when they transformed it into the PBICA. His primary contribution, among many others, is the glass entrance that so warmly welcomes everyone to the building. Equally important to the process is Rick Gonzalez of REG Architects, who has overseen the extensive interior renovations in preparation for the Cultural Council’s move.

Still, as befits a building with such a rich history, there are echoes of the past: The Battle of the Sexes continues to be waged in the Tom Otterness frieze that J. Patrick Lannan, Sr. commissioned for the lobby three decades ago.

As the Palm Beach County Cultural Council takes up residence, an exciting new chapter begins – one that will assuredly preserve and honor the legacy of the old Lake Theatre for many years to come.

Writers (and former Lake Theatre patrons) Don Vaughan and Bill McGoun contributed to this article.

July 1, 1999 – PBCC Art Museum closes

January 18, 1991 – PBCC Art Museum opens

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A Peek Inside the Lake Theatre from Two Who Were There

For kids growing up in Lake Worth during the years it was open, the old Lake Theatre was a familiar fixture.

“As a child I saw numerous movies at the Lake, though I would be hard-pressed now to recite specific titles,” writes Don Vaughan, a former reporter for The Lake Worth Herald and occasional contributor to art&culture.

“What I recall more vividly are the sights and smells of the movie-going experience. For example, I was entranced by the neon-illuminated Weeki Wachee Springs clock in the lobby and the ancient vending machine that dispensed iced soft drinks in paper cups.

The Lake Theatre was part of Wometco Enterprises (which also owned the Miami Seaquarium, in addition to several movie houses) so practically everything in it had some kind of Florida theme. The kiddie drinks, for instance, came in large plastic oranges with green lids and white plastic straws.

Inevitably, the empty containers would get loose from their owners and roll like miniature cannonballs beneath the rows of seats until they came to rest at the very front of the theater.

“When I turned 15, I went from customer to employee, accepting a part-time job at the Lake as an usher for $1 an hour and all the popcorn and RC Cola I could consume. The job required that I wear a tie, which I wasn’t keen on, but working in an air conditioned theater beat the heck out of mowing lawns in the brutal Florida heat. And as an employee, I also got to come in any time on my days off and watch movies for free, high up in the then-blocked off balcony. A lot of these movies contained nudity and adult themes that were a real eye-opener for this shy, yet-to-be-kissed 15-year-old, a bonus that helped compensate for the lousy pay.”

Another long-time patron was Bill McGoun, a retired Palm Beach Post columnist and historian. “During the years immediately following World War II, I spent many an evening in the Lake Theatre with my parents,” McGoun writes. “It was my introduction to the silver screen.

I remember Captain from Castile, A Night in Casablanca and my all-time favorite, The Three Caballeros. My father finally dragged me out of the theater after I had watched it for the fourth time in two days.

“Films ran continuously in those days, which is how I got to watch The Three Caballeros more than once for the 14 cents it cost a child (up from 10 cents in 1940). People would come in and go out in the middle of features. One story was told of a child, leaving Snow White at the point where he had come in, turning toward the screen and saying, ‘If she eats that apple again, she’s really stupid.’

“I can still sing the title song from The Three Caballeros, more or less, if anyone asks. So far, no one has.”

March 26, 2005 – PBICA Closes

January 2012 – PBCCC opens

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Milton Maltz: Mission Possible

by Hillary Hunter

When I first had the pleasure of meeting Milton Maltz at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, there happened to be a rehearsal going on for an upcoming performance of Man of La Mancha.

An enthusiastic Milton and Tamar Maltz were eager to meet the cast. Not to shake hands and get autographs, but to thank the talented performers for their hard work and dedication. Milton briefly explained to the entire cast that he and his amazing team at the Maltz Theatre had worked for over five years to rebuild the theatre’s esteemed character in the community, and they achieved their goal with the help of casts such as Man of La Mancha. Peter Flynn, the director of the show, graciously thanked Milton for his words of wisdom, leaving the impression that it is not every day the chairman of the theatre drops by to say thank you to the entire cast. Milton then turned to his wife Tamar and said, “The whole reason I’m here is because of this lady.”

When it comes to artistic endeavors, one is just not enough for Milton Maltz. Not only is Milton the chair of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, he also founded the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage and was a founding member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, both in Cleveland, Ohio. He is also a founder of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. What makes him stand out in the world of philanthropy is more than the amount of money he graciously donates to various organizations––it’s the time and care he puts into each endeavor.

“The extraordinary thing about Milton is that he is hands-on in his philanthropic activities with several cultural organizations,” says Rena Blades, president and CEO of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council, where Milton sits on the board. “I cannot think of another man who is involved in so many organizations in this way except perhaps some of the Gilded Age leaders such as Andrew Carnegie and Henry Frick,” she adds.

“Supporting an organization is more than just writing a check and saying you’ve done your fair share,” Milton explains. Whether he is at his home in Cleveland or Palm Beach Gardens, Milton is

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always on the go. He attends board meetings, hires staff and is an active participant in strategizing for upcoming performances and exhibits at many of the organizations he founded. “Not only do they [Milton and Tamar] support this organization financially, but they bring their creativity and imagination to inspire fellow board members and staff,” says Andrew Kato, artistic director of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre who also earned an Emmy award for his work as a creative consultant and coordinating producer of the 2004 Tony Awards. “They are never short of great ideas!”

Milton Maltz was born in South Bend, Indiana, raised in Chicago and earned a broadcast journalism degree from the University of Illinois. While directing a radio drama, a stunning young woman named Tamar auditioned for a part in his production. “She didn’t get the part and was upset, so I told her maybe I could help her for future work,” Maltz says. “We had our first date after that and so it began.” The couple was married in 1951 and has three children.

In 1953, the Korean War was raging and Milton enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve. One day his lieutenant gave the entire divi-

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Photo: Barry Kinsella

sion a test that Milton passed with flying colors. But this wasn’t an ordinary test. Out of 40 test takers, Milton was the only man called to active duty.

It turns out Milton was being prepared to go to Washington, D.C., to work with the National Security Agency (NSA). While with the NSA, Milton still had a passion for broadcasting. After working all day, Milton would change out of his uniform piece by piece at every stoplight so that when he arrived at the broadcast studio he appeared to be a civilian. “I was GI daytime and DJ nighttime,” Milton jokes.

Following the war, Milton went back to being a full-time disc jockey and Tamar was a schoolteacher. In 1956, after saving a few thousand dollars, Milton and his business partner, Bob Wright, bought their first radio station for $6,500 in the tiny town of Plymouth, Wisconsin. Eventually Milton and Bob formed Malrite Communications, with Bob in charge of sales while Milton was the program director and on-air talent. Malrite grew into one of the largest and most successful communications conglomerates, owning numerous radio and television stations across the United States.

After splitting the company into radio and television divisions, Milton sold the radio group and then built up his television stations to include Channel 29, the local FOX affiliate, which brought the Maltz family to South Florida in 1980.

MALTZ JUPITER THEATRE Just three years old, the thriving Maltz Jupiter Theatre was recently nominated for 13 Carbonell Awards. The theatre’s production of The Tin Pan Alley Rag received 10 nominations, while Guys and Dolls landed three nominations. The Carbonell Awards are considered the Tony Awards for South Florida professional theatre companies. (The 31st annual awards ceremony is scheduled for April 9 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.)

“This vote of confidence from the Carbonell nominators clearly shows that the theatre is here to stay. Recognition by this important group confirms that the Jupiter Theatre has taken its place as a major factor in the South Florida theatre scene,” Milton says. Not bad for a theatre that was nearly out of commission in the late 1990s.

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The Maltz Jupiter Theatre was originally the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre, which opened its doors in 1978. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Reynolds ran the successful theatre. From the late 1990s until 2001, several different operators ran the building with the same dinner theatre setup.

In 2001, the building was acquired by Palm Beach Playhouse, Inc., a local nonprofit that launched a successful capital campaign to renovate the theatre. With the help of many people, the 28,000-square-foot, 554-seat reconfigured theatre opened on February 29, 2004, and was re-named the Maltz Jupiter Theatre as a tribute to its major benefactors, Milton and Tamar Maltz.

In addition to all of the accolades for the theatre’s performances, it is also known for its focus on bringing live theatre to children and practices the philosophy to educate, inspire and entertain. “In the early days of the theatre’s renovation, Mr. and Mrs. Maltz recognized the importance of creating a place where art and education could be created and nurtured, and put their own time, talent and money to make sure it was realized,” according to Kato.

In 2005, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre Institute was launched, offering musical theatre, acting and dance classes at the theatre and outreach programming at local schools and community and civic events. The Maltz family believes that it is the community’s responsibility to give children artistic opportunities. “Not every youngster can play sports,” Milton says.

“Although sports are good for building confidence and for learning how to work on a team, but what if a kid isn’t athletic? Our theatre helps children develop a sense of confidence as well as teaches the importance of teamwork.”

EDUCATING GENERATIONS When Tamar and Milton Maltz are not building museums, running Malrite Communications or spending time with family,

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you will likely find them at Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Lifelong Learning Society, taking courses on topics ranging from radical Islam to modern art and astronomy. “I don’t think life ends at any given age,” Milton explains. “The only way to stay young is to keep your mind alert, and what better way than to be exposed to some of the outstanding minds we have right now in the community in Palm Beach County.”

In August 2005, FAU’s Jupiter campus opened the Lifelong Learning Society’s Tamar and Milton Maltz Center for Education. The state-of-the-art lecture auditorium offers adults the opportunity to attend university-level courses as well as concerts and affordable programming. Led by René Friedman, the society began with a few hundred students and they anticipate over 14,000 enrollments this year.

“It’s just a phenomenal opportunity for adults to be able to take these courses in their own backyard, and hats off to FAU and particularly to René Friedman for spearheading this entire project,” Milton says.

Like all of the Maltz family projects, Milton was involved in the creation of the auditorium and worked closely with Friedman. “They are the most delightful people to work with and they still come to programs and want little recognition for their major contributions to FAU,” Friedman says.

Milton is not inclined to take all the credit for his vast participation in the Palm Beach County cultural community. “I guess I’m the ignition that turns it on, that gives them the vision of where I want to go, but then I’m open to changes,” Milton explains. “I’ve got a great team of people, an outstanding staff. None of these projects can be done alone.” Milton attributes his leap into the world of developing museums, theatres and education projects to his wife.

“Believe it or not, I actually do listen to her,”

International Spy Museum The International Spy Museum is the only public museum in the United States solely dedicated to the tradecraft, history and contemporary role of espionage. Development began in 1996 and the doors opened in July 2006. “Going to the Spy Museum is different than visiting a regular museum––it’s an experience,” Milton explains. The modern museum is located in five old office buildings in Penn Quarter in Washington, D.C. The buildings had lapsed into terrible disrepute and the block became an eyesore.

Milton took a risk in creating the museum, which has completely revitalized the block. There are now hotels on both sides of the museum and in less than a year it has become a top attraction in the United State’s capital city.

Visit www.spymuseum.org for more information.

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Why is the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, a community-based regional theatre, important for the Jupiter community?

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Well it’s more than just Jupiter people enjoying our theatre. Audiences come from as far north as Fort Pierce, and as far south as Fort Lauderdale.

A community isn’t just brick and mortar, shopping centers and highways. I believe that culture and the arts are the heartbeat of a community, and this theatre has focused attention on this important aspect of northern Palm Beach County.

You know it’s different when you’re alone watching a show on television, versus being in an audience where you feel you are part of something. Plus the theatre is an emersive tool for teaching and educating, opening up people’s minds to other cultures and great writers.

We need time occasionally to pause and think. The theatre gives us an opportunity to sit back and not only be entertained, but it helps us to think and use our imagination.

What makes the Maltz Jupiter Theatre unique?

We are a producing theatre. We are not merely taking shows on tour and renting space at the theatre. We have our own actors and producers. In the last show, Deathtrap, which got rave reviews, the talent were all regional actors from southern Florida. However, we also go to New York to audition.

It’s a great mix of outstanding talent. We do give local talent as much opportunity as we possibly can but with the same token, quality cannot suffer. The sets are made locally, and so are the costumes and wigs. So that is why we call this a producing theatre. There are many theatres that are just renting out space.

There is nothing wrong with that, but there is a difference.

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What do you think about people who don’t give back to the community?

It’s their loss. Look, none of us gets out of this world alive, do we? So while you’re here, do something that makes you feel that you’ve contributed to the next generation. Someone once said, “What if there was not a next generation and we could live forever.” And I said, then there wouldn’t be any new ideas.

Why do you keep giving?

Why not? Part of it has to do––believe it or not––with the Jewish religion in which the word tzedakah is used, which means philanthropy or charity. And there is a sense that you should always take some of your income and give back. Growing up in the midst of the Depression, even though we were not ultra-religious, my father had a charity box and said, “Throw in your pennies.” It’s a nice way to live.

I feel all of us in this country are basically good people, and it’s up to us, the leaders, to pass on that sense of giving––it’s the American way. Besides writing checks, we actually look at these various institutions to see what they need and what they contribute to society and make sure it is a worthwhile gift that is being used and cared for properly.

Why do you belong to the Palm Beach County Cultural Council?

Because they need support. They care for the community and the community must in turn care for the Cultural Council. From what I’ve seen over the last three years as a Cultural Council board member, there are good leaders in the council.

For more information on the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, visit www.jupitertheatre.org.

For more information on FAU’s Lifelong Learning Society, visit www.fau.edu.

Duane Long

Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s Youth Touring Company

René Friedman with Tamar and Milton Maltz at FAU’s Lifelong Learning Society’s Tamar and Milton Maltz Center for Education

Maltz Jupiter Theatre cast of the Carbonell-nominated Guys and Dolls

Milton Maltz interviewing Mrs. America

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UNDERWATER

BEAUTY TREASURES FROM OUR DEEP BLUE Photography by Tony Ludovico and Christopher Pulitzer Leidy

With 47 miles of pristine beaches, Palm Beach County has much to boast about. However, few of us have the opportunity to personally experience the natural beauty that's found beneath the waves or to meet our underwater friends and seasonal visitors first-hand. The following pages will introduce you to the remarkable world that lies just east of the surf through the lenses of two world-famous underwater photographers: Tony Ludovico and Christopher Pulitzer Leidy.

“Nature photography is a great challenge. There are unpredictable conditions of weather and the even more unpredictable behaviors of wildlife. On land, a photographer might spend months in search of the perfect shot. But underwater the challenges multiply exponentially. With no solid footing, you depend on luck and your own buoyancy to steady yourself as you set up for a shot. Then you have to make constant adjustments to light, which, by the way, changes by the second as the surface waves refract the sun. A good underwater photographer deals with extreme diving, currents, big animal behaviors, and the ever-present danger of working ten stories below the surface. It’s never easy, never routine. But, with patience and care, the end result can be stunning in ways almost impossible to imagine. The photographer’s lens can literally change human perception of a species – even one as great as a humpback whale. That’s what fulfills you and keeps you going back for more.”

— Wyland (An accomplished painter, sculptor, photographer, writer and scuba diver whose work captures the raw power and beauty of the undersea universe.)

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Photograph above and right page by Christopher Pulitzer Leidy

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“From sea to hammock to swamp, Florida is blessed with an abundance of beauty. These things which we erroneously call natural resources – sunlight, air, water and flora and fauna – must be embraced as essential and transubstantial facets of our own being to live on in future generations of all living things.”

— Mike Zewe Development Officer, Friends of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center

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Photograph by Tony Ludovico

“Florida’s sparkling waters have served as an inspiration for many great American poets, past and present, including Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens and Campbell McGrath.”

— Miles Coon Director of the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, which will be held Jan. 17 through 22 at Old School Square in Delray Beach

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Photograph by Tony Ludovico

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"In Palm Beach County, we live among the wetlands, perched between the lakes and the sea. Our waters are our playground, a source of wonder to cherish and to share." â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Daniel Bates Director of the Palm Beach County Environmental Enhancement and Restoration Division

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Photograph by Christopher Pulitzer Leidy

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Photograph by Tony Ludovico

“The abundance and diversity in our local waters of marine wildlife creates an underwater paradise. It is important that we conserve and preserve this precious resource for future generations.”

— Nanette Lawrenson President, Loggerhead Marinelife Center Foundation

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Photograph by Christopher Pulitzer Leidy

Tony Ludovico www.tonyludovico.com

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West Palm Beach Waterfront at Clematis Street

The

singular michael

Projected South Cove Ecological Regeneration

singer

By Jan Engoren

West Palm Beach Waterfront at Clematis Street

Alterra Institute for Environmental Research - Netherlands Top right photo: Rendering by Jason Bregman (for Michael Singer Studio) Top and bottom left photos: Robert Stevens; Bottom right photo: Edwin Walwisch

As a child, Vermont-based artist and designer Michael Singer wanted to be Thelonius Monk. His piano teacher took him to New York’s Greenwich Village to see Monk perform live. Once he heard the jazz virtuoso’s inimitable style, he realized there could only be one Thelonius Monk.

And thus began Singer’s illustrious career as a visual artist.

More than an artist, Singer is an environmental designer and architect who brings creative thinking and a vision of urban ecosustainable living environments to the public arena. An admirer of out-of-the-box thinking, Singer is always questioning the status quo. He contemplates, “What is the role of a visual artist in contemporary life?”

Singer is part of a movement called Regenerative Design, which goes beyond the green movement’s efforts at sustainability and looks to create not just efficient systems, but effective ones.

“I look for the relationship between the design and the natural world and interconnect the two,” says Singer, who served as the

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Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Arts at Florida Atlantic University from 2002 to 2006 and as a special consultant to the university’s dean of Arts and Humanities from 2006 to 2010. “We take sustainable to another level. My landscape designs incorporate environmental regeneration. My design philosophy helps our eco-systems grow and change in a positive way and promotes health and growth.”

Singer, a part-time resident of South Florida, worked handin-hand with West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel to re-envision the waterfront area at Clematis Street. The re-imagined waterfront, completed in February, includes a multi-use park, double-seated swings hanging from vine-covered pergolas, seven water gardens, piers, a “living” dock with live oyster beds that functions as a water-filtration system and a solar-paneled pavilion.

“The Florida environment is unique and presents special challenges: the prevailing easterly winds, the light, the lack of

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West Palm Beach Waterfront, Living Docks Photo: David Stansbury

elevation and the indigenous flora and fauna,” Singer says. He comprising 13 acres of grass, trails and palm trees, encourages converted the concrete roadway and seawall into a green, and reflects the natural Florida environment.

Singer’s biggest challenge? “Making people aware of Florida’s pedestrian-friendly, one-mile expanse of modern design bursting unique bio-diversity, the benefits of culturing native with indigenous flora, such as salt palmetto, begonias, plants, recycling water and learning to live in firecrackers, tabebuia, wild petunias, mangroves, Royal “I look for the harmony with nature.”

Poincianas, gumbo-limbos and 10 species of palms. relationship After three decades of accomplishments in “Michael has a unique ability to incorporate functionality, between the architecture, infrastructure, site-specific environmental health and aesthetics into design,” says installations, indoor and outdoor sculptures, public Frankel, who first met Singer in 2002 when he was working design and commissions and land-use planning in both the US with the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach on an the natural and Europe, does Singer have a favorite project? innovative design for Howard Park. As one of the first world and “Yes,” he says. “My favorite project is always my recipients of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council’s Artistinterconnect current project.” Currently, he is working with the in-Residence Grant, Singer brought new vision to the park, the two” architectural firm of Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., bringing new life to its relationship with the Armory and the assisting the City of Lake Worth to redesign its surrounding communities in the process.

“He transformed a mundane storm water project into a waterfront and take advantage of a $5 million grant from the county. beautiful, revitalized city park,” Frankel marvels. The park, The project will be completed in 2013.

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Richters

of Palm Beach

A Fascinating Tale of Entrepreneurism and South Florida History

By Fred Sharf

Behind the fashionable façade of the Richters store on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach lies more than 100 years of jewelry history. Stefan Richter, the fourth-generation proprietor, has saved letters, photos, advertisements and scrapbooks that document the rich and colorful saga of his family’s business.

The story begins in 1893 when Stefan’s great-grandfather, who lived in Baltimore, established himself as a dealer in diamonds and estate jewelry. His store was a wagon on which he traveled all over northern Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. His son Joseph A. Richter (1883-1965) – Stefan’s grandfather – joined his father early in the 20th century. When much of the city of Baltimore was destroyed by fire in 1904, Joe saw a business opportunity in the rebuilt downtown area. He opened a pawn shop on Market Street and successfully expanded the business.

On Christmas Day 1910, Joe married a Baltimore girl, Eva Bass.

(The Bass family would later make their mark in Miami; the Bass Museum and Joe’s Stone Crab Restaurant are present-day reminders of this remarkable family.)

The interior of the Richters store in 1970, which was located on the opposite side of the street from its current location.

Photo by Mort Kaye Palm Beach

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Joe (left) and Alvin (center) at the Robert Richter Hotel opening in 1944

Daniel Richter in front of the first store on Worth Avenue

When World War I broke out in August 1914, Joe foresaw a new business opportunity evolving in the nearby city of Newport News, Va., home of the world’s largest shipbuilding company.

Within a few years the city was booming, and Joe opened a retail store in downtown Newport News in 1917.

With the end of war in 1918, and the advent of Prohibition in 1919, Joe once again had his eyes open for a new business opportunity. In 1921, Miami began to prosper. New money poured in to buy land; fortunes were being made from bootlegging. In 1923, Joe and Eva moved to Miami. Joe leased premises in the downtown Halcyon Arcade and opened a pawn shop. He rapidly established a reputation as a shrewd buyer of estate jewelry and a leading diamond broker.

Joe built a house in Miami, became a prominent member of the Jewish business community and supported the reform synagogue, Temple Israel. His family, three sons (Alvin, Robert, Daniel) and one daughter (Shirley) were raised in Miami.

Joe’s business prospered during the boom years of the 1920s, as many customers looked to him for expensive diamond pieces.

One prominent customer spent $500,000 with Joe over the two winter seasons of 1927 and 1928. When the stock market crashed in October 1929, Joe was able to buy back important jewelry at a fraction of its former value. He moved to larger premises and, in

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1940 World’s Fair-New York Jeweled Elephant

1933, advertised that his store at 168 East Flagler sold sterling silver, jade and precious stones in all sizes as well as diamonds and estate jewelry.

Joe assembled such a large inventory of valuable jewelry that he began to operate on a national level. His pieces were sent on tour to stores in Louisiana, Texas and various American cities; advertisements heralded the one-week display of $1 million in jewels from “the famous collection of J. A. Richter.”

In 1936, a syndicate headed by the well-known New York City jewelry manufacturer Oscar Heyman bought the so-called “Crown of the Andes” (a gold crown made in Peru in the 16th century which was encrusted with large emeralds). Joe became involved with its national tour in 1937; his Miami store was one of the venues.

Joe was a colorful personality; newspaperman Damon Runyon came to Miami to interview him in 1937 and characterized him as ”voluble, and friendly, and wore loud clothes, and had a sporting disposition, and the folks liked him.“ He was a small man (5’ 4”) who loved going to the dog track and the horse racing tracks around Miami. Runyon‘s article was featured in newspapers all over the United States.

In 1939, the Miami newspapers featured stories about Joe’s decision to once again expand his business. He purchased a 99-year lease on a double lot on East Flagler, tore down the

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The Miami store, circa 1965

existing buildings and constructed a new store. The local media valued this real estate transaction at more than $1 million. By this time his two oldest sons, Alvin and Robert, had joined him in the business.

Joe commissioned the New York firm of Oscar Heyman to create a fabulous jeweled elephant for a customer, the Maharajah of Mayapore, in 1940. When the client died before taking possession, Joe loaned the elephant for display at the Florida Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair. Ultimately he became so fond of it that he kept it for display in the store, where it became the signature item of the Richter business. Every morning it was taken from the safe and carefully placed in the store window.

In February 1941, Robert was drafted as a private in the United States Army. When war with Japan was declared in December 1941, Robert’s infantry regiment was sent to the South Pacific, where he fought at Guadalcanal and Bougainville. By 1943, Alvin and Daniel were in the Navy.

With his three sons in the military, Joe became a prominent supporter for the various War Bond drives in Miami. For Memorial Day in 1944, Joe’s support enabled Miami Beach to dedicate a temporary War Memorial in Bayfront Park. In the fall, Joe commissioned an American Flag brooch from Oscar Heyman (28 diamonds, 29 rubies, 6 sapphires) and sent it to Franklin Delano Roosevelt to wear at his inauguration in 1945.

When Robert went off to war in 1941, he had told Joe that upon his return he wanted to own and run a hotel. On March 26, 1944, the Miami newspapers reported that Joe had bought the famous Miami Beach landmark Whitman Hotel. Joe paid $1 million for this hotel, which was designed by a prominent Miami architect (Roy F. France). It had opened in 1936 with a prominent sign that read, “Gentiles Only.” Joe intended to remodel the hotel for Robert after the war; in the meantime it was leased to the Army Air Force.

On February 7, 1945, Lt. Robert Richter was killed in combat in the Philippines, leading his men into battle. Joe was devastated.

After the Army returned the Whitman Hotel to Joe; he proceeded with the renovations, exactly as he had planned. The hotel reopened on January 1, 1946, with a new name – the Robert Richter Hotel – and without the offensive ”Gentiles Only“ sign.

Joe was an important businessman in Post-war Miami, with extensive real estate holdings and a successful jewelry business.

His sons Alvin and Daniel were active in the jewelry business and prominent fixtures in the social life of the city.

When the wealthy Princess Eristavi-Tchicherine died of a drug overdose at her Miami estate in December 1948, Joe purchased her fabulous jewels and gave them a catchy name – “The Princess Collection.” He negotiated with the Aga Khan to sell him a ring,

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Joe Richter (on right) was a prominent supporter of War Bonds

which Joe thought would be appropriate for the Aga’s daughterin-law, Rita Hayworth. This sale failed to materialize, so he gave Movietone Motion Picture Company the right to film the collection, and the resulting film ran in movie houses all over the country.

Joe was always in the news. In 1949, he succeeded in getting the Miami Beach City Council to ban signs such as “Gentiles Only” on all beach hotels. He began to place ads for his jewelry business in national magazines, such as Harper’s Bazaar. His grandson Rickey was kidnapped in 1952 and, while the boy never suffered any harm, the story made headlines in Miami for months.

In 1953, Joe acquired another collection of fabulous estate jewelry − this time from the estate of the Fort Worth oil millionaire George Calvert, who had been one of his largest customers in the 1940s. He also bought the entire inventory of a large New York jewelry manufacturer, Gustav Bolean & Co.

In 1955, he added to his real estate holdings by purchasing a 2,000-acre cattle ranch seven miles south of Lake Okeechobee, which he promptly named the Robert Richter Ranch. At the age of 72 he learned how to ride a horse!

To orchestrate his retirement in 1958, Joe hired a public relations firm. They planned a Founder’s Day Sale at which $3 million in merchandise would be offered at sale prices. His official retirement date was set in March 1958, but Joe actually kept on working for another 60 days. Miami newspapers refused to cover the March events, advising the PR firm that there would be no coverage until he actually retired.

In 1962, Joe bought back the jewels that he had sold to Mrs. Harriet Young. As usual, he was able to create a media buzz over his purchase. Carol Channing was photographed wearing some of the jewelry from the Young estate. In April, his son Alvin appeared on the popular TV game show, “Play Your Hunch” – he was the mystery guest who was a famous jeweler, and he displayed the Young jewels. Later that year, Joe mounted a national ad campaign to promote the collection.

Joseph A. Richter passed away on June 6, 1965. His sons Alvin and Daniel continued to run the business much as Joe had always done – buying important estates. But they could see that the sun was setting on Miami, and in 1969 they acquired the lease on a Worth Avenue location in Palm Beach. Daniel moved to Palm Beach, while Alvin remained in Miami but closed the store there in 1972.

Today, Joe’s legacy lives on in Stefan’s store on Worth Avenue – and would likely make him proud. As one local designer has been quoted as saying, “If all the lights went out on Worth Avenue, the jewelry in the front window of Richters would still light up the street.”

It is worth noting that Stefan’s daughter Sarah spent the summer of 2009 as an intern in the jewelry department of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Perhaps she will become the fifth generation of Richters to be a retail jeweler.

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the

goes on

By Thom Smith Photgraphy by Michael Price

Before horns, long before strings, long before reeds, when early man wanted to make an impression, he picked up a stick and pounded on a log.

Little has changed. Today, the sticks are buffed and balanced; the logs, now polished and glittery, have skins stretched over them and hang from monstrous scaffolds. They still make sounds, basic sounds – thunks, taps, chinks, bops, bongs, boinks, clops, booms – and in the right hands, the simple collision of stick against log creates magic.

For half a century Don Brewer, Nicko McBrain, Tico Torres and Butch Trucks have made impressions with some of the most influential bands in rock ‘n’ roll. Now they enjoy the fruits of their labors in Palm Beach County. They have no plans to stop but they did take a break, just long enough to get together for a chat with art&culture.

“There’s no talent here; we’re drummers,” teases Palm Beacher Trucks, as the four talk about drumming at BB King’s Blues Club in West Palm Beach. “Talent is the guitar players and singers; just ask ‘em. We’re the guys who hang out with the musicians.”

Trucks, a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band, adds, “We’re the heart, the central nervous system of the band.

Left to right: "Butch" Trucks, "Tico" Torres, "Nicko" McBrain and Don Brewer

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Band: Bon Jovi Age: 58 Birthplace: New York (parents emigrated from Cuba in 1948) Residence: Jupiter

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Torres

Name: Hector Juan Samuel “Tico” Torres

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Family: Wife Maria, one son How long in Palm Beach County: 16 years

Why Palm Beach County: Tico had an art show at a Palm Beach gallery in September 1995 and was invited to the opening of Mar-a-Lago that December. His flight was delayed because of snow and it was freezing. The sun and palms on Royal Poinciana were convincing.

Other: Tico also is an artist and has developed Rock Star Baby, a line of fashions for infants.

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And we’re the luckiest people in the world, to have been able to make a living making music.”

Between them, the quartet of drummers and the bands they played for have cranked out enough hits to stock a record store.

Brewer formed Grand Funk in Detroit in 1969. In 1970 the group sold more albums than any other American band with hits like We’re an American Band. The Allman Brothers also formed in ’69 and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

Iron Maiden, a pioneer of British Heavy Metal’s New Wave, had been around for eight years when McBrain joined in 1983. Their latest studio offering, The Final Frontier, reached No. 1 in 28 countries. Torres is an original member of Bon Jovi, which has been scoring hits such as Livin’ on a Prayer and It’s My Life since 1983.

Of the four, Torres is the most recent arrival to Palm Beach County. He moved here in 1996 and settled in Jupiter. He and McBrain, friends for years, arrived at BB King’s fresh from a round of golf. Otherwise, because of the demands of the business – the recording, the touring, the promoting – none had ever met. Within minutes they were behaving like brothers at a fraternity reunion.

The drummer’s job, according to Torres, is to make the guys in the band who are front and center look good. “The band can have a breakdown once in a while and your job is to bring ‘em back,” he says. And when the drummer fails?

“If you get a really good band and they got a lousy drummer, they’ll sound terrible,” McBrain says. “If you get a lousy band, but it’s got a really hot drummer, they’ll be dancing. The drummer is key: We’re the drivers. If we ain’t on our game, the band ain’t gonna have a good gig.” No one at the table argues with him.

Despite thousands of shows, and millions of headaches, they stay at it. “You start playing music and it happens,” Trucks says.

“There’s no tomorrow, no yesterday, you’re completely in the moment. It is absolute magic and the brain has to disappear, the brain has to get out of the way.”

With a two-year, 100-concert tour behind him, London-born McBrain, 59, is free, for the moment, to concentrate on Rock ‘n’ Roll and Ribs, his highly regarded barbecue spot in Coconut Creek, just south of his Boca Raton home. But come June, Iron Maiden begins a North American tour.

Jupiter’s Brewer and Grand Funk played the South Florida Fair earlier this year. Recently inducted into Classic Drummer magazine’s Hall of Fame, he also drums with Bob Seger, who just

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completed a major tour. This will be a light year for Trucks and the Allman Brothers. After their annual March run at New York’s Beacon Theatre and the three-day Wanee Festival in Live Oak, Fla., they'll play about a dozen dates, including six with Santana, while Gregg Allman tours to promote his new autobiography.

Torres, at 58 the kid in this group, is back on the golf course and working on his art after a year-long world and U.S. tour with Bon Jovi. Next up is a show that will take him back to his roots in New Jersey, where he played bugle in his junior high band until he was bounced for not cutting his hair.

Brewer was in a junior high school band, too, playing clarinet.

“I hated it, just hated it,” he says. “Then the instructor said, ‘I need volunteers for the drum section. I only have girls back there and I need somebody to carry the bass drum.’” Brewer thought he might find a date; instead he found his calling. And his parents backed him. His father, who had played drums for beer during the Depression, bought Don a Joe Morello Champagne set by Ludwig, named after the legendary jazz drummer who helped the Dave Brubeck Quartet reach unheralded heights of popularity. Brewer’s dad taught him the basics.

To Trucks’ Southern Baptist parents, music was sinful, but they let him play in the high school band. “At least I wasn’t getting my neck broken playing football,” he reasons. In 11th grade, he asked for a drum set. Finally his parents gave in. He, too, started with a four-piece Ludwig Champagne.

With Bon Jovi still years away, Torres scored extra cash as a roofer while always looking to improve his drumming. He didn’t have a Ludgwig set but heard that Joe Morello gave lessons at his home. “The wall was stained from the roof leaking,” Torres recalls, “so I said I’ll fix the roof for lessons. Deal. Next week I brought a ladder and fixed it up. Between me working and him being on the road, I only got about four lessons, but we became good friends.”

McBrain was watching television in his native England when he saw Morello playing Take Five with Dave Brubeck. “I said I want to be just like him,” McBrain recalls. Morello, who died last year, was known for using unusual time signatures – 5/4 on Take Five and 9/8 and swing 4/4 on Blue Rondo a la Turk – and even soloed using just sticks, no drums. “Me dad says you’ll never be as good as Joe Morello. With that, I went into the kitchen and picked up me mum’s knives and started beating the shit out of her enameled pans, all these chips flying, making a royal kerfuffle.” His first drums were kitchen castoffs – biscuit tins, Bovril tins, Oxo cube tins – anything that made a noise. For

Brewer

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Name: Don Brewer Band: Grand Funk Railroad (founder), Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band Age: 63 Birthplace: Flint, Mich.

Residence: Jupiter Family: Wife Sunny Quinn, former DJ at Sunny 104.3 in West Palm Beach How long in Palm Beach County: 32 years

Why Palm Beach County: He used to come to Florida when on break from Grand Funk tours. That’s how he met his first wife, who was from Pompano Beach. After Grand Funk disbanded in 1976, the couple decided to move from Michigan to Boca Raton.

Other: Brewer met Sunny while on tour with Bob Seger.

Named one of the most influential drummers in the history of rock by Modern Drummer magazine.

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Band: The Allman Brothers Band Age: 64 Birthplace: Jacksonville Residence: Palm Beach

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Trucks

Name: Claude Hudson “Butch” Trucks

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Family: Wife Melinda, four children. His son Vaylor is a member of two bands based in Atlanta, Bonobos Convergence and The Yeti Trio. His nephew Derek Trucks plays guitar with the Allman Brothers and, with wife Susan Tedeschi, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, which won a 2012 Grammy for Best Blues Album.

How long in Palm Beach County: 22 years

Why Palm Beach County: Melinda, an artist, wanted to live in New York. Butch said no way; the “next best thing for an artist is Miami and Palm Beach was as close as we could find to Miami that was civilized.”

Other: They also own a home in Southern France; the foundation was built in the seventh century, the second floor in the 17th; it’s a “work in progress.” Developing Moogis, a subscription-based Internet venture to promote live music performances, sort of a musical version of Facebook or Netflix.

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sticks, he used his mother’s knitting needles. “Next Christmas they gave me my drum set. They were working class. That set was a lot of money for them, but it was a revelation. I knew, I’m on my way now.”

Trucks had some formal training – he actually played tympani in the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and still uses the impressive kettle drums today – but most drummers perfected their art by watching and listening, picking up a stroke here and a roll there.

“The Joes (Morello) and the Buddys (Rich) and the Gene Krupas were the power drummers of their time and they served as the role models,” McBrain says. “What we had with the jazz style was kind of a sketch plate – who could do the fastest single stroke roll, who could play underneath the high hat, who could spin their sticks, who was the better showman. They all still had their art but when pop music came along and changed to rock in the ‘50s, the drummers changed.”

Trucks says he doesn’t “think any of the people sitting around this table spent a lot of time listening to Ringo and Charlie Watts,” but he is quickly challenged.

“Ringo Starr was my hero,” McBrain says. “Joe Morello got me into it but what Ringo was doing at that time with the Beatles was phenomenal. He was absolutely genius with his timing and Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones) was actually a swing drummer and he just happened to fall into the Stones. Those two guys certainly weren’t massively technical players but what they did worked.

Then Keith Moon (The Who) and John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) broke the mold of every drummer who’d come along. We were learning our art from all these guys.”

Learning to drum is one thing. The drummer also has to find a band, hopefully, one that will last. Brewer, McBrain, Torres and Trucks all paid their dues in local bands before settling in – some sooner than others – for the long run.

“I could have stayed in bar bands or a cover band, but we made a conscious decision that we were gonna be a concert band, and do original material.” Brewer says. “You just change your whole direction and say even if I starve I don’t care.”

Trucks joined bands – including one with Duane and Gregg Allman and others at Florida State University – but he was insecure… until a certain free concert in Jacksonville.

Duane was forming a new band. “Jaimoe [Jai Johanny Johanson, Allman’s first drummer] kept telling Duane he needed two drummers,” Trucks says. Apparently, Duane

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figured if having two drummers in the band was good enough for James Brown, it was good enough for him. “Jaimoe kept telling Duane I was the one.”

The only thing standing in Trucks’ way was his own insecurity.

“We’re playing a shuffle. It’s going nowhere,” he recalls. Duane turned around on stage and stared at him. Trucks continued to flounder. Again, Allman gave him the look. “I’m just flopping around. Then he does it again.” Trucks realized he was being made to look foolish. He started to get mad. That’s when the music took off and took over. “Duane just backed up and smiled.

It’s like he reached inside [me] and flipped a switch.

“From that moment to this,” Trucks says, “I have never, ever been afraid.” He can’t explain what happened on that stage but it happened. His insecurities checked out for good. “It was the epiphany of my life.”

That’s not to say he hasn’t screwed up. There was the time he kicked off a slow song, Please Call Home, with a blues beat. “It’s supposed to go bom, bom, bom, bom and I’m going da-da-dada-da-da. We tried to make it work but we played the whole damn song like that,” he says to sympathetic moans from the other drummers gathered around the table. “We couldn’t figure out how to get into the right tempo. It was a five-minute train wreck. And the whole time, everybody’s looking at me.”

Challenges abound offstage, too. All four agree: they’ve been put off by others – unscrupulous managers, greedy record companies and band members who come up with a few lines of melody, flesh it out with the band and then claim the songwriting credits – and royalties. McBrain can laugh now about his preMaiden stint with the politically active French band Trust, which had a penchant for food fights in three-star Parisian restaurants.

Fortunately, the blunders and the rip-offs are far outweighed by the triumphs: Grand Funk’s record sell-out at Shea Stadium, the Allmans’ Lifetime Achievement Grammy in February, 130 million albums and counting for Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden more popular than ever.

“Our audiences now are 70 percent college age and under,” Trucks crows. “And their parents and their grandparents are coming, too!”

“That’s an accolade to the power of the songs, the power of the performances,” McBrain offers. “If you’ve got a lousy band, and a lousy song, it ain’t gonna last. We’re basically time capsules, all of us sitting here. Cause when we’re dead and gone and the world will hopefully be a better place, there’ll still be rock ‘n’ roll, there’ll still be funk blues and there’ll still be great soul music. Our legacy will be there.”

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Name: Michael Henry “Nicko” McBrain Band: Iron Maiden (since 1982) Age: 59 Birthplace: Hackney, London, England Residence: Boca Raton Family: Wife Rebecca, two sons How long in Palm Beach County: Since 1989 Why Palm Beach County: Met Rebecca at an Iron Maiden concert in Broward County.

They settled in Boca Raton.

Other: Finished two-year, 98-city worldwide tour last August.

Owns Rock ‘n’ Roll and Ribs in Coconut Creek.

Reprinted from Spring 2012 art&culture

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Walls

THESE

FOUR

By Christina Wood

Rocky Paulkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work, which youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find on display at the Norton

Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, reflects both patience and passion. His skill is exhibited not within a frame, however, but rather behind frames hung thoughtfully on the walls.

Paulk works in the maintenance department and was called on to help when the museum recently reinstalled its American and European galleries on the third floor. For hours and hours and hours he patched tiny holes and hunted for blemishes in the empty rooms. When all of that was done, he spent two solid days sanding the walls, inch by inch, obliterating any possible imperfection that might detract from the pictures waiting to be hung.

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rts ing A rform e P e or th nter f is Ce v a r K . ond F Raym

Ann Nort on

Robert

Norton Museum of Art

Sculpture Gardens

g Buildin ery, Jr. m o tg n M. Mo

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An artist's rendering of a production on the stage at the Donald and Ann Brown Theatre.

Choosing the perfect shade of paint to put on those walls was another matter entirely.

“It’s about the art,” says Charlie Stainback, assistant director of the Norton. “The goal is to strip everything away so that all we see is the art.”

When it comes to museums, theaters, galleries, concert halls and all the welcoming spaces, large and small, in which we forge our relationships with art, a great deal of thought and effort goes into the details. Gray paint can make a large room appear more intimate. Proper lighting is necessary not only to spotlight a star but to preserve sensitive materials, such as a watercolor or photograph. Like the dog who didn’t bark in the night, an air conditioning system that doesn’t hum during the show can be surprisingly important.

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As Stainback says, “Good design is design you don’t see.”

Step off the elevator on the third floor of the Norton and wander towards the gallery. A canvas brimming with life catches your eye and draws you in. You respond to color, emotion, subtle messages within the frame. You don’t notice the lighting fixtures, electrical outlets or flooring. Captivated, your eyes seek out the name of the artist and of the work. You might not be concerned with the style or size of the font used to print the informative little card conveniently posted on the wall but rest assured, someone gave it a great deal of thought. “Without curators and educators a museum would be just a place with things that hang on the wall,” Stainback says.

With fewer distractions, we find room to explore relationships and seek meaning. We see art more clearly. At the Ann Norton

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Pictured are Palm Beach Dramaworks’ Producing Artistic Director Bill Hayes, West Palm Beach Mayor Geri Muoio and Architect Gino deSantis.

Sculpture Gardens in West Palm Beach, it’s not paint but pruning that enhances the experience. If you take the time, you might catch a glimpse of a simpler time as you wander the grounds, designed to provide an appropriate setting for Ann Weaver Norton’s monumental work and also to create a peaceful retreat within an urban setting, With elegant palms, sweetly scented frangipani and calm reflecting pools, the gardens provide not only the promise of shade on a fall afternoon but a sharp contrast to the pace and pressure of the world just beyond its gates.

Creative Challenges The spaces that shelter and showcase our artistic endeavors are, indeed, a breed apart. “There’s every difference in the world

Top photo: The reconfigured audience chamber prior to the installation of the new seats.

Bottom photo: An artist's rendering of the completed audience chamber at Donald and Ann Brown Theatre.

between an arts-related project and an office building,” says Gino DeSantis, an architect with Zeidler Partnership. “Everything needs to work. Everything has a purpose.”

His firm began working with civic leaders in Palm Beach County on the design for the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach long before anyone even mentioned a blueprint. “You can’t just start to design something,” DeSantis explains. “Years before projects like the Kravis start, a lot goes on with determining what the needs of the community and of the arts groups are.”

Before you decide how many seats to build, you better have a pretty good idea of how many seats you can fill and what types of performances you need to accommodate. Acoustics are critical in a concert hall. Dancers require special flooring. Opera begs for

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“Good design is design you don’t see.”

—Charlie Stainback, assistant director of the Norton Museum of Art

hadn't galleries uropean E d n a n r America third floo m of Art's u se u M on The Nort BEFORE: years. in g n u -h been re

elaborate sets. The design of a multipurpose venue like the Kravis Center, which plays host to everything from Broadway musicals to standup comedy, demands flexibility. Flexibility, in turn, demands a generous budget.

Center Stage Technical considerations were high on the priority list when Palm Beach Dramaworks began the process of renovating its new home in downtown West Palm Beach – but so was the intimacy factor. For eight years, the professional company had performed in an 84-seat studio theater on Banyan Boulevard. Audience members felt they were sitting in the living room with the characters in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2006) and could almost smell the alcohol on James’ breath in Eugene O’Neil’s Moon for the Misbegotten (2008).

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Norton Mus eum of Art As sistant Regist Pam Parry ca rar John Wel refully prepar ter e Old Maste Collection fo rs from the m and Registrar r reinstallatio useum’s Perm n.

Photo by Nor anent ton Associat e Registrar Ke lli Marin

The company’s new home on Clematis Street seats 218. The challenge for DeSantis, the project architect, was to preserve that cozy feeling while giving the thriving theater company muchneeded room to grow.

“Closeness to the stage is paramount,” says William Hayes, Dramaworks’ producing artistic director. Transforming the Cuillo Centre for the Arts into the Donald and Ann Brown Theatre, as Dramaworks’ new home will be known, required major changes to the existing facility. The audience chamber has been completely reconfigured. Second-story boxes were sacrificed to make room for administrative offices and a costume shop. Nine long rows, each on a separate level to enhance sightlines, now face a broad proscenium stage, which replaced the previous three-quarter thrust arrangement.

When the renovations are complete, the space itself will provide a catalyst for further change. “There’s a big difference

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ton Museum ctor of the Nor Assistant Dire s the need ize as ck emph Charlie Stainba stractions. to minimize di

leted reinstallation AFTER: The comp the galleries. draws visitors into

between acting on a wide proscenium stage and acting in a studio theater. It allows you to do more nuanced work,” Hayes explains. Set designers will be exploring new territory, as well.

Instead of merely suggesting the landscape of a play, the new theater provides ample room for them to flex their muscles. “In the new theater, we have the space to create the entire world that play should live in and allow the play to breathe a little bit,” Hayes says.

Space – or the lack of it – influences so many of the choices that arts organizations make. You don’t hang a modest watercolor in a gallery with 18-foot ceilings and you don’t mount a show with 10 cast members on a small studio stage. Hayes is opening the new theater with a production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. “I could never do that show in the Banyan Boulevard location,” he admits. “The move is opening up a whole new body of work for us. It broadens and expands our artistic horizons.”

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Reprinted from Fall 2011 art&culture

Open Doors With time, chances are the Donald and Ann Brown Theatre will also instigate change beyond its newly opened doors. As will the Palm Beach County Cultural Council’s new home in Lake Worth, the Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. Building. “The arts are a driving force in urban renewal,” says Rick Gonzalez, AIA, president of REG Architects and project architect on the renovation of the Montgomery Building.

Within their walls, museums, theaters and other spaces dedicated to the arts give creative work a context. Outside those same walls, these buildings and institutions provide a context for art within our community. “Both Dramaworks and the Cultural Council’s building are corner buildings. They both anchor vibrant downtowns and,” Gonzalez says, “they’re both going to inject tremendous cultural energy into their neighborhoods.”

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C U LT U R A L COUNCIL NEWS

INSIDE culture

cultural compendium

briefly noted

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{inside culture} cultural council news

The schedule (with venues) includes:

November 5 – “CARLETON: A Conversation with Carleton Varney,” international interior designer, author and design columnist for the Palm Beach Daily News; Interviewer: Robert Janjigian, Fashion Editor, Palm Beach Daily News (Colony Hotel Pavilion, Palm Beach) December 3 – “ALL THAT GLITTERS – A Conversation between collector Fred Sharf and scholar Beth Ram about Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin, the glamorous jewelers to Palm Beach society during the 1930s and ‘40s” (Cultural Council, Lake Worth) January 7 – “HOPE – A Conversation with Hope Alswang,” executive director and chief executive officer of the Norton Museum of Art; Interviewer: Steven Maklansky, director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art (Colony Hotel Pavilion, Palm Beach) February 4 – “IRIS – A Conversation with Iris Apfel,” International designer

Cultural Events Complement Presidential Debate at Lynn University A wide range of cultural events and activities for students and the community were scheduled to take place throughout Palm Beach County in the days leading up to the October 22 presidential debate on the campus of Lynn University in Boca Raton.

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Lila Photo

The 2012-2013 season of the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County’s popular Culture & Cocktails series returns in November with three one-on-one conversations at the Colony Hotel Pavilion in Palm Beach along with several more at the Cultural Council’s new headquarters in the historic Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. Building in downtown Lake Worth.

Michael Arnaud

Culture & Cocktails Launches 2012-2013 Season with New Slate of Stimulating Conversations

Carleton Varney

Gary Beach

Hope Alswang

and fashion Icon; Interviewer: Charlotte Pelton, president of Charlotte Pelton & Associates (Colony Hotel Pavilion, Palm Beach) March 4 – “GARY – A Conversation with Tony Award® Winner Gary Beach,” star of Broadway hits The Producers (he also starred in the film version), Beauty and the Beast, Les Annie and more; Misérables, appeared in numerous TV series including Cheers, Sisters, Queer as Folk and Murder, She Wrote); Interviewer: Andrew Kato, producing artistic director of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre (Cultural Council, Lake Worth) Culture & Cocktails, which began in 2006, is generously sponsored by the Milton and Tamar Maltz Family Foundation.

Additional support for the series is provided by the Peter and Vicki Halmos Family Foundation / Palm Beach Principal Players, the Palm Beach Daily News and PR-BS, a Boca Raton-based public relations firm.

Admission to Culture & Cocktails

programs is $50 per person and free for members of the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County ($250 level and above).

All proceeds go to the non-profit Cultural Council.

Each event will run from 5 to 7 p.m., with registration and cocktails from 5 to 5:45 p.m., and the conversation from 5:45 to 7 p.m., including audience Q&A. The Colony Hotel will serve complimentary beverages and an array of specially prepared hors’ d’oeuvres, plus free valet parking. The Colony Hotel is located at 155 Hammon Ave., one block south of Worth Avenue and one block west of the Atlantic Ocean. Attendees at any of the three Culture & Cocktails events at the Colony Pavilion will be offered a free bottle of wine with dinner or two-for-one drinks at the hotel’s celebrated Polo Steaks & Seafoods immediately following the conversation.

Anyone interested in attending Culture & Cocktails can make reservations before each event by calling the Cultural Council at 561-472-3330.

And on the night of the big event in the university’s Keith C. and Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center, other cultural venues were slated to provide virtual front-row seats.

The Cultural Council was represented on the Lynn University organizing team for the debate and provided support for a number of events. The lineup of activities included a Community and Cultural Expo, American Stories as Told Through the

Cultural Arts, in Boca Raton’s Mizner Park and an exhibition, Politics NOT as Usual: Quilts with Something to Say, at the Boca Raton Museum of Art (on view through January 13). There were film screenings, lectures, concerts, a “Spin the Vote” event on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach and – on October 22 – a debate watching party and concert in Mizner Park Amphitheater and a patriotic salute and viewing party at

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{inside culture} cultural council news FAU Exhibition Features South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship Recipients Through December 15, Florida Atlantic University’s University Galleries in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters in Boca Raton are hosting the exhibition New Art: South Florida Cultural Consortium Visual and Media Artists Fellowship in both the Schmidt Center Gallery and the Ritter Art Gallery on FAU’s Boca Raton campus.

The exhibition presents 11 artists from Florida’s five southeastern counties who won a highly competitive and generous annual grant awarded by the South Florida Cultural Consortium. This year’s winners are

Philip Estlund, Intramixed, 2008, Collage on illustration board, 14” x 8.5,” Courtesy of the artist and Gavlak Gallery.

Phillip Estlund (Palm Beach County); Nellie Appleby (Monroe County); Domingo Castillo, Clifton Childree, Jiae Hwang,

Nicolas Lobo, Ernesto Oroza and Tom Scicluna (Miami-Dade Countty); and Eric Landes, Mark Moormann and John Sanchez (Broward County).

The artists are selected through a twostep judging process that includes a regional panel and then a national panel of visual arts professionals. More than 300 artists apply each year, in part because the grant award for each artist of either $15,000 or $7,500 is among the nation’s highest for individual artists.

The majority of the artists in the exhibition are sculptors and multi-media artists who will be exhibiting alongside painters, photographers and filmmakers. At least three of the artists, Domingo Castillo, Nicolas Lobo and Tom Scicluna, created new site-specific or situational works for the exhibition. Estlund, the Palm Beach County Fellowship recipient, explores aspects of our built environment through surreal collages often constructed from interior design and

the Maltz Jupiter Theatre.

On the Lynn campus, the Eugene M. and Christine E. Lynn Library is hosting an exhibit, The Front Row Seat to Presidential History, through January 21. It features more than 100 items from John Clark’s political memorabilia collection, “Presidential Campaign Trail;” artifacts from the personal collections of American Studies professor Robert Watson; items

from the collections of Barbara Lucey, Susan Gillis and the Boca Raton Historical Society; a voting machine and infamous butterfly ballot from the 2000 election; and original Illustrations by Chan Lowe, awardwinning Sun-Sentinel political cartoonist.

To learn more about how Lynn University and the county at large rallied around the presidential debate, visit http://debate2012.lynn.edu/.

Phillip Estlund

architecture magazines. He also creates relief and freestanding sculptures in reference to the raw material of domestic architecture that has become abject through natural disasters, decay or neglect.

The University Galleries are open Tuesday through Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. Visitors must obtain a $2 parking pass or use the limited metered parking before visiting the galleries.

The South Florida Cultural Consortium is funded in part with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council, the Boards of County Commissioners of Broward, Miami-Dade, Martin and Monroe Counties, and the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. University Galleries programs are also made possible in part by the R.A. Ritter Foundation and Beatrice Cummings Mayer. For more information on the exhibition, visit www.fau.edu/galleries.

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cultural council news

Urban Arts Lofts are under construction in downtown Lake Worth.

Urban Arts Lofts Coming to Downtown Lake Worth

A Full Service Public Relations & Marketing Firm Since 2001

Salutes

Its Cultural and Community-Focused Clients Arthur R. Marshall Foundation for the Everglades Arts Radio Network The Colony Hotel, Palm Beach Crane’s BeachHouse Hotel & Tiki Bar Culture & Cocktails Series with the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County Danburg Properties of Boca Raton Genesis Community Health Gold Coast Public Relations Council

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Kravis Center for the Performing Arts Live at Lynn Theatre Series Lynn University Conservatory of Music Mounts Botanical Garden Palm Beach Photographic Centre Palm Beach Poetry Festival Spady Cultural Heritage Museum Wilesmith Advertising / Design

561.756.4298

Area artists have a rare opportunity to play a highly personal role in the ongoing cultural Renaissance of downtown Lake Worth. The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency is constructing 12 affordable, two-story live/work lofts just west of Dixie Highway that will be available for purchase by artists who meet certain criteria.

The Urban Arts Lofts project acknowledges downtown Lake Worth’s growing role as a focal point for arts and cultural activities, which is anchored by the Cultural Council’s new home in the Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. Building. The lofts, which range from 2,200 to 2,600 square feet, include studio space on the first floor and living space on the second floor. Features include two and a half baths, a one-car garage, impact glass windows and a number of components to promote sustainability, including Energy Star appliances and a tankless water heater.

To be eligible to purchase one of the units, which are available in three different styles, individuals must meet a definition of “artist” that includes “a record of professional accomplishment demonstrated through continuous public presentation and peer acceptance as either an emerging artist of outstanding promise or as an established artist with a recognized body of work.” Individuals in artsrelated fields, such as architects, graphic and web designers, writers, interior decorators and others, also are eligible.

For information about the program and floor plans for the Urban Arts Lofts, visit www.lakeworthnsp.org.

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{inside culture} cultural compendium Norton Museum Acquires 39 Annie Leibovitz Photos The Norton Museum of Art has acquired a collection of 39 works by the renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz and will showcase these new acquisitions in an exhibition from Jan. 17 through June 9, 2013.

“The Norton’s photography collection of more than 3,000 works spans the entire history of the medium,” said Charles Stainback, assistant director of the Norton Museum.

“Annie Leibovitz is one of the most important portrait photographers of our time and as such deserves a prominent place in our encyclopedic permanent collection.”

Stainback worked closely with Leibovitz to narrow the selection to the final 39 photographs, which include a mixture of well-known and lesser-known works that range from the 1970s to the present.

Both Stainback and Leibovitz felt it was important to select a grouping that empha-

sized the scope of her portraiture – from her images of celebrated figures to less familiar subjects. The black-and-white and color images on view will include American Soldiers and Mary, Queen of the Negritos, Clark Air Base, The Philippines (1968); Cindy Sherman, New York City (1992); R2-D2, Pinewood Studios, London (2000); and The Reverend Al Sharpton, Prima Donna Beauty Care Center, Brooklyn, New York (1988).

There are also iconic portraits of actors, musicians and artists from Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt to Allen Ginsberg and Andy Warhol.

“The Norton has made a sophisticated selection,” Leibovitz said. “While there are several portraits of very famous people, they are not my most famous portraits.

There are some surprises.”

One of the most celebrated photographers of our time, Annie Leibovitz has been documenting American popular culture since the early 1970s, when her work good fit,” said Joe Gillie, president and CEO. “The restored school buildings became the Cornell Museum and Crest Theatre, with the gymnasium as a major rental facility. These ‘Delray Beach Schools’ were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.” As the years progressed, however, the name of the organization

Delray’s Old School Square Evolves into Delray Beach Center for the Arts

tended to be shortened to Old School

From its beginnings 26 years ago as an arts-based, historic preservation project that ignited Delray Beach’s downtown renaissance, Old School Square has evolved into an award-winning, nationally recognized, multi-disciplinary arts organization.

To acknowledge its growth and highlight its mission, the organization has adopted a new name – the Delray Beach Center for the Arts – and introduced a new logo and website to highlight the transformation.

explain that Old School Square is Delray’s

“In the beginning, the name Old

ture artistic expression,” Gillie said. “We

School Square Cultural Arts Center was a

will continue to grow as a multi-disciplinary

Square and the staff, volunteers and board found themselves constantly having to center for the arts.

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris, New York City, 1988 © Annie Leibovitz

began appearing in Rolling Stone. For nearly 30 years her photos have appeared regularly in Vanity Fair and Vogue.

Leibovitz’s most recent exhibition, Pilgrimage, opened at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., early this year. organization, striving to offer a broad range of programs and services that will inspire every segment of the community, and we will always preserve this National Historic Site.”

With the name change comes a fresh, new logo depicting four arches, which represent the center’s major areas of focus: events, theater, exhibits and learning.

External changes – including creative lighting, signage and art – will be phased in on the site. For information, call 561-243-7922 or visit www.delraycenterforthearts.org.

As the organization grew to include a School of Creative Arts and the outdoor Pavilion, both with new programming, the significance now lies more in the programs and services; however, the history and the beautiful, historic buildings are always honored.

“We will continue to be the community gathering place for Delray Beach and a leader in developing partnerships to nurCrest Theatre

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{inside culture} cultural compendium

Armory Art Center Announces 2012-13 Artists in Residence The Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach announced that six emerging and upand-coming artists from across the country will be part of its Artist in Residence Program during the 2012-2013 season. The highly competitive program attracts a diverse group of artists from varied backgrounds. Working in the Armory’s state-of-the-art studios for eight months, the artists develop a portfolio of work in their area of study while at the same time teaching students and learning from faculty and visiting master artists. Their residency culminates in a spring show of the work produced during their tenure.

The Armory Art Center’s Artists in Residence for 2012-2013 are Jesse Ring and

Women’s Theatre Project Finds New Home in Boca Raton The acclaimed 10-year-old Women’s Theatre Project (TWTP) has moved north from Fort Lauderdale to a new home at the Willow Theatre in Boca Raton’s Sugar Sand Park. Incorporated in 2002, the Women’s Theatre Project is a company of professional female theater artists dedicated to producing theatrical works exploring the female voice. The move from their previous intimate 50-seat venue to the Willow’s 155-

Detail from the necklace by Armory Artist in Residence Lisa Johnson

seat theater is an exciting step forward in the company’s continuing evolution.

“A unique opportunity presented itself at the Willow Theatre,” says founding member and Artistic Director Genie Croft.

“I’ve directed The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife and several other plays for the Boca Raton Theatre Guild at the Willow, and have imported the Women’s Theatre Project’s productions of The Year of Magical Thinking and Bridge and Tunnel.

It’s a natural progression to make our home here – a perfect union of theater, creative

Sally Bondi is one of the actresses featured in the Women’s Theatre Project’s production of Delval Divas.

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Matt Fiske for ceramics, Lisa Johnson for jewelry, Eriberto Biera for painting and drawing, and Ariel Bowman and Virginia McKinney for sculpture. The Artists in Residence Program is underwritten by Armory Art Center governing board member and benefactor Mary Montgomery.

The Armory Art Center is celebrating its 25th anniversary season. Housed in a historic Art Deco building, it provides more than 150 art classes for students of all ages, including ceramics, digital arts, fibers, drawing, glass fusing, jewelry, painting, printmaking, fibers and sculpture. It hosts approximately 20 exhibitions each year and presents art salons, lectures and special events.

For information, visit www.armoryart.org or call 561-832-1776.

growth and venue to expand our productions and mission.”

Since its founding, the company has drawn praise from critics and audiences alike, received numerous Carbonell nominations and built a strong and loyal following throughout South Florida. It has presented staged readings, one-acts and full-length plays, including the world and regional premieres of several works. Over the past few years, TWTP has run a lesbian play festival in conjunction with the Pride Center.

Two productions are planned for the company’s 2012-2013 season at the Willow Theatre. Delval Divas, by Barbara Pease Weber, will run November 2-18. The contemporary comedy concerns four educated, successful, professional women who reside at the Delaware Valley Federal Correctional Facility, a low-level security prison for white and “pink” collar criminals.

Faye Sholiton’s powerful memory play, The Interview, will run January 4-20, 2013.

Tickets can be purchased from the Willow Theatre Box office at 561-347-3948.

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{inside culture} briefly noted Palm Beach Opera General Director Daniel Biaggi was elected to the Board of Directors of OPERA America, the national nonprofit service organization for opera. “I am thrilled to join the board and to become part of this illustrious group of cultural leaders at a time when opera tradi- Daniel Biaggi tion and preservation of values must go handin-hand with innovation and continuous reinvention,” Biaggi said. Now entering his fourth season as general director, Biaggi is committed to expanding Palm Beach Opera’s mission of presenting high-quality opera productions and engaging educational and community outreach performances in the community.

Biaggi joins Ceci Dadisman, Palm Beach Opera’s director of marketing and PR, in a leadership role with OPERA America.

Dadisman has served as the organization’s marketing network chair since 2010.

Young Singers of the Palm Beaches’ Executive Director Beth Clark speaks to the audience accompanied by the applause of the cast members.

Broadway came to Palm Beach County recently when Young Singers of the Palm Beaches produced a three-week intensive study for students who hope to one day make it in the Big Apple. Students performed at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach on the last day of the course, providing parents and the community with a show that spotlighted their talents. Each piece included professional choreography that showed off the skills the students had honed and finessed during the workshop.

“You Can’t Stop the Beat” from Hairspray brought down the house in a spectacular finale. On the last days of the workshop, New York City talent director Nora Brennan provided professional advice on landing a role on Broadway.

Charlene Farrington Jones is the new director of the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum in Delray Beach. Jones, the daughter of museum founder Vera Farrington, works with the board of Expanding and Preserving Our Cultural Heritage (EPOCH Inc.) to operate the museum. Farrington founded the organization – which is dedicated to showcasing the African-, Haitianand Caribbean-American cultural contributions to the artistic and historic landscape of Florida and the U.S. – in 1995. Jones joined the staff full-time in 2000 as program director, overseeing the children’s programs that help make the venue a neighborhood hub. “The Spady Museum is more than my mother’s legacy. To me, the Spady Museum represents the voice of a people who helped to build this area into the dynamic collection of people it is now,” Jones said.

William Hayes, producing artistic director of Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, was elected president of the Florida Professional Theatres Association (FPTA). Other new FPTA officers include Secretary/Treasurer Rachel Blavatnik, associate producer and company manager of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre. FPTA is a 32-year-old statewide not-for-profit organization that connects professional theater companies throughout the state to better collaborate, develop and promote live, professional theater in Florida. “The new FPTA officers will work collaboratively to establish partnerships to create opportunities for professional theater companies William Hayes and professional artists throughout Florida and promote a greater awareness of the high-quality live-professional theater experiences available to the residents and tourists of our state,” Hayes said.

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THE NEW FACE OF CULTURE IN PALM BEACH COUNTY

NEW GALLERY Visit our new gallery and view rotating exhibitions throughout the year that showcase the range and talent of professional artists living and working in Palm Beach County. Admission is free and open to the public, Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

NEW STORE The Council’s Uniquely Palm Beach Gift Store features beautiful jewelry, totes, accessories and sculptures created by professional artists as well as other merchandise unique to cultural organizations in Palm Beach County. All proceeds support the Cultural Council’s artist programs.

NEW FRIENDS Join our family of supporters — become a member today! We’ll keep you entertained at our members-only events and engaged by our gallery talks, and even put a little money back in your pocket with a discount on purchases at our gift shop.

NEW INFORMATION CENTER A place for visitors and residents to learn about the area, get oriented and pick up valuable information on the arts and culture of the county.

601 Lake Avenue | Lake Worth, FL 33460 | 561.471.2901 | www.palmbeachculture.com

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{inside culture} In gratitude to our members and supporters whose generous gifts of $500 and greater help us accomplish our mission.

Mr. and Mrs. Doug Anderson

Galaxy Thrift LLC

Mr. and Mrs. Randolph A. Marks

REG Architects Inc.

Armory Art Center

Goldberg Foundation Inc.

The Marks Family Foundation

Richard & Peggy

B/E Aerospace

Dr. Stan and Marcie Gorman Althof

Mrs. Betsy K. Matthews

Ms. Dina Gustin Baker

Mr. Raymond Graziotto

Mr. and Mrs. William M. Matthews

Bank of America

Greenberg Traurig, P.A.

Mrs. Sydelle Meyer

Mr. Bruce A. Beal

Ms. Peg Greenspon

Denise and William

Richard S. Bernstein

Gunster

& Associates, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. John Blades Boca Ballet Theatre Boca Raton Museum of Art Ms. Yvonne S. Boice The Breakers Palm Beach Brenner Real Estate Group

Meyer Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Homer J. Hand

Miami City Ballet

Merrill G. and Emita

Mr. and Mrs. George J. Michel Jr.

E. Hastings Foundation Historical Society of Palm Beach County John C. & Mary Jane Howard Foundation

Sydell and Arnold Miller Foundation Ms. Jane Mitchell Ms. Jo Anne Moeller Mrs. Mary Montgomery Morikami Museum

Ms. Lisa Huertas

and Japanese Gardens

Mrs. Lyn Ianuzzi

Mr. Geoffrey H. Neuhoff

Business Development Board

Jasteka Foundation Inc.

Ms. Suzanne Niedland

Center for Creative Education

Jennifer Garrigues, Inc.

The Ann K. & Douglas S. Brown Family Foundation

Ms. Carol F. Cohen Dr. and Mrs. Lawrence H. Cohn The Colony Hotel Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

Interior Design

and Mr. Lawrence F. DeGeorge Ms. Paige Noland

JKG Group

Northern Trust

Mr. and Mrs. F. Ross Johnson

Norton Museum of Art

JP Morgan Chase, The Private Bank

Oxbridge Academy

Mr. Kenn Karakul Mrs. Irene Karp Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Karp

of the Palm Beaches Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau

Greenfield Foundation Rose Marie and Ted J. Miller Family Foundation Inc. Dr. and Mrs. Marvin Rosenberg Mr. and Mrs. Jay Rosenkranz Mrs. Susan Ross Mr. and Mrs. Leon M. Rubin Mr. and Mrs. Stanley M. Rumbough Jr. Lawrence A. Sanders Foundation, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. S. Lawrence Schlager The Lewis Schott Foundation Mr. Rudy E. Schupp and Mrs. Susan Schupp Ms. Barbara Schwartz Mr. Gary Schweikhart Mr. and Mrs. Barry Seidman Mr. and Mrs. Frederic A. Sharf Ms. Muriel Siebert Mr. and Mrs. Richard Sloane Mr. Harold Smith South Florida Science Museum

Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Katz Jr.

Palm Beach Daily News

Dr. Jay W. Spechler

Katz Family Foundation

Palm Beach Dramaworks

SunFest of Palm Beach County

Mr. Miles A. Coon

Mr. and Mrs. Christopher G. Kellogg

Palm Beach Opera

The Society of the Four Arts

Dr. Richard P. D’Elia

Kohnken Family Foundation Inc.

The Palm Beach Post

The Vecellio Family Foundation, Inc.

Mr. Gus Davis

Mr. Berton E. Korman

Palm Beach Zoo

Mrs. Phyllis Tick

Digital Domain Media Group, Inc.

Lake Worth Playhouse

Mr. and Mrs. Ellis J. Parker

Village of Royal Palm Beach

Mr. and Mrs. John T. Dougherty, Jr.

Mrs. Emily F. Landau

Mr. and Mrs. John W. Payson

Geo. Zoltan Lefton

Mrs. Helen K. Persson

The Community Foundation of Louisville

Mrs. Cecile Draime Mr. and Mrs. Alexander W. Dreyfoos Duncan Theatre at Palm Beach State College Mr. Bernard Eisenstein M.D.

Family Foundation

Dr. Henry J. Petraki

Mr. Gerard Lemongello, DDS

PGA National Resort and Spa

Lighthouse ArtCenter Museum

Ms. Linda M. Phelps

and School of Art

PNC Bank

Mr. George T. Elmore

The Liman Foundation

PNC Foundation

Donald M. Ephraim Family Foundation

Loggerhead Marinelife Center

Dr. and Mrs. Carter Pottash

Catherine Lowe M.D., LL.D.

Preservation Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Jack Farber

Lynn University

Mr. and Mrs. Milton Fine

The Milton and Tamar Maltz

Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Flack The Henry Morrison Flagler Museum

of Palm Beach

Cultural Center Mr. and Mrs. Brian K. Waxman Wells Fargo Ms. Susy Witt Ms. Sheryl G. Wood Esq. Ms. Melanie Ziskend Zissu Family Foundation

in-kind sponsors TooJay’s

Publix Supermarket Charities

Elaine Meier

Family Foundation

Raymond F. Kravis Center

Office Depot

Maltz Jupiter Theatre

for the Performing Arts

pr-bs

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{best of issue 2006 – 2012}

The Henry Morrison Flagler Museum by Robert Stevens

®

Culture has found its place in the sun: Palm Beach County From the beginning, Palm Beach County’s cultural landscape has always been vibrant, diverse, inviting and ever-changing. We are blessed with a wealth of artists, individuals and organizations who share an unwavering commitment to creating and perpetuating all that is great about art and culture. Our future is incredibly bright – and we look forward to sharing it with you!

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PNC is proud to be a part of the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County.

Because we know a community that works together thrives together.

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