Nevelson’s Shadow Chord given new life at Boca museum

“I fell in love with black; it contained all color. It wasn’t a negation of color. It was an acceptance. Because black encompasses all colors. Black is the most aristocratic color of all. … You can be quiet, and it contains the whole thing.”
—Louise Nevelson

American sculptor Louise Nevelson (1899–1988), known for her large, three-dimensional, wooden structures, worked primarily in monochromatic black or white.

Born Leah Berliawsky to Jewish parents in the Soviet Empire in 1899, she emigrated to the U.S. with her family when she was a child.

Growing up in Rockland, Maine, Nevelson moved to New York City to attend high school, where, after graduation, she got a job as a stenographer in a law office and met her future husband, Charles Nevelson, owner of a shipping company.

Calling herself “the original recycler,” Nevelson combed the streets of New York salvaging found objects, wood pieces, and other discarded items to use in her sculptures.

During the mid-1950s, she produced her first series of all-black wood landscape structures, describing herself as the “Architect of Shadow.”

“Shadow and everything else on Earth actually is moving,” she said at the time. “Movement—that’s in color, that’s in form, that’s in almost everything. Shadow is fleeting. … I arrest it and I give it a solid substance.”

Her sculpture titled “Shadow Chord,” created in 1969 and now at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, where it was just restored, was created at the height of her artistic career and embodies the visual language of her work with complex wood assemblages and monochromatic color.

Consisting of stacked boxes completely covered by her signature flat black paint, the sculpture gives this installation the imposing presence of a cityscape that alters the viewer’s perception of light and space.

At the museum since 2001, the work was in need of repair. The restoration was funded by a grant from Bank of America’s Art Conservation Project, a global program providing grants to nonprofit cultural institutions to conserve historically or culturally significant works of art.

Since it began in 2010, the Art Conservation Project has funded the conservation of individual pieces of art through more than 237 projects in 40 countries across six continents.

Among the 13 museums in the U.S. that were awarded the grant this year, the Boca Raton museum is the only one in South Florida to be chosen.

“The Boca Raton Museum of Art is honored to receive this prestigious grant from the Bank of America Conservation Project,” says Irvin Lippman, the museum’s executive director. “Nevelson’s sculpture commands a singular position in our galleries, and we are grateful for this support for its restoration.

“With its engulfing, sensuous environment full of shadows and mystery, this artwork continues to be a favorite for our visitors,” Lippman says.

Nevelson studied painting, voice, and dance at the Art Students League in New York City and held her first solo exhibition in New York in 1941. Over the next several decades, she became a pioneer in large-scale installations, an uncommon achievement for women of her generation.

Nevelson, whose marriage to her husband ended when she was 42, struggled financially much of her life. It wasn’t until her early 70s that Nevelson focused on monumental outdoor sculptures, after being commissioned by Princeton University in 1969 to create a large-scale sculpture for them.

To this day, she is most known for her wooden, wall-like, collage-driven reliefs consisting of multiple boxes and compartments that hold abstract shapes and found objects from chair legs to balusters that she collected from items discarded on the streets.

Nevelson is also the first woman to gain fame in the U.S. for her public art. In 1978, New York City created a sculpture garden, titled Louise Nevelson Plaza and located in Lower Manhattan, to showcase her sculptures. It became the first public space in New York City to be named after an artist.

Her works are in the collections of major art institutions around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., the Tate in London, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

 

The newly refurbished sculpture is currently on view on the second floor at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real. Visit BocaMuseum.org.

 

 

 

Get your art on

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience

 Take a drive to Miami to immerse yourself in the artwork of Vincent Van Gogh in “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience,” a 360-degree, digital art exhibition that invites you to step into the universe of the Dutch painter and see his works like they haven’t been seen before.

The organizers, Exhibition Hub, say that digital art has been shown to have health benefits, including lowering stress, blood pressure, and anxiety, and is soothing to the soul.

The exhibit is installed at the historic 1926 Olympia Theater in Miami with its Mediterranean courtyard. Step into a 20,000-square-foot light and sound spectacular and take a virtual reality trip through eight of Van Gogh’s works and their source of inspiration in “A Day in the Life of the Artist in Arles, France.”

Explore his life, his work, and his secrets through cutting-edge digital projections, a one-of-a-kind virtual reality experience, and an atmospheric light and sound show. Become completely immersed in the works of art around you, and dive deep into the world created by Van Gogh’s imagination and brush strokes.

Five iconic spring paintings to spot at the Van Gogh Immersive Experience include “Almond Blossoms,” “Fishing in Spring,” “Sunflowers,” “Irises,” and “Flowering Orchid.”

The experience is offered in both English and Spanish and runs through Labor Day. Tickets are available through Fever at vangoghexpo.com/miami.

Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami

While you’re in Miami, check out two spring exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (MOCA): “Lonnie Holley: If You Really Knew” and the South Florida Cultural Consortium exhibition. Both exhibitions are on view through Oct. 1.

“If You Really Knew” provides an intimate and focused look at the career of Birmingham, Alabama-born artist and musician Lonnie Holley. The exhibition, curated by MOCA curator Adeze Wilford, features 70 works including foundational “sandstone” sculptures, new works on paper, and large-scale quilt paintings depicting faces. Known for his unique style of art that draws inspiration from his life experiences, Holley often incorporates found objects and everyday materials into his work.

The South Florida Cultural Consortium exhibition brings together 12 artists working across various media, including sculpture, film, and site-specific installations. The exhibition, hosted by MOCA, provides a snapshot of the breadth and depth of the artistic talent in the South Florida art scene. The 12 artists are Farley Aguilar, Gabino A. Castelán, Nereida Garcia-Ferraz, Moira Holohan, Francesco Lo Castro, Tory Mata, Beatriz Monteavaro, Ema Ri, Asser Saint-Val, Carin Wagner, Carrington Ware, and Addison Wolff.

For more information, visit mocanomi.org.

Cultural Council for Palm Beach County—Biennial

Closer to home, head north to Lake Worth for a visit to the Biennial exhibit sponsored by the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County and curated by guest curator Juana Williams. On display are works by more than 30 artists, showcasing the diversity and breadth of work created by artists living and working in the Palm Beaches.

A juried show, presented every two years, the exhibition features works that span a variety of media, including video, painting, photography, and sculpture.

If you go, check out the three award-winning artists from the show: Boca Raton-based artist Fulya Acikgoz earned Best of Show for her oil painting “Turkish Porcelain Plates.” Delray Beach-based artist Lucia Gomez earned second place for her mixed-media oil painting “City Memoirs No. 2853.” And Lake Park-based artist Lupe Lawrence earned third place for her oil painting “I Will Fly a Kite.”

Other regional artists on display include Boca Raton’s Gregory Dirr, a multidisciplinary artist, painter and sculptor Nadine Saitlin, printmaker Ted Shaine, and Delray Beach-based painter Karen H. Salup.

The exhibit is free and open to the public through June 24. Visit www.palmbeachculture.com.

Coral Springs Museum of Art—Juan Abuela, “Pressure”

Fascination with everyday objects, the utilitarian versus the nonutilitarian, is the focus of Juan Abuela’s work. The Cuban-born, Miami-based artist’s work is the consequence of his passion for painting, design, and carpentry. He appropriates different objects to discuss why and how they are stripped of their functions, transformed, and revealed in their new design with the intention to balance matter and spirit.

Abuela researches the inner world and what is not seen: the hidden, mystical, and intangible. It emphasizes the importance of a necessary balance with its counterpart (appearance, brightness, color, tangibility, etc.). These “two universes” must balance in order to function. His work represents the parallel between these two worlds and reflects the different attitudes and behaviors that can create conflict.

The exhibit runs through June 17. Also on display: “Selections from the Permanent Collection,” through June 17; and Luke Jenkins and “Empty Walls,” running June 26 to Aug. 12. Visit CoralSpringsMuseum.org.

 Cornell Museum at Old School Square

 Cornell Museum at Old School Square in downtown Delray Beach presents “The World of Water.” This exhibition explores artistic interpretation and connection to water, the environment, conservation, and sustainability. The showcase includes a total of 43 pieces by 20 artists, featuring textural elements in mixed-media sculpture, installations, glass, digital and film photography, and oil and watercolor paintings.

See glass artist Josh Fradis’s glass sculpture of mother and baby jellyfish titled “Just Follow Me”; conceptual photographer Kasha McKee’s photographs of flamingos splashing in the West Palm Beach fountain; and Boca Raton artist and printmaker Ron Garrett’s “Manatee Lament,” an 84 x 32 x 26, mixed-media sculpture of a motorboat-scarred manatee bringing attention to the environmental threats faced by these “tearful, life-sized gentle giants.”

Boca Raton multimedia artist Lynn Doyal’s photograph, titled “Dew from Heaven,” a digital image painted with acrylic and hand-stitched with beads and thread, depicts an original photograph of a dew drop on a leaf enhanced with her mixed-media technique.

Multidisciplinary artist Dave Rosenthal brings the sound of water to life to augment the viewing experience with a sensory and auditory musical experience.

The exhibition is curated by the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority cultural arts director, Marusca Gatto, and Debby Coles-Dobay of Art Moves You.

All work is for sale by artist. The exhibit runs through June 25. For more information, visit oldschoolsquare.org.

Five places to be a kid again

Spring is the season of reinvigoration–a time to renew your energy and zest for life. As adults, it’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day tasks and obligations that seem to run our lives—work, kids, family, groceries, home maintenance—to the point that we sometimes forget that we just need to relax and have fun. It’s an integral part of our overall happiness and well-being.

So, if you’re ready to blow off some steam, or just get out there and have some good, old-fashioned fun, here are five places you can go to feel like a kid again:

  1. Silverball Retro Arcade

19 NE Third Ave., Delray Beach

Travel back in time and play all of your favorite classic pinball and arcade games. This unique venue has a collection of 200 games ranging from 1931 to the 2000s, including Pac-Man,

Galaga, Centipede, Mortal Kombat, a large variety of pinball machines, and original Coney Island Skeeball. Bonus: no coins necessary. One flat entry fee gets you unlimited play inside. Tuesdays are two for $25 all day, so bring a friend.

  1. K1 Speedway

2950 Stirling Road, Hollywood

If you were a Mario Kart fan, you may want to get behind the wheel of the high-performance, zero-emission 20hp electric karts found at K1 Speedway. Capable of reaching speeds of 45 mph, these karts will have you zipping around your friends in no time. Keep the fun going off the track at their arcade, which has billiards and air hockey.

  1. Sky Zone

1834 SW Second St., Pompano Beach

Jump into fun with an array of airborne activities designed to defy gravity. Grab some air on the wall-to-wall trampoline courts, challenge your friends to a SkyJoust, and dive into the Foam Zone at this aerial playground. Worried you’re too old for a trampoline park? Check out the company motto: “All ages (young and old) are welcome at Sky Zone. Because limits aren’t really our thing.”

  1. Artvilla’s Sip, Paint, and Glow Party

11395 W. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton

Sign up for a psychedelic art experience that might trigger memories of Lite-Brite. Choose any painting in the Artvilla gallery, and they’ll help you recreate it in a party atmosphere complete with music and disco lights. The best part is you’ll watch your painting glow to life in the dark. Bonus: The venue is BYOB, so feel free to bring your own adult libations.

  1. Family Paintball Center, Miami

220 NW 137th Ave., Miami

If you loved nerf guns, laser tag, manhunt, or Call of Duty, paintball should bring back some good memories. And at Family Paintball Center, they let you take your imagination a step further with three different playfields: Speedball, made with artificial turf and inflatable bunkers; Battleground, an urban-style field with a diner and gas station; and Wild West, a fully reimagined, Old West-style town.

David Haley, artist of the month

Selected as Parkland Library’s “Artist of the Month” in September, Parkland resident David Haley, 79, had more than 20 of his more recent paintings, many of them award winners, on exhibit.

“We are all enjoying David Haley’s artwork,” says Lenore Russo, program coordinator at the Parkland Library. “Each one of his paintings is mesmerizing and very detailed. His paintings add color and life to our gallery walls.”

The artist who moved to Parkland two years ago from Indiana is a former CEO of two major healthcare management companies, including Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He worked in all aspects of health care, spending the last 15 years with the largest hospice group in Indiana.

With a family, three kids, enlisting in the Navy, going to graduate school, and running a hospital, Haley had a full life with not much time for extracurricular activities. It wasn’t until he divorced in 2007 that he found he had some time on his hands.

He sold his first painting for $150 in 2011 from the trunk of his car when his now-wife, Rhona, took the car to a car wash and someone spotted the painting in the trunk when she went to get her purse.

Since then, Haley’s work has gone on to win at least eight major art competitions, including First Place in the “Nature 2022” international juried painting competition conducted by Artorful for his painting “Intrepid,” depicting a froth of white water engulfing a lighthouse in a storm; Finalist Award in the 2022 Color International Juried Art Competition for “Wire Fence,” a barbed-wire fence in the foreground of a pink and orange crepuscule sky; and “Enduring,” which won third place out of hundreds of submissions in Artorful’s BlueOrGrey 2022 Art Competition. It now belongs to a collector in Naples.

Other paintings featured in the library’s exhibit included “Blue Cap,” acrylic on canvas, a realistic portrait of a man in cold, snowy weather, with ice crystals on his beard and eyebrows; and “Broken Treaty,” oil on canvas, a portrait depicting an indigenous man realizing his people will have to go to war.

Haley’s works have been exhibited in the South Bend Indiana Art Museum, in Walter Reed Medical Center, in a juried regional gallery in Plymouth, Indiana, and in a pop-up gallery in the Chicago area.

With no formal training or art education, he says about his success, “I can’t believe it. I’m amazed.”

He says, “I paint landscapes, seascapes, animals, or portraits that speak to me. I don’t have a particular style like Van Gogh or Picasso. There is no recognizable Haley style. I try to stretch myself.”

In his artist’s statement, he explains, “I seek to produce emotion in the images I create.”

Haley paints from a studio in his third bedroom in Cascata whenever he has the opportunity. “That’s where all the magic takes place,” he jokes.

With family and seven grandkids nearby, he has other responsibilities and paints when the opportunity strikes, sometimes painting until 4 a.m., although he prefers painting in solitude with the natural light.

Haley’s personal favorite is “Drink a Beer,” an oil-on-canvas painting inspired by Luke Bryan’s song of the same name, which recounts the story of personal loss, sitting at the end of a pier, drinking a beer, and reflecting on life.

In his own life, he credits his stepfather, John Haley, for being a role model.

“He was a big foundation for me,” Haley remembers, growing up with two brothers and a single mom. “He was the most pivotal person in my life. He gave me values, showed me right from wrong, and taught me about hard work.”

Apparently, those values took hold. When asked about the quality he values most in himself, his wife Rhona jumped in: “Integrity,” she said.

With many career highlights, including his work in end-of-life care and being a part of so many touching stories, Haley’s painting brings new highlights.

“I like to watch the reactions of the viewers to my art,” he says. “Each person sees the same image, but each takes away something different.”

With so many accomplishments under his belt, what goals would he still like to achieve? “I’d love to have a solo exhibit and showcase my work at a museum.”

 For more information: www.facebook.com/DavidHaley.Art. www.saatchiart.com/account/artworks/742692.

Relax and take in music, scenery at Jazz Brunch

Next to the banks of the New River in downtown Fort Lauderdale on the first Sunday of each month, you can hear the catchy tunes of live jazz music in a beautiful setting at Esplanade Park. Sunday Jazz Brunch at the Riverwalk provides a free concert series performed by local jazz artists on three different stages from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

There is the large Esplanade Stage for big bands and orchestras, the Connie Hoffmann Stage for more intimate performances in a gazebo, and the Peck Courtyard Stage at the adjacent Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Around the area are park benches, picnic tables, and boat docks on the river, and you can meander all along the scenic, brick-lined walkway by the water and catch some boats gliding by. Some concertgoers set up chairs, tables, and picnic blankets to listen to the music, munching on picnic lunches they bring, or purchasing food from the vendors set up nearby. Local merchants also sell crafts and other wares in a designated area.

I got to experience this relaxing but fun event for the first time in early October with my boyfriend, Art. We didn’t know to bring our lawn chairs but snagged spots on a couple of benches where we could sit. There were almost as many dogs as humans there, it seemed, and we may bring our dogs to a future event. Everybody there was having a great time. We saw several groups camped out with enough food and beverages to feed a tailgate party for a day.

Soon after we arrived, we walked over to a restaurant just past the railroad tracks with outdoor tables overlooking the river for a delicious brunch before returning close to the music. But just walking along by the water and hearing the live music can lift anybody’s mood. There was joyful dancing in a couple of different places, and it was a low-key party atmosphere, with friendly people around us. We saw a woman walking around with shots on a tray, passing them out for free; and a little girl selling lemonade from her small chair and table on the grass facing the walkway.

This peaceful setting by the New River is nice and scenic, but also a great central location to be in. Besides the Broward Center, the area boasts the Museum of Discovery and Science, the Museum of Art, and Huizenga Plaza. There are also water shuttle and water taxi stops, along with the Community Shuttle and Tri-Rail stops. And the city’s Marine Facilities offer four docking stations along the river, all accessible to the jazzy sounds of the live music.

It was my first time at the Riverwalk, which runs from the Sailboat Bend neighborhood to near the Stranahan House. Art and I enjoyed walking back and forth along the pretty walkway near the music, although we didn’t do the full one-mile walk on this day. The Riverwalk has two main streets, Las Olas Boulevard and Himmarshee Street, running through the district. On a future trip there, we plan to take in the full Riverwalk experience.

If you like jazz music, both big bands and small, in a picturesque locale, the Sunday Jazz Brunch is a must-do. I’ll be going back for sure.

The next two Jazz Brunches are on Nov. 6 with entertainment from Davis and Dow, RD Project, and Peter Betan Trio, and Dec. 4 with music by Valerie Tyson Band, Jackson Bunn Group, and Mari Bell Quintet. For more information, go to www.parks.fortlauderdale.gov/special-events.

Scare yourself this Halloween with local author

If you’re looking to scare yourself to sleep this Halloween, curl up with a book by a local South Florida author and international Amazon bestseller, Sara Brooke. Just don’t forget to leave the lights on.…

Brooke, who dreamed of writing horror novels since childhood, has been keeping readers up at night since 2012. Her debut novel, “Still Lake,” a chilling medical thriller, made the Amazon bestseller list and captured the No. 1 spot in Barnes & Noble’s horror genre for two days, which is no easy feat for a new author. Since then, Brooke has written 10 additional horror titles and contributed to four anthologies, often scaring herself in the process.

“Writing ‘Kransen House’ bothered me. It’s a disturbing book. It’s about a very dysfunctional family, and the patriarch is psychologically not right. Writing that, it was a very dark environment and brooding situation that made me uncomfortable,” recalls Brooke. But she isn’t one to shy away from the discomfort.

“I think it’s a good thing because when I’m writing if it takes me to a really dark place in my imagination where I’m kind of looking around and not wanting to think about the story when the lights go out. Hopefully, it does the same for my readers,” enthuses Brooke, who loves being told that her books are demented.

“The best part is having people read my books and tell me how scared they were,” she says. “To know that somebody is fully immersed in something I’ve written—immersed in my twisted little world—that is the biggest reward.”

In addition to writing horror novels, Brooke also conducts paranormal investigations with the Paranormal Existence Research Society, a nonprofit organization that investigates paranormal phenomena across Florida and conducts in-home investigations for those who think their home is haunted. While these investigations would seem the perfect complement to her writing, Brooke rarely draws inspiration from them.

“For me, the investigations are about helping people,” explains Brooke, adding that what happens on a typical investigation is also much milder than what you read in her books. “If I walked into a home and the things that happen in my stories were happening, we would need to call a person of the cloth to help us.”

Brooke is currently working on her 12th novel, “In the Marsh” (a working title that may change), a gothic horror story inspired by a trip to St. Augustine. Though no firm publication date is set, Brooke is confident the book will be released in the first half of 2023.

For some thrills and chills this Halloween, Brooke recommends “Cursed Casino,” a cross between “The Shining” and “The Mist,” which readers have described as “the perfect story for a rainy, stormy, drink-filled Halloween night,” and “Kransen House,” one of her more twisted tales. “‘Kransen House’ is with you after you finish it. You feel like you need to take a shower after that one,” she laughs.

For more information on Brooke and her writing, visit www.sarabrooke.com. Her novels are available on Amazon.

‘Black Pearls’ opens at Museum of Art – Exhibit documents Pearl City, historic Black city of Boca Raton

Many stories have been written about Boca Raton’s first community and historically Black neighborhood, Pearl City, but none have included photographs and first-person accounts of the descendants of the original residents and their neighborhood, built in 1915, before the incorporation of Boca Raton 10 years later in 1925.

The Boca Raton Museum of Art, which stands two blocks from the original neighborhood, located south of Glades Road between Dixie and Federal highways, commissioned Washington, D.C.-based photographer Reginald Cunningham for a series of photographs, titled “Black Pearls,” in honor of Pearl City.

“We want to tell the story of Pearl City through the current residents whose parents and grandparents were the original Pearl City settlers,” says Irvin Lippman, executive director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art. “The Pearl City residents are our museum’s closest neighbors, and we want to celebrate our neighbors with this exhibition.”

To do so, Lippman invited Imani Cheers, associate professor of digital storytelling in the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, and Candace Cunningham, assistant professor of history at Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters at Florida Atlantic University, to tell the full historical story of Pearl City.

Photographer Cunningham (BePureBlack.com), a social activist, was selected in 2020 to photograph the cover of British Vogue’s special issue titled “Activism Now: The Faces of Hope,” which featured his wife, activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham, on the cover.

Inspired by photographer Gordon Parks’ motto—“I chose my camera as a weapon against all the things I dislike about America: poverty, racism, discrimination”—Cunningham set out to find out as much as he could about Pearl City, its original residents, and their descendants.

“Through the lens of my photography I’m always trying to create affinity for and uplift Black people and the Black experience in this country,” says Cunningham.

“One of the things I always aim to do is inspire people to feel something when they look at my work. To have an emotional, physiological response,” he says. “Being commissioned by the Boca Raton Museum of Art to photograph the residents and cultural emblems of Pearl City—one of the South’s most beloved and enduring Black districts—is an amazing experience.”

Cunningham captures not just images of Pearl City residents, but also the physical and ephemeral elements that make up the community, including street signs, the community garden, the Little Food Pantry, and the Martin Luther King monument located at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, 200 NE 12th Street.

As Candace Cunningham writes in the accompanying catalog, “On April 26, 1915, a land auction was held to create ‘a brand-new colored city’ that would be governed exclusively by colored people. African Americans purchased thirty lots that day.

“Those disparities [racial and social] pushed African Americans out of Georgia and the Carolinas and pulled them into South Florida,” she says about that time in history. “It was by no means the land of opportunity for Blacks, but it did offer more options than they were finding elsewhere.”

In more recent times, the neighborhood faced threats from developers and other outside forces. “What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to keep a sense, or an aura, or a feel for this community,” said the Rev. Henry Willis at the time.

Pearl City was known for being a safe, close-knit community where everyone knew one another.

“The people out of this area, the children, and the grandchildren out of this area have become professionals—athletes, doctors, lawyers, and teachers,” notes Pastor Calvin Davis. “They have become politicians and police officers. They have become productive citizens because of this area. That’s why this area deserves to be recognized as an area that developed many [generations] and is still developing people in so many ways.”

Life was hard in that era, especially for Black people, who worked in the fields picking beans for 17 cents a day, faced discrimination, and suffered through the segregated South.

The exhibit includes 24 photographs, including images of pastors Ronald Brown and Calvin Davis, Anne Blutcher, John Martin, the Anderson family, Katie Mae, Gladys Bettis, Geraldine and George Spain, Irene Rufus, Annette Ireland, Marie Hester and Dorothy Overstreet, Barbara Griffin, Eva Cunningham (Griffin), and Willie Jenkins. Stories in the subjects’ own words are also included.

Pearl City leaves a legacy of good memories and strong moral values with its inhabitants. The closeness of the community, the neighborliness, and the mentality of respecting and helping one another has stayed with its residents to this day.

Descendant George Spain Jr., who comes from an original family in Pearl City, remembers, “One of the founding principles of Pearl City to me was family. We had a deep sense of spirituality. We all had that foundational spiritual growth that was imparted in us to believe and trust in God.”

“That’s the only reason why it hasn’t been dispersed,” he says in the exhibit. “God blesses you to be a blessing to other people. In our house that is something that has been instilled. That’s one of the things that Pearl City was fond of—neighbor would look after neighbor. It’s a very close-knit community.”

“Black Pearls” runs through Jan. 22, 2023. Visit Bocamuseum.org.

Artist’s ‘Terra Ephemera’ highlights environmental passions

For Gretchen Scharnagl, a Miami-based environmental artist and professor in the Art History department at Florida International University, her art and subject matter are her way of connecting — connecting herself to others, and others to her art.

For her exhibit “Terra Ephemera,” at the Coral Springs Museum of Art running through Oct. 8, Scharnagl, 64, brings a number of “stepping into her subject works,” some more mature works, and pieces created specifically for this show.

“Terra Ephemera” makes use of traditional and nontraditional media in a way that provokes visual, conversational, human, and scientific interest.

“Gretchen is a risk taker,” says Jill Brown, executive director of the Coral Springs Museum of Art. “This translates into an important component of her creative process. Gretchen’s art transcends the familiar and leans heavily into difficult and unknown territory, leaving viewers to think and rethink what they are seeing.

“‘Terra Ephemera’ tackles the mundane while exploring the environment with a strong sense of place,” Brown says. “It makes us think about our relationship with the world and each other from the present, past, and future.”

Scharnagl lives with her husband, Robert, 64, a carpenter/contractor who often plays a role as her art assistant; two large Dobermans; and three cats.

From her backyard studio in suburban Miami, where she has lived for 40 years, Scharnagl examines common artifacts from her environs, reads copious amounts of scientific environmental studies, and is fascinated by her own compulsions, leading her to discover and explore little-known phenomena.

While visiting the Field Museum in Chicago, Scharnagl became fascinated by the story of migrating birds who collided with urban architecture and died. Her raison d’etre is to highlight little-known environmental issues — such as this and other facts like a worldwide sand shortage — through her art-making.

The mother of two women scientists, Scharnagl reads about science, the earth, and the environment and finds inspiration for her art.

She cites Edward Humes’s “Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash,” Susan Strasser’s “Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash,” Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s “Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene,” and David Wallace-Wells’ “Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming” as influences.

“I feel an urgency that art should take a responsibility,” Scharnagl says. “Art that is speaking of something important has to jump the fence and speak to those that would not necessarily have exposure to it.”

For someone intensely committed to her art and teaching, Scharnagl came to her calling in her 40s, calling herself “a reluctant artist.”

“I did not consider myself an artist for the majority of my life,” she says. She was prodded into it by a comment she overheard by a mother saying she was wasting her talents by volunteering in her children’s school.

“She could be right,” thought Scharnagl, who hasn’t looked back since.

Her series “The Anthropocene” consists of eight works depicting climate change, water-level rise, and other “planetary boundaries” we are crossing, such as crimes against animals (think wet markets and COVID-19). “Elegy for Earth,” a melancholic lament about the state of the earth, includes three parts, “Earth Retold,” “Earth Tracings,” and “Earth Remains,” which are designed to make the audience think about the state of our earth.

A performance piece scheduled for the opening reception on Sept. 22, “The Earth Piñata Performance,” symbolizes mankind’s treatment of Mother Earth. Participants will break open the 28-inch, earth-like piñata, releasing 2,000 plastic animals, plants, and fungi, creating a new piece of work.

“The Globe Maker” (“a labor of love”) consists of 20 papier-mâché globes that Scharnagl created with her husband, born out of an “obsession” with the word “biophilia” (an innate and genetically determined affinity of human beings with the natural world, a theory developed by biologist E. O. Wilson).

The littlest globe, made from pages from her collection of National Geographic magazines, is titled “Little Blue Marble” — an homage to astronomer Carl Sagan. The globes are cradled in vintage camera and transit tripods used for surveying the earth’s surface that Scharnagl found online, a synergy she couldn’t resist.

“Every part has something to say,” she says. “What you make it with, what kind of papers, graphite, glue, or other media you use. I consider the art-making a way to think, a way to discover and explore. It’s a way to discover things about your subject and yourself.

“When I create art, it’s a personal narrative embedded in a universal idea,” she says. “I identify with the bird who hits the building, with the earth itself, and identify with poetry and cultural mythologies about Mother Earth.”

Scharnagl credits German painter Albrecht Durer as an influence and her professors at FIU, including Clive King, Manny Torres, and Bill Burke, for teaching her to self-critique.

She admires African-American artist Mark Bradford for his large-scale abstract collages; Jamaican-born American artist Nari Ward for his sculptural installations addressing consumer culture, poverty, and race; and art writer Linda Weintraub for her writings on environmental consciousness.

In her spare time, Scharnagl admits to being a “total Trekkie.” “If push comes to shove, I call ‘Star Trek’ my martini — it feeds my soul.”

Future plans include a possible residency at the Deering Estate in Miami and continuing to create art.

“I don’t want to sound like I’m blowing my own horn,” Scharnagl says, “but people have told me, ‘You’re giving a gift to the world.’”

Exhibition Dates
Aug. 23–Oct. 8, 2022

“Ask the Artist” Talk
Thursday, Sept. 8, 6:30 p.m., mingle/gallery view; 7 p.m., talk

Opening Reception
Thursday, Sept. 22, 5:30–8:30 p.m.
“Earth Piñata” Performance Piece

Live during reception

Celebrate Jewish culture at YI Love Yiddishfest

The 4th Annual YI Love Yiddishfest ’22 returns live this year, Aug. 30 to Sept. 4, bringing six days of cultural events, including concerts, plays, lectures, and live entertainment, after two years of online events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Founded by actor/comedian and Coral Springs resident Avi Hoffman (known for his “Too Jewish” trilogy), who’s CEO of the Yiddishkayt Initiative and YI Love Jewish, the first event was held in 2018 at the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach. This year’s events will take place in Broward County, Boca Raton, and Miami Beach.

“It’s a little bit scary, very exciting, and very ambitious to be back,” says Hoffman. “But I think we’ll do great.”

Hoffman says the event will appeal to everybody — “not just Jews, but anyone who is Jewish, knows someone Jewish, or has a curiosity about the Jewish culture or religion.”

Highlights of the event include the musical concert entitled “Stars of David: Story to Song,” based on the best-selling book, “Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish” by Abigail Pogrebin.

“Stars of David” adapts these real-life stories of Jewish personalities, including actor/director Stephen Spielberg, Bravolebrity Andy Cohen, shoe mogul Kenneth Cole, actor Fran Drescher, singer/pianist Michael Feinstein, and former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to name a portion of the 62 personalities featured in the book.

The concert will feature Hoffman, Shira Ginsburg, cantor at East End Temple in New York City, Carbonell-winning actor Patti Gardner, and local singer/actor Michael Harper, with musical director Caryl Ginsburg Fantel. Cantor Ginsburg is the niece of Fantel and daughter of Arthur Ginsburg, the former television chef and author, known as “Mr. Food.”

Additional live performers include the Canadian group YidLife Crisis, based on a web series of the same name, created by two friends, Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman, as a way of paying homage to the Yiddishkeit in their upbringing and to shed a Jewish comedic lens on the life in which they were raised. The two have collaborated with actor Mayim Bialik and fellow Canadian Howie Mandel.

Jewish rapper Kosha Dillz, who has performed with rapper Fat Joe and Nisim Black and whose raps about matzoh and Passover have gone viral, will bring his unique rap style to South Florida. Hoffman hopes that his appearance at the festival will attract a younger demographic.

Although Hoffman is modest about his performing contribution, for his fans, another highlight of the festival will be Hoffman’s latest and perhaps last in his “Too Jewish” trilogy performance when he debuts “Still Jewish After All These Years,” a culmination of his Jewish life and career.

Hoffman is also working on a memoir to be titled “Confessions of a Nice Jewish Boy.”

For Hoffman and his mother, Miriam, co-founder of the Yiddishkayt Initiative, a former columnist for the Yiddish edition of The Forward newspaper, a Yiddish playwright, and a past lecturer in Yiddish at Columbia University, it’s an honor to be a cultural emissary for the Yiddish language and culture.

The two teach Yiddish online, a language Hoffman says was predicted to die out with this generation. Instead, he says, Yiddish is flourishing and is everywhere. For examples, he points to Seth Rogan’s 2020 film “An American Pickle” and the Emmy-nominated Netflix series “Unorthodox,” and Billy Crystal’s Yiddish call and response at the 2022 Tony Awards where he had half the audience singing “Oy” and the other half responding “Vey.”

Coral Springs OB/GYN physician Bruce Zafran, who has been practicing in the city for 35 years and moonlights as a stand-up comedian, was watching old Jackie Mason comedy bits online when he got a pop-up message asking him if he wanted to learn Yiddish. He thought, why not?

Hoffman and his mother taught that Yiddish class, and while Zafran was familiar with Hoffman, he was surprised to learn they were neighbors in Coral Springs.

Not only did he sign up for the class, he decided to sponsor the Yiddishfest, along with his wife, Lesley.“Yiddish is a beautiful language,” he says. “Whenever you hear it, you just smile.”

Says Zafran, “I’m happy to help Avi and the Yiddishkeit cause.” He jokes, “Avi is the brains and brawn and I’m the pretty face.”

Zafran’s favorite Yiddish phrase? “Freylakh zol men tomid zayn,” or, “Happy we should we always be,” a phrase he used often at his son’s wedding last June.

“Without Bruce and other supporters like him, we couldn’t do what we do,” Hoffman says. “We need people who see the value in keeping this tradition alive and giving us the ability to bring it to the world.”

Says Hoffman, “Since 1885, when a million Jews emigrated to America from Eastern Europe, Yiddish has permeated and influenced American culture.

“We [the Jewish people] have been around thousands of years and we have contributed to mainstream culture over those thousands of years,” Hoffman says. “We as a people have a lot to offer. There’s a lot to be appreciated. Come, experience Jewish culture, enjoy yourself, have fun, and learn something new.”

And, he says, echoing Zafran, “farvas nisht — why not?”

The festival is held in partnership with Florida Humanities, Miami-Dade County, and the city of Miami Beach. It is co-sponsored by the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies/George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies at the University of Miami, the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, the Betsy South Beach, the Miami Beach JCC, the Adolph and Rose Levis JCC, the Holocaust Memorial of Miami Beach, and the Jewish Museum of Florida.  

YI Love Yiddishfest ’22 runs from Aug. 30 to Sept. 4. For more information, visit www.YILoveJewish.org, email info@yilovejewish.org, or call (888) 945-6835.

South Florida’s own Superman: a story of heroic resilience

We all know life tests you. But for Andres Molina, the past couple of years have been fairly grueling. In the face of constant setbacks and overwhelming obstacles, including full-body paralysis at the age of 37, Molina’s seemingly superhuman ability to remain positive is a testament to the human spirit.

Molina’s journey began in Virginia. When he was 17 years old, he lost his father to cancer. Born on the same day as his father, Molina took the loss very hard, though he credits the experience with helping him develop mental toughness. “That’s the worst thing that ever happened to me, so whatever else is gonna happen, it’s doable. It’s fixable,” he explains of his shift in mindset.

That outlook has been constantly challenged, beginning in Los Angeles. After summoning the courage to pursue his dream of acting, Molina faced rejection after rejection in California. “There were thousands of noes for a handful of yeses,” he says.

Still, he persevered, securing nonspeaking roles in “Days of Our Lives,” “CSI,” “Bones,” and “Law & Order,” among others. In 2012, he landed his first speaking role opposite Christian Bale in “The Dark Knight Rises.”

“I had to work so hard to get to this place. It makes you believe miracles can really happen when you have the right mindset and the right work ethic,” says Molina. “You believe in something and you never give up.”

But for every high, there was an equally tough low. It was years before Molina earned his next speaking role opposite Emma Stone in “La La Land,” which he was extremely proud of. Over the Christmas holiday, he took his entire family to see the movie, only to find out that his scene had been cut.

Instead of getting angry or down on himself, Molina called his agent and asked how they could capitalize on it. “My dad always said, if you’re not a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem,” says Molina, who was determined to be part of the solution.

He had no idea at the time how crucial his resilience and can-do attitude would be in the next phase of his life.

Just before the start of the COVID pandemic, Molina’s mother was taken to the hospital. Molina immediately packed up his stuff and drove across the country to Parkland. Once in Parkland, he settled into a townhouse with his mother across the street from his sister. That’s when his world was turned upside down.

On August 25, 2020, Molina was outside on the patio when he suddenly fainted, falling backward and hitting his head on a flowerpot. He was unconscious for two full minutes. When he awoke, he couldn’t move. “That’s when hell clicked in. I couldn’t feel anything under my chin,” he recalls.

Molina was taken to Broward Health North where he was diagnosed with a C2 cervical spinal cord contusion. The good news was that he was not permanently paralyzed. But the road to recovery would not be an easy one. Molina spent nine days in the intensive care unit before he could even wiggle his toes. He was then transferred to the trauma unit and began in-bed therapy.

Because he was hospitalized during the pandemic, Molina was especially alone. Hospital policy only allowed one 30-minute visit per day from one relative. “You can’t move. You’re stuck with your thoughts and your energy,” he explains.

Thankfully, his sister pinned family photos and inspirational quotes on his wall. “One quote from the Rock, one of my role models, said you have three choices in life — give up, give in, or give it your all,” says Molina. “I stared at that quote for days before realizing, it’s not that you just jump in and give it your all. You have to give up, then you have to give in, and then give it your all. You have to surrender. And that’s something I was going through. I was angry and in denial. I had to surrender to give myself a chance to heal.”

On his first day of rehabilitation, the physical therapist explained just how lucky Molina was. “They told me I was less than one centimeter away from being permanently paralyzed, like Christopher Reeve. I lost it,” recalls Molina.

He then channeled that energy into his recovery. The first day in therapy, Molina was brought to the parallel bars. He couldn’t take one step on his own. He asked what exercises he could do in bed to speed up his progress, and then he practiced them relentlessly for hours — flexing, nudging, pressing down. The next day, he was able to walk 20 steps on his own, baffling the physical therapist.

The hospital told Molina it would be 4 to 6 months before he was walking. He promised them he would walk out of the hospital when discharged. Thirty days later, he did just that.

Convinced his journey could inspire others, Molina underwent training with French relationship expert Alex Cormont and started his own “love coaching” business in September 2020, coaching clients from his room while working on his own physical recovery. “To see them make progress, that motivated me,” says Molina of his clients.

Months later, when his agent called with a potential stand-in job, though his body was still sore, Molina jumped at the opportunity to get back into acting. It turned out that he was standing in for Henry Cavill, the actor who portrays Superman in the DC Extended Universe. “In the hospital, everyone kept telling me I could have been the next Christopher Reeve, and now I’m standing in for the current Superman,” he reflects.

Life then threw him another curveball. Born with osteoarthritis, Molina discovered he was already bone to bone on his left hip and would require a total hip replacement, derailing his recovery. “I just learned to walk again and would now have to redo everything from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane, stairs — all over again. Twice in 18 months,” recalls Molina. Determined not to give up, he underwent surgery in December 2021.

At this point in his journey, physically, Molina is almost back to where he was pre-paralysis. “I can’t run yet but I can speed walk, bike, swim, dress, drive, shower. I can do everything I need to do,” he affirms.

Mentally, he’s in an empowered space, having realized his purpose. “Acting was a passion, but coaching is my true calling,” enthuses Molina.

For more information, visit coachingwithandres.com.

Finding his purpose – Local artist paints for charity, raises over $300,000

A man on a mission. That description sums up Tamarac resident Joseph Gormley.

Born in Scotland, Gormley, 47, moved to the U.S. in 2003 after he fell in love with a Florida woman, Erin Ruth. Now married 19 years, the couple has two girls, Hailey, 6, and Mackenzie Rose, 4.

Erin Gormley bought her husband his first set of paintbrushes as a Christmas gift 15 years ago. A new world opened up for him, whose day job is as a custodian at Bayview Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale.

Once Gormley realized his passion for painting, he set about using his talent to do good, auctioning off many of his artworks for charity. His first painting raised money for an 11-year-old Scottish girl with brain cancer who needed treatment in the U.S. After reading about her, Gormley sent a painting that he did of the Glasgow Celtics head coach, Neil Lennon, to her family.

In 2012, that painting sold on eBay for $8,000. “That was the moment I realized my art could make a difference,” remembers Gormley.

“I know why I have this gift of being able to paint. It’s not for me; it’s to help raise money for others,” he says. “My day job is for my family. And my artwork is for my community.”

In 2015, Gormley painted a portrait of former Miami Marlins baseball player Giancarlo Stanton for the Marlins Foundation, which raised $25,000.

In 2018, he painted a portrait of Anthony Rizzo, a Parkland native who played baseball for the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees, which raised $4,000 to upgrade the baseball field at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The same year, he worked with Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital to benefit the Conine Clubhouse, a no-cost residence for families with children undergoing cancer treatment, and helped raise thousands of dollars.

To date, Gormley estimates he has raised $300,000 for local charities, and he has no plans to stop. In 2019, he painted at the Parkland Cares fundraiser and donated the proceeds from his work to the foundation.

“Parkland Cares is very fortunate to have been one of the recipients when Joseph Gormley painted live at our wine dinner and donated the proceeds from his paintings,” Stacey Udine wrote online after the event.

“Every brush stroke gives Joseph the chance to inspire others, and we’re immensely grateful for his continued support of Parkland Cares,” she said.

In February, the prolific painter teamed up with 105.9 BIG radio DJ Doc Reno, whose charity, My Family Matters Foundation, raises money in partnership with the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Foundation to provide assistance to families who lose wages while caring for a child with cancer.

It was founded by Doc Reno in 2019 after he battled stage IV head and neck cancer. “How could I feel sorry for myself when next to me in the waiting room is a 7-year-old with brain cancer?” he says. “I saw what families were dealing with and wanted to do something to help.”

He continues, “Joseph is an amazing person — a true angel and a very gentle soul. I was blown away by his work. I’m thrilled he has offered his talents for this cause.”

Gormley painted live at Doc Reno’s “My Family Matters” golf tournament in February, at the Jacaranda Golf Club in Plantation.

Participants included former Miami Dolphins’ Bob Brudzinski and running back Ki-Jana Carter; radio disc jockeys Drew Heyman (Y100) and Paul Castronovo (BIG 105.9); rock drummers Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden, Tico Torres of Bon Jovi, and Carmine Appice, former Ozzy Osbourne drummer; and many others.

With Iron Maiden being Gormley’s favorite band, he was thrilled to paint the portraits of the three drummers and auction them off with their signatures.

Other celebrities he has painted include Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, Washington Commanders quarterback Doug Williams, and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.

Gormley says he is raising his two girls to finish the journey he started and to leave a legacy behind.

“I’m very blessed,” says Gormley, who hopes to eventually raise $1 million for charity. “So many people struggle to find their purpose in life. I know my purpose — it’s to help and inspire others.”

For more information, visit josephgromleyart.com, myfamilymattersfoundation.org, or parklandcares.org.

Fighting back against human trafficking through education, empowerment

This year, the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival brought together KidSafe Foundation, a local South Florida organization dedicated to educating and empowering children to make them harder targets for trafficking and sexual abuse, and “The New Abolitionists,” a documentary that follows four nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Thailand and Cambodia fighting to end human sex trafficking. Together, this partnership is raising awareness about the growing problem of human trafficking in this country and abroad.

It was a crisp November evening when I sat down at the Savor Cinema in downtown Fort Lauderdale for a screening of “The New Abolitionists.” Originally built as a church in 1926, its theater still feels like a place of prayer, and that’s exactly what this harrowing film made me want to do, pray.

The film begins in Cambodia, where troves of girls are stationed at karaoke bars looking to pick up men. Many of these young women were victims of trafficking, some sold or deceived by their own families, and are now on their own and lack the education, skills, and self-worth to get out of the sex industry.

“A lot of people want to think human sex trafficking is prostitution. It’s not. Human trafficking is, by definition, when somebody has been forced, coerced, or frauded into these sexual acts,” explains Christina Zorich, director of the film.

In Thailand, a hotbed for sex tourism, the film estimates that there are 35,000 prostitutes in the city of Pattaya alone, where it is not uncommon to see adult men taking children on dates in public. As disturbing as it was to watch, it helps to demonstrate both the pervasiveness of the problem and, even worse, the complicitness of the government, which is why Zorich had to geoblock the film to prevent it from being seen in Southeast Asia.

“It’s pretty well agreed on in the anti-trafficking community that Asia is probably the most trafficked region of the globe,” says Zorich.

Just as jarring as the film itself were the number of empty seats in the theater, especially given that, according to data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline, Florida is one of the top three states in the country with the most human trafficking. “It’s happening here. It just looks different than it does over there,” explains Zorich. “It’s overt there; here it’s hidden. Because it’s hidden, there’s a lot of denial and lack of understanding.”

“Denial is one of the top hurdles we need to jump over,” agrees Cherie Benjoseph, cofounder and chief program officer at KidSafe. “Sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, and sex trafficking all fall under the radar. In the movie, it’s horrifically blatant, but here it’s done in a way that you don’t see it. Child trafficking can happen out of a child’s home, and it happens in all types of communities. Right here in Florida, there are people more than willing to buy children for sex, and if we don’t accept that as a truth, we will never be able to see and/or prevent child trafficking and abuse.”

Thankfully, there are organizations here and abroad confronting the issue. And while the problem may present itself differently in both continents, the answer to combating the issue is the same — empowerment through education.

In “The New Abolitionists,” the NGOs discreetly approach the women at bars, sometimes posing as sex tourists, offering them a chance at a different life. The girls who choose to go with the NGO are provided trauma counseling, education, skill development, and employment opportunities. Those who are able eventually build a new life outside the NGO. “I found it inspiring that these women could build beautiful lives after having gone through so much,” says Zorich.

While the NGOs in the film were helping victims who had been trafficked, here in Florida, KidSafe has been working to get ahead of the problem by teaching children personal safety, starting at age 4.

“We teach personal safety skills from a place of empowerment, not fear. We are not teaching kindergarten through fifth-grade students scary stories, we’re empowering them with protective skills, just like you empower kids with swimming skills to protect them from drowning. We empower them with skills of safety to protect them from unhealthy relationships,” explains Benjoseph.

“Ninety percent of the time, child sexual abuse and child trafficking are perpetrated by someone they know and have been groomed by,” emphasizes Benjoseph in discussing the importance of educating children from a young age, as well as adults. “We can’t prevent child sexual abuse if we’re not raising awareness about it.”

KidSafe has online programs for professionals working with children and resource pages for parents that educate them on opening up the lines of communication with their children. “As parents, we assume that our kids know we’re available and they will come to us about anything. It is something we need to remind them about, early and often,” urges Benjoseph. “Making yourself an approachable parent plays a major role in keeping our children safe. The more we talk about relationships, and reinforce personal safety in our everyday parenting, the more we can prevent.”

In 2019, Florida became the first state to require child trafficking prevention education for grades K-12. To help meet this mandate, the foundation created “Stay KidSafe!” This is a program designed for counselors and teachers to use in their classrooms and includes a platform with 3D teaching animations, along with lesson guides that include questions, answers, activities, and role-play exercises. “Stay KidSafe!” teaches age-appropriate skills, including safety voice, circle of safe adults, safe touch/unsafe touch, good secrets/bad secrets, and accessing help. Students do not learn about human trafficking until sixth grade. After each lesson, a newsletter is sent home to parents advising them of what their children have learned and how to reinforce those skills at home.

The “Stay KidSafe!” program is free for all Florida schools, as well as schools across the country, and is funded through donations.

For more information about “The New Abolitionists,” visit thenewabolitionistsdoc.com. For information or to get involved with KidSafe, visit kidsafefoundation.org.