OUR PHILANTHROPIC
PROGRAMS:
CHILDREN PROGRAMS
Each year the Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts brings in close to 1,000 kids from the underserved communities in Palm Beach County. These children come from the Boys & Girls Clubs, Scout and Cub Troops, Title 1 Schools, Parks & Recreation Programs, Police Athletic Leagues, For the Children, Adopt a Family, Acts of Kindness and more.
We give the younger kids free classes in Sand Casting, and for the ones twelve years and older, we give them one-one instruction in Glassblowing and Fusing. All of this not only sparks a deep appreciation of art in these kids who otherwise would not have the opportunity to experience this type of activity, but it also opens their minds up to other career paths.
We are excited to announce that starting in the Summer of 2027, we will be adding STEAM Instruction to these sessions. There is so much math and science involved with the making of glass art that we know that this curriculum will enrich and stimulate these young minds!
Kids Learning Sand Casting
One-on-one Instruction in Glassblowing
One-on-one Instruction in Fusing
Our VETERAN PROGRAM
"Fragments Reimagined"
WE ARE SO PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THAT WE WON A $100,000
GRANT FROM THE IMPACT 100 PALM BEACH COUNTY!
We have partnered with the VA Health System of West Palm Beach to start an exciting new program for the underserved Veterans suffering from PTSD in our county. A VA 'Art Therapist' vets each person that goes through our program. The initial program of 'Fragments Reimagined" gives each veteran two 2-hour classes, one day a week, in each of the three mediums that we teach: Glassblowing, Fusing and Flame-working. It take six weeks for them to complete this introductory session. We also offer them free lunch to those who want to partake. This offers one more step out of their isolation and helps to socially reintegrate back into society. The above grant will help 72 veterans through this program for the next two years!
After the initial introductory 6-week course, many veteran want to continue their learning. That is why we have initiated the "Fragments Reimagined-Extended Learning Program." This will allow them to take another 6-week session in a single selected medium. We raised some funding for this program through last year's 'Call to the Heart' that takes place at our gala. However, we are seeking additional funds for this part of the program.
A Male and Female Vet Receives Flame-Working Instruction
Our YOUNG ADULTS
WITH DISABILITIES PROGRAM
We have partnered successfully with Arts4All Palm Beach County for the past six years and recently started a new collaboration with the Boca School of Autism to nurture growth, spark imagination, and boost self-esteem through recreational art therapy. We offer free classes to these groups in glassblowing and fusing.
Glassblowing: Students work one-on-one with a teacher, building trust and camaraderie while focusing on directions and developing new motor skills. The other students get to watch the forms melt, expand, change colors and become a shape, which can be very exciting for them as they wait for their turn.
Glass fusing: This is a more independent art form. Students make many of their own choices and decisions to create pictures and objects by gluing different colors of cut-glass shapes together. The piece will then be 'fused,' in a kiln by the instructor to create a solid work of art. This takes careful selection of shapes and colors to create one’s vision and enhances spatial and critical thinking.
The life-changing impact of being able to say or feel, "I did this myself," is what 'Glass Explorations' is all about. We provide this underserved community with the opportunity to increase their artistic skills and foster creativity and critical thinking in a cultural environment. Creating art at Benzaiten opens avenues of communication and expression, improving social skills and self-confidence.
OUR SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
Every year we award up to $10,000 in scholarships to deserving talented students or volunteers who want to advance their skills in art glass. Our first such scholarship was awarded to David Mateo who now works for us as a professional gaffer. Here is his story:
One Man's Journey Into Art
The David Mateo Story
David Mateo’s journey towards his chosen career in art was anything but average. After all, in the rough, tight-knit, Guatemalan, working-class neighborhood, like the one where David grew up, no kid would dare to imagine a career in art. It just wasn’t done. How would his father tolerate such a departure from their shared collective reality? Of course, that was exactly the typical reaction one would expect, and the patriarch of David’s family was no exception. The Mayan culture, as so many cultures around the world, is set up as a male-dominated society. However, as we all know, many households within such societies are often ruled by its women. Here’s where David’s dreams of an art career got a helping hand. Constantly drawing and doodling from an early age, he obtained the encouragement from his mother to keep his artistic impulses alive and well.
David Mateo in the Foreground Learning from
Board Member and Renowned Artist, Rob Stern
David lived in the second poorest city in Palm Beach County, Lake Worth, attending South Grade Elementary School, one of the city’s many Title 1 Schools. He was able to take some art classes, and one day, at one of the school’s art exhibits, a scout from the Bak Middle School of the Arts approached David about applying to his school. With help from his teachers and other kids who had gone through the same process, he filled out the necessary application forms and set up a date for his ‘Try Out.’ He’ll never forget that day. Full of nervous tension, he went to the Bak MSOA’S campus where he and other potential students were led into a room with four kids at each table. These tables were stocked with sheets of card-stock paper, scissors and tape, and each child was given the same assignment: To build a structure using the least amount of tape as possible. He must have done a good job as he was accepted, and subsequently attended Bak for the next three years. After that, he went onto the Dreyfoos School of the Arts and ultimately would finish his Junior and Senior years at Lake Worth High School, where he was encouraged to take part in the city’s famous ‘Street Painting Festival.’
His schooling, spent predominantly in schools dedicated to the arts, offered him a tremendous education in art that he would have never received attending ordinary schools. Thinking art consisted mainly of painting and drawing when he began, his mind opened to what else was possible. He learned color theory, art history, different styles and disciplines, trying his hand at etching, sculpting and many other mediums.
The Center and Its Board Chipped in to Send David to Pilchuck
After high school he went to work on a cleaning crew with his parents. He might have been stuck in that job had it not been for a sign he noticed about a place called Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts, which had glassblowing classes. He had to check it out. Once in the center, watching people doing the extraordinarily hard work of blowing glass into beautiful creations, he was hooked. Determined to accumulate the necessary money to take the six-week beginner’s course, he saved up enough to cover half the tuition and paid the other half with his tax return’s dividend check. This was a determined young man. He began volunteering when he could and the Benzaiten’s staff was so impressed with his abilities and determination that he won a small scholarship that enabled him to take the center’s next level, eight-week course.
Since then, he has won another, larger scholarship and finally was sponsored by the center, and friends of the center, to be Rob Stern’s assistant at Pilchuk, the internationally famous glass school founded by Dale Chihuly. During this stint he met many hard working professional artists who have made their careers in the field of glassblowing, sharing in their comradery and experiencing their strong sense of community and shared knowledge. He understood the fullness of what it meant to call yourself a professional artist. Yes, it could be fun, but it also meant many long years of hard work to hone your skills and to ultimately develop a signature style that you could call your own.
He now works at Benzaiten full time, which has enabled him to quit his cleaning job. Working as an assistant to the many different professional artists who rent time at Benzaiten has empowered David and made him proficient enough in his skills so that he now has his own website and is selling his own creations online and through the center. A career in art is definitely not for the faint of heart.
David Making One of His Signature Roses
