About Us
Our Mission
Our mission is to ignite the flames of creativity through the magic of hot and cold glass. Our center is a place where artists can realize their full potential, and people can gain a much deeper appreciation of glass art and the creative process behind it through classes, workshops, visiting artist programming, narrated glassblowing demos or by just stopping by to observe. Striving to make art accessible to all, admission is always free.
History
The Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts was the vision of artist and entrepreneur, JB Berkow. Since there are so many artists living in the Southeast United States, Ms. Berkow wanted to provide world-class, 3-D fine art fabrication facility in which to create their work. This project began in 2010 with the development of a prospectus and business plan. Ms. Berkow strategically put together a strong board who networked with civic, social, and key business leaders to gain support for the Benzaiten project. They eventually found the perfect home, a Historic FEC Train Depot building that had been gifted to the City of Lake Worth Beach. The City along with their CRA have been extremely supportive of the Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts. They consider art an integral part of the Lake Worth Beach community, and we are proud to be a partner in the city's artistic, revitalization program.
Why the name Benzaiten? Benzaiten is the Japanese Goddess who represents all things flowing i.e., love, knowledge, music, the river and in our case hot molten glass.
About the Center
We provide beginner, intermediate, and advanced classes in glassblowing, flameworking, and fusing. Besides our regularly scheduled classes we also hold fun workshops as well as master classes conducted by some of our visiting artists. Our 'Venetian Chandelier Workshop' with Fabiano Zanchi brought in students from all over the country!
Our most popular outreach program are our 'Artist Blow-Outs' where we bring in world renowned visiting artists from all over the world to conduct 3-hour demo for the citizens of PBC. These are muscular, fiery shows featuring the visiting artist plus four to five of our staff working to produce a large and complicated work of art accompanied by a live band.
The Benzaiten Center is a 501c3 nonprofit. Through our children's programs, our veteran's programs, our young adults with disabilities programs, and our scholarship programs, we work hard to give back to the community.
Look at All We
Have to Offer!
The Flameworking Studio
A 750 square foot air-conditioned
room with multiple stations, various
torches and multiple kilns.
The Largest Glassblowing Hot Shop
In the State of Florida
A full-service 5,000 square foot facility with four glory holes, two furnaces, multiple annealers, and a large cold-working room.
The Fusing Studio
A 750 square foot air-conditioned room
with large work tables and multiple kilns.
The Glass Casting Studio
A 600 square foot area with state-of-the-art equipment capable of casting small to medium works in glass.
The Gift Shop
A shop jam packed with unique gift items made by our staff. All the money earned from this shop goes towards our extensive Children and Scholarship programming.
The Fine Art Gallery
An elegant 2,000 square foot air-conditioned space that showcases fine art pieces created by the many ‘Visiting Artists’ that we bring in yearly from around the world.
Future Plans Include
A Working Sculpture Garden
This will located in a 4,000 square foot area on the West side of the building. One third of the space will be dedicated to creating large-scale, monumental sculptures. Visitors will have a protected area with bench seating where they can come and watch as these huge creations come to life. The other two-thirds will be devoted to displaying sculptures, plantings, and designated areas where stone-carvers will be working at cement tables and benches.
A Stained Glass Program
This would be integrated within our existing Flameworking Studio
A Jewelry Making Studio
This would be a natural offshoot that will utilize much of the equipment and supplies that we are already using in the Glass Casting Studio.
WE ARE ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR CORPORATIONS TO HELP MAKE THESE FUTURE COMPONENTS OF BENZAITEN COME TO FRUITION. PLEASE CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR MANY UNDERWRITING OPPORTUNITIES!
