HomeMy WebLinkAbout1968-04-01 Area Responds To Art Center (Miami Herald)0
tlj
arE
rea esponds
To Art Center
By MARTHA MUSGROVE
Herald Staff Writer
NORTH PALM BEACH — It's tucked between
the tennis courts and the swimming pool.
Overhead the ballet troupe thunders across a
black, varnished floor.
But in the basement of the Municipal Art Center,
director Mrs. Norma Y. Rachlin studies a free -form
plaster sculpture rising from coat hangers and an
undershirt frame.
"I like to think of myself as a painter," she says.
I A paint splattered grey smock adds evidence to the
fact, "But whateverI'm doing at 'the minute is the
most exciting thing — whether it's clay, etching,
whatever it is it couldn't be better."
She tosses a cover over the still life apples, ex
plaining "We have creepy creatures" and climbs the
worn, wooden spiral staircase to her "office."
There's plenty to do at the center situated in
seven rooms of the once -elegant home of Sir Harry
Oaks, converted first to the North Palm Beach golf
course clubhouse •then cultural center housing the
municipal library and dance studio as well.
The enthusiasm of the redhaired art director, a
graduate Of the Rhode Island School of Design and
for 25 years a Massachusetts art teacher, is conta-
gious among her 125 students. It courses over pot-
tery, print -making and drawing, painting and crafts
including sculpture, enamel and glass fusion.
"People come, enjoy themselves and tell me I do
so much for them . , but I don't really do anything
for them, They do it for themselves. Our thought at
the center is for people to enjoy themselves and find
that latent streak of creativity."
Once found the streak seems to explode whether
it's in 10-year-old youngsters chalking Easter bunnies,
a high school junior seeking an appraisal of Vincent
Van Gogh for a school report, a housewife etching
zinc lilies or a retired physician turning delicate relish
dishes and declaring, "I wish I'd discovered this 20
years ago."
Most of the works will find their way to living
rooms, dens, or one of the clothes line sales of the
North Palm Beach Art Society.