By Anne Geggis
Six proposals for filling the Crest Theatre building with art programs — including one from the storied Boca Raton Museum of Art — appeared to fall flat in front of the Delray Beach City Commission, at least as a long-term proposition.
The Crest Theatre went dark five years ago. And now a new majority on the City Commission is looking to revitalize the city’s artistic life that has revolved around Old School Square, the former site of Delray Beach’s high and elementary schools. It is now home to the theater, the Cornell Art Museum, the Fieldhouse (the former gymnasium) and an outdoor performance stage called the Pavilion.
Following a discussion earlier in the month about who should run activities at the other parts of Old School Square, six proposals auditioned at a May 21 commission meeting to use classroom space at the Crest Theatre building, where substantial renovations were recently completed.
After hearing the pitches about all sorts of art forms that would be presented and taught there, Mayor Tom Carney said he wanted to limit the term of use currently under discussion for a management agreement to months, not years, because of other issues at play.
The stumbling block is that the theater part of the facility is not ready for prime time and still needs more repairs. So, the mayor agreed with the city attorney’s suggestion that the city offer a permit to an interested party who wants to use the classrooms this summer, instead of issuing a long-term lease.
“A permit gives you a lot more flexibility than a lease would,” said Lynn Gelin, city attorney.
Flexibility is what the city needs until the theater portion of the facility is renovated, Carney said. The scope of what the city will cover of the needed renovations has not been determined and budget discussions for the coming fiscal year are just beginning, he said.
“I really think we need to sit back and decide how we want this place to operate and not just turn it over to one group,” Carney said.
The two candidates with local track records said later that using the classrooms just for the summer wouldn’t work for them.
Boca Raton Museum of Art’s summer session already has 700 youngsters signed up to take classes. Annually, the art school usually draws 5,000 registrants, museum officials said.
“We can’t just pick up and go,” abruptly switching classes that are ready to start to the Crest Theatre, only to be there for the summer months, said Irv Lippman, the museum’s executive director.
Moving the museum’s art school for at least a few years to the Crest Theatre building’s classrooms, some of them refurbished with Dade County pine, seemed like a meant-to-be kind of thing, Lippman said. Currently, Boca Raton’s museum art school is housed in a 60-year-old building that needs to be rebuilt, if it’s going to continue to be used.
“We thought that, with the Delray facility ready to go, that made it very desirable,” Lippman said. “But I guess it’s not so ready to go.”
Deborah Dowd, vice chairwoman of Old School Square Center for the Arts board that previously operated Old School Square, said of a short-term permit: “I can’t possibly imagine how that would work. How could we possibly get teachers? Teachers want something much more secure and long term.”
Commissioners Rob Long and Angela Burns both voiced support for the Old School Square Center for the Arts bid, admiring the timeline presented for its relaunch. But Vice
Mayor Juli Casale had a lot to say about the art nonprofit’s last stint at the helm of the city’s public arts effort.
“I will just go backwards to a couple of things,” Casale said. “We had an auditor produce a document that showed approximately 22 violations. They weren’t small. …”
The nonprofit group has been credited with turning the campus into cultural arts venues that proved a draw to the heart of the city’s downtown during its 30 years in charge. But that run in the city-owned public facilities halted in 2021 with the City Commission ending the group’s lease amid allegations of financial mismanagement. The organization then sued the city, some commissioners personally and even some of its former board members — a suit that went away after a commission less hostile to the organization took office last year.
Casale’s assertions produced commotion from the Commission Chambers audience, and Long began challenging the Old School Square nonprofit’s ouster that Casale had voted for during her last stint on the commission dais. Their exchanges had the mayor threatening to end the meeting more than once.
More discussions of who will occupy these classrooms are likely at the June 4 City Commission meeting, city officials said.
Earlier, at a May 14 workshop, a request from the Downtown Development Authority for the city to increase its funding for the other facilities in Old School Square by nearly $500,000 from its current level of slightly more than $1 million took center stage. And that requested increase in funding didn’t go over well with the newly seated mayor, either.
The DDA staff took over running most of Old School Square in 2023.
“My view is you’re almost like caretakers here, and you’re helping us get back on our feet with the tax dollars which you’re using, but that we should try to migrate towards … some kind of external group trying to run it,” Carney said, noting that a nonprofit would likely be better than a city entity at raising money. “As talented as your staff is, and they are talented, they … did not have the reach that I think they could have had in order to fully develop the campus.”
The deadline for either party to terminate the current agreement passed on April 24, leading to the first, five-year renewal of the agreement to run through Sept. 24, 2029, according to city records.
Casale, who campaigned with Carney for her return to the commission, said she’s confident that the DDA is moving Old School Square in the right direction.
DDA staff members “could not go out” for donations “until now, but now they are able to, so I think there’s going to be a turnaround,” she said.
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