Armory advertises itself as an ‘experience’ at CityPlace
If you’ve stopped by Sloan’s Ice Cream or Starbucks in CityPlace, you might have noticed the big sign on the sidewalk advertising the Armory Art Center Experience.
Inside is a taste of what the nonprofit visual arts school a few blocks to the south has to offer. The doors are open 2 to 6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, when visitors can meet faculty members who are exhibiting their work, browse art for sale crafted by teachers and advanced students, watch art-making demonstrations or create some art of their own.
Boca Raton resident Mary Catello, who teaches basket weaving and sculpting with paper and papier-mache, recently unveiled her new installation “Stand Up SPEAK OUT.”
The work, which features six papier-mache figures, was inspired
by the #MeToo movement. Catello will be there working on her art and talking to visitors during operating hours through Sunday.
Visitors also can sign up for Armory classes, which is the main point of the space.
Opening the site in April in the downtown West Palm Beach shopping, dining and entertainment destination was an experiment, Executive Director Tom Pearson said. “We want to do more involved events where people don’t feel threatened to try their hands at art,” he said. “We want it to be a fun.”
Traffic has tapered off during the off-season, but it’s still steady, he said. Enrollment in the Armory’s summer camp has jumped by about 200 students, which Pearson attributes partly to the CityPlace outpost.
The Related Cos., which owns CityPlace, lets the Armory use the 2,300-squarefoot vacant storefront rent-free. The lease runs through September, after which it might be extended or another location found, Pearson said.
“The Armory is experiential in what it does,” said Gopal Rajegowda, managing principal of The Related Cos.’ mixed-used division for the Southeast. “There’s a tie-in to where the world of retail is going. If you’re not thinking about an in-store experience versus solely a transaction, you’re dead.”
Cultural events also support CityPlace’s educational and community-building objectives, he said.
Catello is thrilled to be exhibiting her installation at CityPlace. “I think it’s a piece that’s better served by not being in a gallery because people who go to galleries are just art people,” she said. “It should be in a place that gets more visibility to the average person.”
Every figure in her piece is different, illustrating that sexual abuse crosses all boundaries. Five are gagged; one raises her hand to “speak out.”
Each character’s story will be displayed in front of the figures. The stories aren’t about real people. Catello compiled them from accounts she read during her extensive research for the installation.
Some statistics she uncovered: In 2017, 542 rapes were reported in Palm Beach County, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network says that a sexual assault occurs every 98 seconds in the United States.
“I was taken aback,” Catello said.
She plans to surround the installation with boards on which visitors can affix postit notes reacting to the piece. “I wanted to do that because not everybody can come out,” she said.