Jazz fusion band Oriente will perform at the Arts Garage on May 11. Photo provided
By Greg Stepanich
Although the arts center she has run for two years was in danger last month of going the way of the Florida Philharmonic or Ballet Florida, Alyona Ushe says she didn’t allow herself to think of that possibility.
“I didn’t have the luxury,” said Ushe, executive director of the Arts Garage in Delray Beach. “If you’re going to fight for something you believe in, you have to believe you’re going to be successful.”
And the fight to keep the Arts Garage in place at 180 NE First St. ended April 16 with a decision by the Delray Beach City Commission to leave the nonprofit where it is for now, rather than make it surrender its city-owned space to a law firm that wanted to use it for a call center. The commission gave the Garage 2½ years to raise enough money to buy the space, and Ushe is aiming to bring in about $3.5 million.
“We’re convinced that we can do it,” said Ushe, whose office now has six full-time employees.
She may expand that to $5 million if the Arts Warehouse on Northeast Third Street is added in. The city bought that building for around $1.1 million in 2010.
“In our ideal world, in a perfect world, we would have an arts district in Pineapple Grove that would have two cornerstones, two anchors. One would be the Warehouse and the other would be us,” she said. “With the Artists Alley exploding as well, it begins to feel like a true arts district.
“And hopefully, we can stop having this knee-jerk reaction to everything that happens here, and look at a strategic plan, look at what’s best for the city, look at what’s best for the arts district, for the artists. ”
As it happens, it will be a busy May for the Garage.
In theater, the Garage’s Performing Arts School will present the dance musical Footloose (May 16-19), while in music, jazz pianist Dolph Castellano (May 10) and Miami timba band Tiempo Libre (May 25) are scheduled, along with jazz fusion band Oriente (May 11), funk-Latin band Aaron Lebos Reality (May 24), and blues guitarist Doug Deming with harmonica player Dennis Gruenling (May 18). The month opens May 3 and May 4 with Voices of Pride, the gay men’s chorus, in two concerts to mark the ensemble’s 10th anniversary.
Programs through the summer are booked, and the group is working now on the upcoming season, Ushe said. Lou Tyrrell’s Theater at Arts Garage, which wrapped its season last month with the world premiere of Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs, will mount four productions next season, one more than it did in 2012-13.
Ushe said she was “humbled” by the support Arts Garage has received.
“It’s a new lease on life,” she said. “We have time to make a significant difference and solidify permanently our future here in this county.”
To donate to Arts Garage, call 450-6357 or visit www.artsgarage.org.
It’s your choice: The Grammy-nominated concert choir Seraphic Fire, which added Boca Raton’s St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church to its regular roster of venues two seasons ago, closes its current season at the church May 9 with a program called Cathedral Classics.
This will be a concert of requested pieces drawn from ideas submitted from 323 people on the choir’s email list. As of late April, the program hadn’t been finalized, but some of the most popular choices were Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere, Mozart’s Ave verum corpus, the Alleluia of Randall Thompson and Thomas Tallis’ If Ye Love Me.
The Boca concert comes two days after the release of the group’s newest disc, titled Seraphic Fire. It’s a collection primarily of contemporary sacred music. The choir, founded by Patrick Dupré Quigley, also learned last month that it is the recipient of a $12,500 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support its next recording, which will be called American Voices and should be released in September 2014.
Seraphic Fire will return to St. Gregory’s for the 2013-’14 season, which will include a newly commissioned completion by American composer Gregory Spears of the Mozart Requiem, J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, and Haydn’s Seven Last Words. The choir’s two Christmas-themed concerts — a selection of carols by candlelight and Handel’s Messiah — have been sellouts at St. Gregory’s, and the other concerts have had attendance in the 70-to-80 percent range.
“We surpassed our expectations in attendance there, and that goes in hand in hand with the level of support we get through donations,” communications manager Michael Burgess said. “This is a community that has embraced Seraphic Fire.”
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at the church just outside Mizner Park. Tickets are $38. Call (305) 285-9060 or visit www.seraphicfire.org to buy them in advance.
This image by George Banet of Highland Beach is in the All-Florida Juried Competition at the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
State of talent: For more than six decades, the Boca Museum of Art has hosted a juried competition devoted solely to artists from Florida. The 62nd version of the All-Florida Juried Competition and Exhibition opens at the museum May 8 and runs through July 14.
About 550 artists from across the state submitted pieces. This year’s juror, Mark Scala, chief curator at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, chose 149 pieces by 122 artists for the exhibit, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, videos and installations.
Kelli Bodle, an assistant curator at the museum and the curator of the exhibition, said photography is a major part of this exhibition, along with large abstract paintings.
“In society, more people are picking up cameras. They’re more convenient now, and people are using them for fine arts careers,” Bodle said. “That is definitely the most predominant form for this show.”
Bodle said the exhibit demonstrates that Florida has substantial arts activity.
“From my personal perspective as someone who has lived in the Midwest and the Northeast, we have just as vibrant an arts scene here,” she said. “Miami is burgeoning, Palm Beach is doing well … We’re hitting almost every county or tri-county region (in the show), and every part of the state seems to have their own little artist enclaves.”
The museum at Mizner Park is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Adult admission is $8; seniors 65 and older get in for $6. Call 392-2500 or visit www.bocamuseum.org.
Notes: This is the last month to see the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens’ farewell exhibit by its retiring curator, Tom Gregersen. He shares “cool stuff” from the Delray museum’s vaults as a meditation on the art and culture of Japan. The exhibit closes May 19 … Michael Fagien began his Jazziz magazine 30 years ago while a medical student at the University of Florida, and operated a Jazziz Bistro for some years at the Seminole Casino in Hollywood. His club at Mizner Park, Jazziz Nightlife, opened May 1 with actress-singer Molly Ringwald. Other acts this month include Nicole Henry (May 9), Larry Carlton (May 15-16), the Yellowjackets (May 22-23), and Nestor Torres (May 29-30).
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