By John Pacenti
Delray Beach city commissioners positioned staff to begin programming at the Crest Theatre by allocating $118,000 for “rapid activation” of its Creative Arts School, intent on utilizing the building’s classrooms that are ready even if the playhouse is not.
With classes anticipated to start in mid-October, the project will be overseen by Communications Director Gina Carter, who has a master’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The measure was unanimously adopted at the commission’s July 9 meeting.
“We want to reduce the cost and we want to cut down on all the things that slow down the government, like hiring, contracts, all of these things. We want to move along as quickly as possible,” Carter told commissioners at the meeting.
The city will leverage available resources and key staff, such as Carter, her four-member staff, and some Parks and Recreation Department workers. Carter said the challenge is hiring a full-time program administrator at $80,000 annually and five art instructors who will work on a contractual basis.
Advertisements looking for local talent who could teach art classes at various levels went online July 17.
It’s the latest chapter in the saga of Old School Square, which includes the Crest Theatre, the Cornell Art Museum, the Fieldhouse and the Pavilion.
The smoke still lingers from the dispute between the city’s movers and shakers from when a commission majority — including then-Mayor Shelly Petrolia — in August 2021 voted to sever the lease of longtime operator Old School Square Center for the Arts, citing alleged financial mismanagement.
The commission eventually turned over the keys of the operation to the Downtown Development Authority, except for the Crest Theatre. The theater itself remains in much disrepair after the former operator pulled out lighting and other equipment on the way out the door — but the building’s classrooms have since been renovated and are ready for prime time.
The Boca Raton Museum of Art earlier this year expressed interest in moving its art classes north to the Crest Theatre before withdrawing the proposal.
Carter foresees about 17 classes per term with approximately 20 students each — and the city netting $85,000 a year after paying for the administrator, instructors and supplies.
She wowed much of the commission with her presentation, but Commissioner Rob Long — a supporter of the former leaseholder, Old School Square Center for the Arts — expressed some misgivings.
“It’s crazy that we’re here. In my opinion, we’re out of choices,” he said.
He said he had full faith in Carter and her staff but didn’t understand why there was such a rush. The plan seems “frenetic, and dare I say, desperate,” the commissioner said.
Long told Carter, “You have a super-demanding job already, right? And we are just going to make you work like two full-time jobs?”
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