Art fair does booming business, will be 10 days long in 2011
The recession may be dragging on, but the 2010 American International Art Fair enjoyed 15 percent higher participation over 2009 and a significant improvement in sales, according to founders David and Lee Ann Lester.
Based on the strength of this year’s fair, organizers plan to return to a 10-day length in 2011, according to a news release. The fair was held Feb. 2-8 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.
Dealers reporting seven-figure aggregate sales included GIOIA, Graff and Richard Green. Six-figure sales were reported by an additional 22 galleries among the 80 participants.
“The U.S. economy is clearly back on the upswing,” David Lester said in a statement. “That factor is reflected in the improved sales this year over the previous year’s fair.”
Attendance at the 2010 fair was estimated at 24,000, with a record 5,100 attendants to the first-day vernissage, which benefited the Norton Museum of Art. Innovations included wider aisles and enhanced florals, which organizers said attracted visitors to the Center Court.
Tribute to Jolson part of Maltz’s upcoming season
The Maltz Jupiter Theatre has recently paid tribute to a major star of the 20th century, Fanny Brice, and in its coming season, another early titan of the modern stage will be featured.
Jolson at the Winter Garden, a retrospective of the singer Al Jolson, will be staged Feb. 22-March 13, the Maltz said in announcing its 2010-11 season this week.
The upcoming Maltz season also will see the return of Academy, a pop musical that began as a workshop production in Jupiter and now is headed to the Daegu International Music Festival in South Korea this summer as well as the New York Musical Theatre Festival in October. Academy will reach the Maltz mainstage Dec. 7-19.
The season will open Nov. 2-14 with Twelve Angry Men, Reginald Rose’s 1954 play about the deliberations in a jury room that made a memorable film with Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb.
Two other musicals round out the season: The Sound of Music, the beloved 1959 musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and Crazy for You, the 1992 Tony Award-winning rewrite of the 1930 George and Ira Gershwin musical, Girl Crazy. The Sound of Music takes the stage Jan. 11-30, and Crazy for You closes the season with performances from March 29 through April 17.
Subscribers save 10 to 15 percent over individual ticket prices. Call 561-575-2223, 800-445-1666 or visit www.jupitertheatre.org.
FAU announces second Jewish culture festival
The Florida Atlantic University Libraries will host its second annual Kultur Festival 2010, a celebration of Jewish arts and culture, next month.
Organizer Aaron Kula has said he hopes to make the festival a permanent annual feature. The Kultur Festival will run from March 6-11, and is designed to draw attention to FAU’s large collection of Judaica in print.
The main event will be a concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 7, featuring Kula’s Klezmer Company Orchestra and its new KlezKatz vocal ensemble. The JudeoJazzistico concert will feature jazz-influenced pieces based on klezmer melodies in the FAU collections as well as other works. Tickets for the concert in the Kaye Auditorium are $18-$42.
Three events highlight traditional Yiddish culture: Dr. Jerry Glantz’s lecture on his book The Man Who Spoke to God at 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 9; Yiddish Zingfest, with singer-actress Phyllis Berk at 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 10, and a screening of the film Yidl Mit’n Fidl, accompanied by KCO violinist Randi Fishenfeld, at 7 p.m. Monday, March 8, in the Wimberly Library.
Arthur Jaffe, curator of the Arthur and Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts, explores the artistry, meaning and music of the Haggadah at 2 p.m. Monday, March 8. An evening of songs by Jewish Argentine composers and playwrights is at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 9, and local musicians may participate with the KCO and Kula at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 10, in the Wimberly Library.
The finale concert, called Hazzanut Espagnol, Mizrachi and Ladino Love Songs, will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 11 at Barry and Florence Friedberg Lifelong Learning Center.
Event tickets other than the main KCO concert are $5-$12. Call 800-564-9539 or visit www.fauevents.com.
Diva Fleming to host master class at UM before Boca concert
In tandem with her appearance at the opening of the fourth annual Festival of the Arts Boca, the soprano Renée Fleming will host a single master class March 5 at the University of Miami.
Fleming, fresh off a fourth Grammy win for Verismo, an album of music from the late 19th-century verismo Italian opera tradition, will work with four University of Miami students in the class, which begins at 2 p.m. in the Gusman Concert Hall on the UM campus.
She also will be the focus of a 4:15 p.m. reception before a UM faculty and student concert at 7:30 p.m. as part of The Frost Opera Theater Benefit Festival at the Coral Gables college. Tickets for the master class range from $50-$250. Call 305-284-4886 or visit www.music.miami.edu for more information.
The following day, Fleming headlines the Festival of the Arts Boca in a concert of opera arias with Patrick Summers and the Russian National Orchestra. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Count de Hoernle Auditorium in Mizner Park. Tickets range from $50-$250. call 561-368-8445 or visit www.festivaloftheartsboca.org.
— Compiled by Skip Sheffield and Greg Stepanich
Editor’s note: This post has been updated to correct a factual error.