In addition to courses and workshops available at its two campuses for a fee, free educational lectures and seminars are often offered to the public.

“It’s always been our goal to make the arts available to everyone,” said Robin Berrie, marketing manager.

Crealdé features a Mediterranean-style main campus with two galleries and a sculpture garden, which may be enjoyed free of charge.

The Alice & William Jenkins Gallery features not only Florida artists but national and international artists that aren’t shown in other museums in the area. Showalter Hughes Community Gallery shows the work of student, faculty and community artists.

The Contemporary Sculpture Garden is home to the work of more than 60 Florida artists including the renown Johann and Kristin Eyefells, Cheryl Bogdanowitsch and Michael Galletta.

The 34-year-old campus is set for renovation in the coming months thanks to a grant from the Orange County Cultural Affairs Council. In addition to new roofing, air conditioning and a walkway, new landscaping is being added.

As part of the project the public is invited to participate in creating colorful mosaic at the front of the campus. Tiles for the mosaic can be personalized for $20 each. A Facebook page, call Crealde Welcome Garden, has been created for the project.

The school’s second campus is the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, which opened in the historic Hannibal Square area of Winter Park in 2007. The center is run by the school in partnership with the City of Winter Park. It includes a permanent exhibit telling the story of West Winter Park’s roots as an African-American community through photographs and oral histories.

“You really get a sense of the vibrant history of this community through the personal histories of its members, which include our docents,” Phylis Moore, Heritage Center docent manager.

Various visiting exhibits focus on African-American history, art and cultural preservation. The current exhibit is “Against All Odds: The Original Highwaymen Painters.” Nineteen of the original 19 Highwaymen will be represented in the show.

The Highwaymen were a group of African-American artists from the Fort Pierce area who painted Florida landscapes in the segregationist, post-World War II era.

The visiting exhibition and others at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center is funded through a Tourist Development Grant from Orange County Government, Department of Arts and Cultural Affairs and the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Winter Park.

“We invite the public to take advantage of the wide variety of art exhibits, classes and programming we offer,” Berrie said.

For more information on the Crealdé School of Art or to become a member: visit www.crealde.org For more information on the Heritage Center visit www.hannibalsquareheritagecenter.org

 

Gary Haas, an enthusiastic pirate featured in one of the Trailblazers’ parties.

 

By Kathy Hagood
For Al Día Today

Passed its 20th year mark, lasting much longer than the typical singles organization.

The group’s first meeting was held at Golden Corral on Merritt Island, and 10 people attended. Now the club, at 400 members strong, celebrated its anniversary on May 30 at the Cocoa Beach Country Club.

The club for middle age and senior singles was originally designed as “an adventurous outing club for singles” and continues to pursue that vision. Members are quick to say it’s not a dating club.

“That being said, several dozen couples have met at or been active together in Trailblazers and then married,” said Baughman, who has been a member for 19 years and is a former president of the group.

Couples who meet or have dated in Trailblazers are allowed to continue their memberships after they marry. Otherwise membership is limited to those who are single.

“For some of us Trailblazers is like an extended family,” Baughman said. “We orphans, those who don’t have family in Brevard, often spend holidays like Christmas and Easter together.”

When the club was first formed there was little for middle-aged singles to do in Brevard. Having outgrown the bar scene, they were looking for more outdoor activities, like biking, canoeing, kayaking, hiking and camping, and fun get-togethers such as bonfires on the beach and pirate parties, Baughman said.

Early on Baughman organized a Trailblazers trip to Savannah, and has been organizing an annual trip ever since. He also leads a trip to the Keys each year.

“Because we go as a group during the off season we get tremendous deals on travel,” Baughman said.

The membership is also giving as well as fun-loving, and often participates as a group in nonprofit events like Relay for Life, March of Dimes and beach clean ups.

At the high water mark of its membership rolls, the group had more than 800 members. Three of the founding members, Read, Julie Jordan and Joy Adams are still with the group.

While the average age of members originally was about 45 years old, the average has shifted as longtime members have aged, and now is about 55 years. The oldest member, Harold Bush, is a spry 90 years old.

“We’re still active and young at heart, but we do need some new blood. We’re hoping to get some younger members to keep things going. I’d love to hand over the leadership baton,” Baughman said.

Many singles in their 30s and 40s don’t know much about Trailblazers. Some of them are active with a Trailblazers’ spin-off calendar of events and newsletter, formerly called Singlesfocus.org. Led by former Trailblazer officer Gary Haas, Singlesfocus.org had a broader reach and more flexibility to partner with various organizations, Haas said.

“My inspiration definitely came from my experience with Trailblazers, but there were things I wanted to do I couldn’t do in Trailblazers. I wanted to kick it up a notch,” Haas said.

Haas, who often wears a signature decorative top hat and is often seen at Brevard County events, has now regrouped under the name of MadHatterProductions.com. He organizes parties, concerts and other activities aimed at both singles and nonsingles, including an annual pirates party and toga party at the Cocoa Beach Pier.

“I’m still catering to singles, about 90 percent of my newsletter subscribers are single, but I’m no longer singles obsessed. For some events that I organize to work I need a broader audience,” said Haas, who currently has a database of 12,000 subscribers to his e-mail event newsletter.

For more information on Trailblazers, visit http://www.trailblazers-club.com/
For more information on other singles events, visit http://www.madhatterpromotions.com

 

Back to top