James Blumenfeld, co-owner of Meridian Art Experience in Delray Beach’s Pineapple Grove,
displays works mainly from local artists and offers services for collectors.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
James Blumenfeld and business partner Susan Romaine learned from their first meeting in 2014 that they had a mutual love of art, and their combined efforts since culminated in the Feb. 2 grand opening of Meridian Art Experience in the Pineapple Grove neighborhood of Delray Beach.
The gallery aims to make the middle-art market affordable and approachable.
“Our vehicle is to invite people in to experience original artwork,” said Blumenfeld, a St. Louis native who enjoyed great success in the corporate world prior to this venture. “Our tag line is ‘The fine line of living with art.’ Really just to be able to integrate all the different forms of art — anything you happen to love — into an environment that works for you.”
While it’s been more by happenstance than by design, local artists have played a prominent role in the gallery at 170 NE Second Ave. Romaine, an artist herself, has used her connection in the South Florida community to feature up-and-comers largely ranging from Boca Raton to West Palm Beach.
“I always had a passion for art,” said Blumenfeld, 54. “It started with becoming an art history major in college, probably even before then. I took art history as a survey course to fulfill a humanities requirement. I didn’t really know what I had stepped into, but I just fell in love with it.
“It really was the history of the world, with visual arts as your looking glass. That, to me, was attractive. I love history and I just loved the idea of studying history with a visual connection. So that was the beginning of my love of art. I’ve been an admirer and collector of art ever since.”
A Cardinals fan, Blumenfeld said he also has a passion for baseball. “Most people would never guess by meeting me, with my background and all that, that I’m a big baseball fan.”
Meridian Art Experience is sponsoring a Delray Beach art walk from 6 to 9 p.m. the first Friday of each month.
— Brian Biggane
Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How did that influence what you’re doing now?
A. I grew up in a suburb of St. Louis and went to school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and then moved back and got my MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. I fell in love with art after taking an art history class in college.
Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A. I had my own company for a short time and then went on a corporate track for a good stretch of time. I went to Ralston-Purina, which owned what was then Continental Baking, which was comprised of Hostess and Wonder. I helped develop Mini-Muffins, Brownie Bites, all of that, and that was great fun. I went to Nabisco from there, helped them introduce some Healthy Choice snacks and crackers.
Then I moved on to Coca-Cola in Atlanta, where I was in the global marketing group and really learned the essence of branding. I was there for several years, traveled the globe and really learned about culture.
Then, for family reasons, I moved back to the Northeast, up to New York, and went to work for Citibank in the late ’90s, when everybody was doing something in the Internet. I was leading a marketing group to create the virtual bank, which ultimately became Citibank.com.
Then I went to work for Ameritrade for a while as chief marketing officer. Then the bubble burst, and the people from Ameritrade wanted me to go to Omaha, Neb., to run their marketing, and I said no thanks. … I took a [severance] package from them and ended up starting my own marketing consulting firm in Connecticut.
My husband joined us a year later and we adopted a son, then decided to move to Central Florida to increase our son’s educational opportunities. He was 6 at the time. At that point I took some time away from the business.
When I went back I ended up running our nonprofit piece of the business. We’ve done work in the areas of equality, education, autism, etc. I’m very proud of my efforts in that area.
I’ve introduced a lot of new products along the way, which has been really fun. I did a Super Bowl commercial for Ameritrade.
Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
A. I believe people should be sponges; that’s how I’ve operated. You learn from everything, and where there’s an opportunity to take on assignments, there’s an opportunity to learn. And if you do that, it opens up your listening, it changes how you deal with people, if you sort of take that approach.
Q. How did you choose to make your home in coastal Delray Beach?
A. The big reason was my son, who will be 15 in July. He’s gifted in math and science and we were looking for the right place for him to move forward in his development. Having my own marketing firm made us fortunate enough to be able to live wherever we wanted.
The move to Delray also proved to fit nicely with my own move toward the arts scene in Central Florida. One of the things we got involved with in Orlando was the Flying Horse Editions. Flying Horse is a fine-arts studio sponsored by the University of Central Florida; it’s part of their curriculum. They created a program where they had about 25 or 30 families who paid money, and that would fund three or four artists through the course of the year. Then at the end of the season each family got one piece from each of the artists. So you would get three or four pieces, a numbered print. It’s a phenomenal program. They’ve started doing art fairs and all of that, and I was on their board for a while. That was the early engage for me. I was involved with the arts to some degree up in the Northeast, but not the way I got involved in Central Florida.
I was also one of the members of the patrons committee for the Winter Park Arts Festival.
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Delray Beach?
A. The weather. I don’t like the cold. I’ve lived in St. Louis, New Jersey, and I don’t miss any of that. My favorite part about living in Florida is watching winter on TV. And I believe summer is the best-kept secret in South Florida. We never get as hot as St. Louis. They have 10-, 15-day stretches of 95- to 105-degree weather. That doesn’t happen here. If it gets to 92 that’s a hot day here, and then it rains.
Q. What book are you reading now?
A. I’ve just started Captivate by Vanessa Van Edwards. It’s all about social engagement. How to work a room, how to be social, how to engage people. It’s fascinating.
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
A. I like country, I like pop, I like rock ’n’ roll, I like my old ’80s music. Any sort of rock, pop, contemporary, country genre. I like the anthem songs as well, especially if I’m trying to be moved or inspired. But I’m generally more moved by the performance than by the music itself. So if I’m at a concert, or if I’m watching TV and somebody is doing a performance, it’s like, wow. So I’m more visual.
Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
A. Two. One I wrote in my high school yearbook. It’s from James Thurber and reads, “Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.” That to me is how I wish the world truly operated. The other is something I say all the time, an expression I picked up from a friend in Winter Park: “It’s all good.” Not sure who first said it, but it works for me.
Q. Have you had mentors in your life?
A. Professionally I’ve had them in almost every place I’ve worked. Whether it’s a boss or a peer, usually the boss that has helped and guided me through any career situation I might have in front of me, good or bad. Personally, one of my greatest mentors is my husband, Chris Cooney. We’re good for each other that way, in being able to coach each other. And of course, my parents; they did a lot for me. Family means a lot to me.
Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
A. I’d love to have Brad Pitt do it, but more realistically it’s probably Stanley Tucci.
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