Well, well, well … are you ready? Ready for what you might be asking.
It’s the start of the Arts season here in Palm Beach County.
The area is alive with plays, concerts, art exhibits, outdoor art shows, garden museums and so much more that it would take an entire book to tell you everything happening this season.

Well as much as I would like to fill this book with a full calendar of events for the Arts, I just simply can’t. But I can give you a brief overview of a few events you might want to plan to visit.

For this issue I am going to concentrate on the area museums and some of their new and upcoming exhibits. Each museum has a full schedule of exhibits, bit I thought I would pull out a few exhibits I deemed interesting. But remember, your interests and my interests may not be the same, so check out their full schedule on their sites.

Henry Morrison Flagler Museum

Running now until January 8th, is a fascinating show called “First Train to Paradise: The Railroad That Went To Sea”. Celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the Over-Sea Railroad completion by Henry Flagler, the exhibit will highlight the final link in the East Coast Railroad from Jacksonville to Key West. Here you will see stories from the workers who helped to build this marvel (once called “the Eighth Wonder of the World”) and how they risked their lives and how some lost their lives to make this vision happen. This exhibit will carry the largest collection of documents related to the Over-Sea Railroad. Starting January 31st and running until April 22nd is “A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls”. This exhibit will showcase an unusual aspect of Tiffany glass by showing the women who played a crucial role in Tiffany’s designs and creations. The show will feature more than 50 different styles of Tiffany lamps, windows and ceramics designed by Clara Driscoll and other women from the studio. The exhibit will present materials on Driscoll’s role as a working woman for Tiffany in the early 1900’s.

Norton Museum Of Art

A fascinating exhibit coming to the museum is entitled, “Cocktail Culture” running from December 15 through March 11. This show contains multimedia exhibits that feature the “cocktail hour” through the lens of fashion and design. The show will present more than 150 objects depicting “the cocktail hour” with such things as attire, accessories, illustrations, ads, photography and other objects taken from the 1920’s to the present day. A truly unusual exhibit coming here is called “The Corning Museum of Glass Hot Glass Roadshow” running from January 18th through March 25. This is not your typical exhibit as the entire exhibit is a traveling venue featured in a mobile 28-foot trailer “hotshop”. Corning glassblowers will be here demonstrating complex hot glassmaking techniques in this state-of-the-art “hotshop”. The glass blowers will have live demonstrations, hands-on-workshops and fantastic performances for child to adult to marvel at.

Boca Raton Museum Of Art

Running now through December 4th is a wonderful exhibit called, “The World According To Fedrico Uribe”. This piece will feature the works of Uribe who is known for creating unusual pieces with everyday found objects. You will see such interesting things as a life-sized Farmer created out colored pencils, life-sized palm trees formed out of book pages and spines as well as other pieces created with such objects as corks, pencils, mop heads and sneaker soles to name just a few. This is truly fascinating exhibit for the kids and the adults to see. From January 18th until March 18th, stop by and see “Martin Schoeller: Closeup”. New York based photographer, Martin Schoeller, has taken celebrities, actors, politicians and unknown people and placed them all in the same lighting and the same pose and photographed them. You will see these “close up” subjects in a rather stark and honest view with a powerful feel to each photograph.

Of course, these are not the only exhibits at these museums and these are not the only museums in the county. I only pulled out a selection that I thought would peak your interest this season. So please make plans to visit one the area’s museums (galleries, concert halls, etc...) and help support our Arts in Palm Beach County. We all win when Art plays a part in enriching our lives.