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For love of art, a labor of love

As soon as the 35th annual Temple Beth-El art show ends, work starts for 2009.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
Published January 23, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Beginning Saturday and lasting for three days, hundreds of visitors will roam the sanctuary, social hall, library, multipurpose building, hallways and sculpture gardens - virtually every nook and cranny of Temple Beth-El -for what has become an annual sojourn to the congregation's acclaimed festival of art.

In its 35th year, the Temple Beth-El Art Festival will showcase original paintings, wood, sculpture, ceramics, glass, photography and jewelry from 29 states as well as from Poland and Spain.

More than $8,000 in prize money will be awarded in various categories, with this year's event featuring a salute to past winners.

Ann Soble is part of the planning group for the event, at which more than 2,500 pieces will be exhibited on temple property temporarily transformed into art galleries.

"I've been actually working on this show for about 16 years. It's great fun," she said.

"It's just a wonderful community-building project for the whole temple. I think, for all of us, it's a labor of love."

Soble is joined by fellow co-chairwomen Donna Berman, Nan Bugatch, Sonya Miller, Jan Sher, Barbara Sterensis and Pam Sekeres. A founder of the event, Ellie Argintar, is a consultant.

About 200 volunteers, including close to a dozen docents and members of the congregation's youth group, will assist with the three-day event. Money raised is earmarked for the temple's community action and outreach programs, which include a Mitzvah Day when members perform good deeds throughout the area.

Organizing the festival is a year-round task, Soble said, with work on the next show beginning almost as soon as one ends.

She and other volunteers spend the year visiting art shows far and wide in a quest for distinguished pieces, she said.

"We feel we have very high standards. All of the work is very high quality," she said.

Prizes will include Best of Show, Award of Honor, Award of Achievement and the Patron's Award.

Also to be presented will be eight awards of distinction and nine of excellence. Roy Slade, who has served as a director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and dean of its art school, will be this year's judge.

The festival also will showcase top art from Pinellas County public and private schools and will award six scholarships for excellence.

Pieces at the festival will range in price from $25 to "in the high thousands," Soble said.

Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at wmoore@sptimes.com or 727 892-2283.

IF YOU GO

Three days of art

Temple Beth-El's 35th annual Art Festival, 400 Pasadena Ave. S, St. Petersburg.

Saturday: 7 to 10 p.m., cocktail reception, $20 at the door.

Sunday: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free admission.

Monday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Avenue of Shops; performing arts program, 11 a.m. Free admission. Gourmet luncheon, 12:30 p.m., $15. Reservations required. RSVP by today. Mail check to Harriett Lieberman, Temple Beth-El, 400 Pasadena Ave. S, St. Petersburg, FL 33707. Call (727) 347-6136.

[Last modified January 22, 2008, 22:37:22]