A historic Florida surfing image from the FAU exhibit.From left: Todd Holland, Scott McCranels, Rich Rudolph,
Kelly Slater, Matt Kechele and Charlie Kuhn.
(Photo by Tony Arruza)
FAU gets grant for surfing exhibit
The University Galleries of Florida Atlantic University’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters has been awarded a $16,596 matching grant from the Florida Humanities Council to research and present a traveling exhibition called The History and Culture of Surfing in Florida.
The surfing culture has an 80-year history in Florida.
“I’ve been here 13 years, and for the first time I get to do something fun,” joked Rod Faulds, director of FAU Galleries and a surfer himself. “Seriously, this is going to be a killer exhibit: a real history of surfing in Florida since the 1930s.”
Faulds and Florida artist Paul Aho have been working for the past year on the project, making contacts throughout the state. The Cocoa Beach Surf Museum will assist in research, as well as the University of Central Florida, which will provide graduate students to assist with oral histories.
The Miami-based advertising and design firm of Crispin, Porter and Bogusky is serving as sponsor.
“Ultimately we would like to do a book,” Faulds said. ‘We feel the ‘Surfing Florida’ exhibit will bring together humanities scholars and members of Florida‘s sizable surfing community.”
Faulds said the community is invited to contribute old boards, photographs and other memorabilia to the exhibit. Call 561-297-2661 for more information.
A clay maquette of Daub & Firmin’s forthcoming bronze statueof Julia Tuttle, the “mother of Miami.”
Armory guest to immortalize Parks in Statuary Hall
A Palm Beach County visiting artist has been named as one of two artists who will create the Rosa Parks sculpture for the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Eugene Daub is an Armory visiting master artist and a principal with fellow winner Rob Firmin in the Daub & Firmin Studios of Kensington and San Pedro, Calif. Daub and Firmin were selected as finalists from more than 100 artists nationwide who were considered by a panel formed by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The announcement was made earlier this month on the 54th anniversary of the day Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Ala. (Dec. 1, 1955), sparking the civil rights movement headed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“We have created a number of monuments to the African-American experience,” Firmin said. “We were familiar with the story of Rosa Parks, and had great respect for her.”
The sculpture is the first mandated and funded by Congress for the National Statuary halls since the 1870s.
Daub will be in residence from Feb. 15-19 at the Armory for a workshop, and a lecture is set for the evening of Feb. 18. Call the Armory Art Center at 561-832-1776 for more information.
Singer Ronan Tynan.Weak sales cancel Tynan concert
Irish tenor Ronan Tynan’s performance of The Gift of Christmas Song, scheduled for 8 p.m. Wednesday at Dreyfoos Hall in the Kravis Center has been canceled, the center said Monday.
Sources said “very low” ticket sales were the reason. Tynan, a former physician and double amputee who rose to fame as one of the Irish Tenors, is well-known for his ceremonial performances before sports matches such as games featuring the New York Yankees and Buffalo Sabres.
Tickets will be automatically refunded to the original method of payment.
Call the Kravis box office at 561-832-7469 or visit 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach.
— Compiled by Skip Sheffield