CHart Magazine - Winter Issue

The mission of the Flamingo Clay Studio of the Palm Beaches is the empowerment of artists through the cooperative provision of affordable studio space, a commercial outlet for their work and the sharing of the arts through community outreach.

The Flamingo Clay Studio, a non-profit artists’ cooperative, created the Clay Glass Metal Stone Gallery at 605 Lake Avenue in downtown Lake Worth Florida as a cooperative outlet for local 3-D artists. The gallery is home to 28 artists. The storefront housing the gallery was donated by Jay and Cathy Bernhardt until they sell or rent the building. The gallery opened on May 1 of 2009.
Flamingo Clay Studio is actively seeking a permanent new home in the Lake Worth area.

Lake Worth city officials and the Lake Worth CRA have designated the area an artist Mecca. They are working to create a nurturing atmosphere for local and soon to become local Lake Worth artists.
The artists’ cooperative is looking for 15,000 square feet of indoor studio and gallery space and an addition 10,000 square feet of outdoor space for a kiln complex.

Living in the Clay, Glass, Metal, Stone Age
By Erica K. Landau
Living in the Clay, Glass, Metal, Stone Age

Affordable studio space is always a problem for artists: they’re bound by popular idioms to starve. Couple that with the South Florida real estate market, and it seems like they can’t catch a break.

The Flamingo Clay Studio, a not-for-profit collective of clay, glass, metal and stone artists, has tried to respond to the problem. The co-op houses the work of 21 local artists and artisans, and Friday’s exhibit will showcase the work of three: Betty Wilson, Tracy Rosof-Peterson, and Norm Glitzen. One of Wilson’s pieces, Dual Nature, combines the utilitarian quality of a table with a colorful glass top. The glass presents two large eyes peering straight ahead and a face divided in half, one side yellow, the other a dark red. Rosof-Peterson creates carefully-crafted pottery in interesting shapes and textures. Unlike Wilson, some of Rosof-Peterson’s pots seem anti-utilitarian, molded to a point like skinny water spouts and thus unable to stand on their own. Finally Glitzen, a self-described environmentalist, is a jack of all materials, working with clay, metal, wood, and stone. One very Florida-inspired piece includes a large, metal skeletal sculpture of a sailfish, seemingly a sign of respect for the majestic creature as well as a warning about its precarious state due to over-fishing.

These works and many more by Wilson, Rosof-Peterson, and Glitzen will be on display tonight at 6 at Flamingo Clay Studio Artist Co-op Gallery, located at 605 Lake Ave., Lake Worth. Admission is free. For more information call 561-588-8344, or visit clayglassmetalstone.com.