It’s not generally known that the Armory Art Center is what it is today — and celebrating its silver anniversary Saturday — thanks to the foresight and vision of the Flamingo Park neighborhood preservation committee, community organizers, and students and teachers from the former Norton Museum Gallery and School of Art.
Back before the Kravis Center and the convention center were built and before the Dreyfoos School of the Arts, the old Art Deco building erected in 1939 by Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration was slated for demolition.
David Smith, the former vice chairman on the original board of directors and currently the owner of Framesmith on Clematis Street, remembers the era well. At that time he was president of the Flamingo Park Neighborhood Association.
“We saved the Armory from the wrecking ball,” Smith recalls. “I went to Paul Steinbrenner, the city manager at the time, with the proposal to convert the building into an arts school. We raised $25,000 from the former students at the Norton School of Art and attorney Robert Montgomery and his wife Mary, who later became a board member, gave us a $100,000 matching grant.”
Smith calls it a case of “opportunities coming together.”
“The right people at the right time came together for the right reason,” he said.
It was the dawn of the era of preservation districts emerging in Florida and Smith notes that the city had no prior history of preservation.
“It’s a sheer joy to see the Armory celebrate 25 years,” Smith said. “We did something unique at that time and it endures to this day, and there are now a constellation of artistic venues in the area.”
The Armory prides itself on being a unique community resource that provides art education to all ages and abilities and reaches out to underserved and challenged youth with affordable programs and scholarships.
The first art classes were held in the new Armory Art Center in October 1987.
Now offering ceramics, printmaking, jewelry, sculpture and photography, the center also hosts a visiting master artist series. Renowned artists such as pop artist Wayne Thiebaud; contemporary realist painter Janet Fish; Nelson Shanks, known for his portrait of Princess Diana; and Eugene Daub and Rob Firmin, who created the Rosa Parks sculpture in Washington, D.C., for the National Endowment for the Arts, all delivered a series of master classes.
“The Armory is a remarkable achievement and keeps growing,” said Jim Swope, an art conservator for the Norton Museum and a board member at the Armory Art Center for 22 years. “We teach more than 100 classes in all media each week for all levels of expertise.
“People have a fundamental need to express themselves with art and explore their own artistic yearnings,” he said. “And we provide a safe, friendly and communal space for them to express visually what they feel internally.”
Rick Beaulieu, a sculptor and one of the founders of the Boynton Beach arts district, was one of the first group of teachers at the Armory and taught steel sculpture classes through the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Although no longer directly involved at the Armory, Beaulieu says, “I want to congratulate them on their ability to flourish and grow. They’ve become a real asset to the arts in Palm Beach and are a big part of what’s happening culturally in West Palm Beach.”
Highlights over the past quarter-century include getting the building onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 and a visit by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1996.
Major exhibitions have included paintings by opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, sculptures by New York pop artist Jim Dine and photographs by actor and artist Leonard Nimoy.
Their most recent exhibitions included Cuban-American artists Dayron González and Omar Rodriguez Lavandero and portraits by New York and Palm Beach-based artist Serge Strosberg, as well as its first-ever wearable art show and fundraiser — Fashion ARTillery with honorary chair Iris Apfel — as part of their 25th-anniversary celebration.
Upcoming events include the birthday bash Saturday, a student showcase and artist-in-residence exhibits running concurrently from Saturday through April 20, and the exhibit Jane Manus: Geometry of Space running through April 26.
Sandra Coombs, CEO since 2009 and former director of the American Museum in Britain, a decorative arts museum near Bath, England, and past curator at both the Norton and Flagler museums, said she is proud of the work the Armory does with the community.
What are Coombs’ hopes and expectations for the next 25 years?
“We want to continue to serve the community and provide classes, lectures and films for everybody,” she says. “We hope to remain stable, improve our facilities and efforts, increase access to the number of people taking classes and to keep doing what we do best – support, teach and promote art and artists.”
The public is invited to the Armory Art Center’s 25th birthday bash on Saturday from 5-7 p.m. The Armory Art Center is located at 1700 Parker Ave. in West Palm Beach. The free event will include the dedication of the restored WPA Armory plaque, the unveiling of the bronze cast of the winning design of the Armory Art Center’s 25thAnniversary crest, the annual artists-in-residence and student exhibition opening reception, campus tours and artist demonstrations. Gourmet cupcakes and celebratory beverages will be provided courtesy of Whole Foods Market.
Reservations are requested. Please visit: www.armoryart.org or call (561) 832-1776, ext. 15, or email loren@armory art.org.
