Escaping the snow of this prolonged winter, I spent the weekend in Florida and found interesting things happening from coast to coast.
CENTENNIAL CURIOS Palm Beach is celebrating its centennial year, and one notable feature of the citywide celebration is “100 Years/100 Collectors,” an exhibit of keepsakes collected by local residents over the years. Guest curator Barbara Harbach (a part-time Fairfield resident) invited the resort town’s prominent families to share favorite possessions with the community.
The result is a wonderfully eclectic show that includes a portrait of Dina Merrill at age 4, Paul Butler’s huge silver trophy won at Gulfstream polo, the Charles Lindsay family’s giant Picasso ceramic urn created for the pianist Arthur Rubinstein, and works by four generations of Phippses. A charming 1944 watercolor depicts Tiffany’s John Loring and his brother with sailboats on the town beach. And Harbach offered her own dramatic photograph of elephants shot by Peter Beard.
Notable artists were drawn from Palm Beach collections, including John Singer Sargent, Norman Rockwell, Larry Rivers, Frank Stella and Fernando Botero. James R. Borynack contributed his Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington and the Norton Museum sent over Renoir’s “Man with a Carnation.”
Nothing’s for sale, as each of the treasures will return to its own grand house after the exhibit closes, but until then everyone’s invited to get a taste of the at-home Palm Beach lifestyle.
Wally Findlay Gallery, 165 Worth Avenue, Palm Beach. (561) 655-2090. www.wallyfindlay.com.
CAMBODIAN CAUSE Across the state, a reception in the heart of authentic old Naples introduced the community to Somaly Mam, a remarkable Cambodian survivor of sex trafficking whose foundation fights sex trade around the globe.
Hosted by Joan and Alexis Tobin in the picturesque Third Street South neighborhood of shops founded by Joan’s father Junkie Fleischmann, the gathering was an opportunity for local residents to hear how the organization rescues girls from brothels, providing shelter, safety, education, and reintegration into society. www.somaly.org
Former victim Somaly Mam helps rescue girls from the sex trade
FUTURE FOCUS The possibilities that salt water agriculture will help solve the food shortage, that women will emerge to lead the Middle East, and that your stem cells could be cultivated to grow you a new liver were among the new-age ideas that lured retired executives and professionals off the seven-mile stretch of pristine Naples beach sand and into the “Imagine Solutions Conference 2011.”
Participants assembled for two days at the Ritz-Carlton to address the challenges of Energy, the Economy, Medicine, Education and Leadership. More than 40 innovators presented fast-paced presentations on their provocative subjects. During the breaks and meals, participants networked with speakers and each other, pondering strategies for the future.
In its second year, and patterned on the TED and Davos conferences, “Imagine” is organized by Naples residents Randy Antik and Tom Everist to foster private leadership aimed toward solving today’s economic and social issues. Videos of the sessions will be broadcast on the website, and plans are already in store for “Imagine 2012.” www.ImagineSolutionsConference.com
Imagine Solution Conference participants attend a presentation
Forum Gallery booth at ArtNaples. Photo courtesy of Forum Gallery
ART FAIR Out at the Naples International Pavilion, works by Robert Indiana, Botero, Chuck Close, Jim Dine and Robert Motherwell were up for sale at the inaugural Art Naples fine art fair. Forty-five international dealers from Europe, Latin America, Asia and America brought paintings, sculptures, photography, jewelry, fine art glass, and video installations. Noted Naples collector Robert Edwards was interviewed about his own “Passion of Collecting,” and a lecturer from the Naples Museum discussed Orozco, Soriano, Friedeberg and other artists represented in its Latin American Art Collection. www.artfairnaples.com
