“This came at exactly the right time,” said Dave Lawrence, CEO of the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County. He was speaking June 19 at the opening reception for the council’s summer exhibit, which marks its inaugural Artist Innovation Fellowship Program. “We’re so thrilled to be here,” he said. “It was a challenging year for everyone. Tonight is a night of jubilee, to … [Read more...]
Glory of ancient Andean civilizations coming to Boca Museum in October
The great cultures of the Andes lasted for thousands of years high in the mountains of Peru before being brought down by Spanish invaders intent on conquest. It is a story that has been told many times to travelers who have visited the region, including Boca Raton Museum of Art director Irvin Lippman, who climbed to the ruins of the citadel of Machu Picchu in 1980 and found … [Read more...]
The art of the dazzle: Costume designer brings flair to Cornell exhibit
Costumes by award-winning costume designer Sean De Freitas are on display in the Cornell Art Museum in downtown Delray Beach, running through the summer. Filling two galleries with nine original and ornate costumes, this is an opportunity and respite from the year of COVID-19, says Cornell Art Museum director and curator Melanie Johanson. “His over-the-top designs bring … [Read more...]
Kips Bay’s Palm Beach house boasts sunny Florida design
For the fourth year, the Kips Bay Decorator Show House Palm Beach shows off the best of interior design with the best of interior designers locally and from around the country. The event, a season staple in New York City since 1973, benefits the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County and the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club and runs until May 9. The 4,400-sq.-ft. … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Book Festival to be virtual, features Saunders, Loftis, Harmel
The Palm Beach Book Festival, now in its seventh year, returns for the second year as a virtual event later this month. New York Times bestselling authors Larry Loftis, Kristin Harmel and George Saunders are in the lineup for the festival, which is set for March 19 and 20. Added last week was another guest, Keisha N. Blain, co-editor with Ibram X. Kendi of Four Hundred … [Read more...]
Artist Strosberg carries on Palm Beach portraits tradition
Is it coincidence or the fact that the universe loves symmetry when, in 2018, Palm Beach artist Ralph Wolfe Cowan, portraitist to some of the world’s most celebrated and wealthy glitterati, died at the same time that portrait artist Serge Strosberg, who lived in New York City for more than a decade, relocated to Palm Beach? Cowan’s career spanned seven decades, and over his … [Read more...]
At 86, artist Lehr finds pandemic a spur to creativity
The time of quarantine, paradoxically, has been a productive one for Miami artist Mira (pronounced My-ra) Lehr, who experienced a burst of creativity. It was quiet and peaceful and with no outside disturbances, she was able to focus on her art. “I was at home like everyone and motivated,” she remembers. “There was more time to reflect, experiment and dream in my studio … [Read more...]
‘Glasstress’ at Boca Museum explores fragile time in a fragile medium
In a major coup for the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Glasstress Boca Raton 2021, an exhibit of 30 international artists who have created new works in glass at the Berengo Studio in Murano, Italy, has returned to the museum and will run through Sept. 5. The exhibit, which opens Wednesday, is a sequel to the Museum’s 2016 Glasstress exhibition featuring new artists and new … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: Book, literary fests go virtual
Despite the dearth of live events during the winter of COVID-19, there are enough virtual literary events to keep one’s mind engaged. From poetry to fiction to children’s literature and books with local themes and authors, this year’s offerings, while reduced, offer enough stimulation and diversion to almost make you forget our altered state of collective reality. Palm … [Read more...]
JCCs team up for virtual Jewish Book Fest
Along with other iconic institutions such as the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Palace of Versailles and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Florida JCC Jewish Book Fest has gone online. Proving that there is strength in numbers, this year the Fest partnered with its neighboring Jewish Communty Centers (The Adolph & Rose Levis JCC Sandler Center, … [Read more...]