A phased opening began this fall for the new Glazer Hall, a $30 million-plus revitalization of the Regency-styled theater where the first full-length American classical ballet, “The Princess,” premiered during its inaugural 1958 season — and no less than the grand dame of the stage, Helen Hayes, starred in revivals of “The Cherry Orchard” and “The Glass Menagerie” in the early 1960s. New programming is scheduled to kick into high gear in January with “The Amazing Acrobats of Shanghai Circus” on Jan. 22, singer Corinne Bailey Rae on Jan. 23 and “An Evening with James Patterson & Mike Lupica,” on Jan. 25, with a wide variety of acts in the weeks to follow, https://glazerhall.org/#events.

“The great thing about this venue is that it’s going to be everything for everyone,” says Allison Stockel, who’s served as the center’s executive director since April. She compares the variety of the programming to that of Ridgefield Playhouse in Connecticut, which she previously operated.

“One weekend was like a microcosm of what the entire season looked like,” Stockel says. “You know, there was a dance program next to a comedy, next to family, next to rock, next to pop or jazz or opera. And that’s what we’re going to do here.”

Stockel adds that sponsors will also be doing some special cocktail parties and dinners for members, alluding to Glazer Hall’s multipurpose dynamic as a non-profit theater, cultural center and event space.

“All sorts of things are going to be happening,” she says.

The revitalization of the once-illustrious facility began about five years ago. Originally called The INNOVATE, the name was changed to Glazer Hall in honor of co-founders and co-chairs Jill and Avie Glazer, longtime Palm Beach residents whose vision, dedication and a financial commitment of more than $15 million have been central to the project.

“The Royal Poinciana Playhouse has languished in the dark for far too long. We felt it was time to turn on the lights and bring this jewel box back to life,” says Avie Glazer, who owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and with his wife shares a passion for philanthropy.

“It was the board that said, you know, with just the amount of sweat equity, you guys deserve this,” Stockel says in explaining the name change for Palm Beach’s first new nonprofit arts organization in more than 60 years.

What emerged from the Glazers’ vision and equity is a 27,000-square-foot performing arts center that retains the exterior appearance of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse as well as some interior architectural details, such as architect John Volk’s historic staircase and certain color schemes.

“And so it has the same feel,” Stockel says. “You don’t walk in thinking that you’re in a different space. You walk in thinking, ‘Wow, this looks similar to what I remember it to be.’”

However, that is largely where the similarity ends.

“From the outside, it looks exactly the same, but it’s a different theater,” Stockel says. “It used to be, you’d walk into a very small lobby. And there was no water view. Now the lobby is front to back. You walk in and you see the water at the other end. There’s also a water-view terrace. Prior to a show, members can go out and have cocktails out there.”

Water is also the focus of perhaps the most distinctive feature of the renovation — instead of a traditional backdrop, the scene behind the theater’s stage can be a live view of the Intracoastal Waterway.

“Now you can do something where if you have a solo artist who doesn’t want a lit-up screen behind them, they can have the view of the water and the sunset,” Stockel says. “And because it’s a multipurpose space, when you have parties and private events, well, it’s just the most gorgeous view.”

There is a 1,200-square-foot, second-floor space for those events in addition to the option to reconfigure the theater’s seating, which has been halved from the original capacity of 800 to now 400 seats.

“So that’s very different as well,” Stockel says. “But it’s going to have really everything — state-of-the-art equipment for lighting and sound and movies. And the bathrooms are twice the size of what they used to be.”

Does the center’s director expect that the limited capacity will lessen the venue’s  own “star power,” so to speak?

“No, while the seating may be less, it’s going to have big names, because, look, a performer is going to get what a performer is going to get. Right? It’s whatever they cost. I ran a 500-seat theater and we would get Willie Nelson and Kristen Chenoweth and Squeeze and Blondie and major names that would perform in theaters four times our size.

“So the difference is that your tickets are going to be a little higher, right? Because if an artist costs, you know, $100,000, and then you have your expenses, divide that by the seats, and that’s your ticket price. I mean, it’s simple math.”

But, Stockel points out, there’s a payoff for the audience. “What you get as a patron is the ability to see these amazing names, these really world-renowned performers in a tiny, intimate venue. It feels like you’re seeing them in your living room. I think that was the allure of the venue that I used to run and that’s going to really be the allure of this.”

Show starters

Programming at Glazer Hall is scheduled to kick into high gear in January 2026, with a wide variety of acts to follow, https://glazerhall.org/#events.

Celebrants participate in an African dance at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center during “Africa Rising,” a Kwanzaa Community Celebration of Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) on Saturday, December 27, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Celebrants gathered at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center during “Africa Rising,” a Kwanzaa Community Celebration of Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) on Saturday, December 27, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Celebrants gathered at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center during “Africa Rising,” a Kwanzaa Community Celebration of Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) on Saturday, December 27, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Celebrants sing the Black National Anthem at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center during “Africa Rising,” a Kwanzaa Community Celebration of Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) on Saturday, December 27, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Celebrants gathered at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center during “Africa Rising,” a Kwanzaa Community Celebration of Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) on Saturday, December 27, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Celebrants gathered at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center during “Africa Rising,” a Kwanzaa Community Celebration of Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) on Saturday, December 27, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Celebrants participate in an African dance at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center during “Africa Rising,” a Kwanzaa Community Celebration of Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) on Saturday, December 27, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Celebrants gathered at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center during “Africa Rising,” a Kwanzaa Community Celebration of Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) on Saturday, December 27, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Celebrants gathered at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center during “Africa Rising,” a Kwanzaa Community Celebration of Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) on Saturday, December 27, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Celebrants gathered at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center during “Africa Rising,” a Kwanzaa Community Celebration of Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) on Saturday, December 27, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

There was a reason for that: He is colorblind.

Now the 72-year-old Dávila is an established and respected artist whose vibrant paintings have been exhibited in South America, Europe and the United States.

“I have the most wonderful job in the world, which is painting every morning,” Dávila said from his studio in a Miami suburb. “To mix colors. To have joy to share with the world, that’s really my passion.”

He started off painting only in black and white until he was around 30 years old because of his colorblindness, a congenital condition which makes it difficult for people to tell the difference between certain colors, particularly red and green, and shades of color. There is no cure for the condition, which for Dávila also makes the colors pink, violet, turquoise and yellow-green confusing.

Since the mid-1980s, Dávila has painted in color through the help of glasses developed by an ophthalmologist in New York, where Dávila was living at the time. One lens is transparent and the other is shaded red, and they help him discriminate between contrasting shades that normally blur together. With the lenses, he can see almost two-thirds of the colors, but without them he only sees around 40% of the colors.

Dávila compared his condition to having a box of chocolates but only being able to eat a sample of the selection. He says he has such a strong desire to see every color.

“It’s something that I miss in my life, that if somebody says, ‘Look at this flower,’ which is bright, bright pink, I want to do it,” he said. “It’s something that comes from my heart so passionately. I can feel the vibration of color.”

Colorblindness runs his family. A grandfather and some great uncles only saw in black and white, while his mother and her three sisters also were colorblind even though the condition is rarer in women. His two brothers also have trouble discriminating between colors.

Dávila has spent his career in Colombia, New York and Florida. He was awarded the “Order of Democracy” by the Colombian Congress in 1999 for his contribution to the arts. He also has published two hardcover books and many catalogues about his paintings, and his work has appeared at major auctions including Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

His paintings include romantic images of men and women embracing and landscapes, often using the color blue as a foundation.

“I think color is one of the most important things in life,” he said. “And especially for me.”

Mike Schneider in Orlando contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday hosted the Kennedy Center Honors and praised Sylvester Stallone, Kiss, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford and George Strait, the slate of honorees he helped choose, as being “legendary in so many ways.”

“Billions and billions of people have watched them over the years,” Trump, the first president to command the stage, said to open the show.

The Republican president said the artists, recognized with tribute performances during the show, are “among the greatest artists and actors, performers, musicians, singers, songwriters ever to walk the face of the Earth.”

Since returning to office in January, Trump has made the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which is named after a Democratic predecessor, a touchstone in a broader attack against what he has lambasted as “woke” anti-American culture.

Trump said Saturday that he was hosting “at the request of a certain television network.” He predicted the broadcast scheduled for Dec. 23 on CBS and Paramount+, would have its best ratings ever.

Before Trump, presidents watched the show alongside the honorees. Trump skipped the honors altogether during his first term.

Asked how he got ready for the gig, Trump said as he moved along the red carpet with his wife, first lady Melania Trump, that he “didn’t really prepare very much.”

“I have a good memory, so I can remember things, which is very fortunate,” the president said. “But just, I wanted to just be myself. You have to be yourself.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, one of several Cabinet secretaries attending the ceremony, said his boss “is so relaxed in front of these cameras, as you know, and so funny, I can’t wait for tonight.” Lutnick arrived with his wife, a member of the Kennedy Center’s board.

Trump appeared on stage three times to open and close the show, and after intermission. He also talked up each artist in prerecorded videos that played before their tributes.

Trump was both gracious and critical in the comments he delivered from the stage, lavishing the honorees with effusive praise but at times showing a mean streak. After returning from intermission, he said he’d toured some of the construction projects he has launched to renovate the performing arts center. And he said it was a “fantastic” night.

“Well, we’re really having a good time tonight,” Trump said. “So many people I know in this audience. Some good. Some bad. Some I truly love and respect. Some I just hate.”

Since 1978, the honors have recognized stars for their influence on American culture and the arts. Members of this year’s class are pop-culture standouts, including Stallone for his “Rocky” and “Rambo” movies, Gaynor for her “I Will Survive” feminist anthem and Kiss for its flashy, cartoonish makeup and onstage displays of smoke and pyrotechnics.

Strait is a leader in the world of country music and Crawford, a Tony Award-winning actor, is best known for starring in “Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in Broadway history.

Trump said persistence is a trait shared by the honorees, several of whom had humble beginnings.

“Some of them have had legendary setbacks, setbacks that you have to read in the papers because of their level of fame,” he said from the stage. “But in the words of Rocky Balboa, they showed us that you keep moving forward, just keep moving forward.”

He said many of the politicians, celebrities and others in the audience shared the trait, too.

“I know so many of you are persistent,” Trump said in his opening. “Many of you are miserable, horrible people. You are persistent. You never give up. Sometimes I wish you’d give up, but you don’t.”

The ceremony was expected to be emotional for the members of Kiss. The band’s original lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, died in October after he was injured during a fall. During the tribute to Kiss, a lone red guitar that emitted smoke was placed on stage in remembrance of Frehley, who was known for having a smoke bomb in his instrument.

The program closed with a rousing performance by Cheap Trick of Kiss’ “Rock and Roll All Nite” that brought the audience to its feet.

Stallone said receiving the honor was like being in the “eye of a hurricane.”

“This is an amazing event,” he said on the red carpet. “But you’re caught up in the middle of it. It’s hard to take it in until the next day. ..: but I’m incredibly humbled by it.”

Crawford also said it was “humbling, especially at the end of a career.”

Gaynor said it “feels like a dream” to be honored. “To be recognized in this way is the pinnacle,” she said after arriving.

Mike Farris, an award-winning gospel singer who performed for Gaynor, called her a dear friend. “She truly did survive,” Farris said. “What an iconic song.”

Trump has taken over the Kennedy Center

Trump upended decades of bipartisan support for the center by ousting its leadership and stacking the board of trustees with Republican supporters, who elected him chair. He has criticized the center’s programming and the building’s appearance — and has said, perhaps jokingly, that he would rename it as the “Trump Kennedy Center.” He secured more than $250 million from Congress for renovations of the building.

Asked Sunday night about a possible renaming, Trump said it would be up to the board. Still, he joked at one point about the “Trump Kennedy Center.”

Presidents of each political party have at times found themselves face to face with artists of opposing political views. Republican Ronald Reagan was there for honoree Arthur Miller, a playwright who championed liberal causes. Democrat Bill Clinton, who had signed an assault weapons ban into law, marked the honors for Charlton Heston, an actor and gun rights advocate.

During Trump’s first term, multiple honorees were openly critical of the president. In 2017, Trump’s first year in office, honors recipient and film producer Norman Lear threatened to boycott his own ceremony if Trump attended. Trump stayed away during that entire term.

Trump has said he was deeply involved in choosing the 2025 honorees and turned down some recommendations because they were “too woke.” He said Sunday that about 50 names were whittled down to five. While Stallone is one of Trump’s Hollywood ”special ambassadors” and has likened Trump to George Washington, the political views of Sunday’s other guests are less clear.

Honorees’ views about Trump

Strait and Gaynor have said little about their politics, although Federal Election Commission records show that Gaynor has given money to Republican organizations in recent years.

Simmons spoke favorably of Trump when Trump ran for president in 2016. But in 2022, Simmons told Spin magazine that Trump was “out for himself” and criticized Trump for encouraging conspiracy theories and public expressions of racism.

Fellow Kiss member Paul Stanley denounced Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden, and said Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were “terrorists.” But after Trump won in 2024, Stanley urged unity.

“If your candidate lost, it’s time to learn from it, accept it and try to understand why,” Stanley wrote on X. “If your candidate won, it’s time to understand that those who don’t share your views also believe they are right and love this country as much as you do.”

___

Italie reported from New York.

South Florida in December is always a good place to be, especially for the well-to-do, so the serious art impulses of Miami Art Week and its culminating Art Basel Weekend have long been overwhelmed by oddball events, over-the-top parties and product premieres, making it an easy target for caricature. Who doesn’t remember “Comedian,” the infamous wall-taped banana at Art Basel 2019, which went on to sell for $6.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction?

So if you want to spend $7,000 on a martini this weekend, Art Basel is here for you.

How crazy are things this year? Here are 16 Art Basel-associated happenings, not all of them true. Can you pick out the real Basel events from the fake? (Hint: Four of them are bogus.)

1. Riffing on the infamous Art Basel banana, a new banana-based, soft-serve ice cream concept called Banana Daddy made its debut at NADA Art Fair.

2. Rock icon and Palm Beach County resident Jon Bon Jovi will unveil Jersey Made, a new line of golf attire, at The Biltmore Golf Course in Coral Gables on Saturday.

3. Italian handbag designer Abel Richard opened a boutique in the Miami Design District that offers a new line of limited-edition bags starting at $170,000.

4. An artist who goes by Alec Monopoly took a Gulfstream G-IV jet and sawed it into pieces for an installation in the Miami Design District titled, “Flying to a Happy Place.”

5. NBC Sports’ “Join the Ride” pop-up exhibition at Wynwood Marketplace celebrates the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy with art by Olympic athletes using paint and pasta sauce.

6. Luxury design brand Moooi redesigned the lobby at The Standard Spa on Miami Beach to include pop singer Robbie Williams’ Introvert Chair, which goes for $4,395.

7. At the 1 Hotel South Beach, Montreal-based artist Je Suis has portraits of the Kardashian/Jenner sisters, plus pop stars Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish, created with a variety of media that include Kardashian/Jenner-branded cosmetics. Starting price: $5,500.

8. Japanese female pro-wrestling league Sukeban — which blends live sport with art, fashion and music — made its “triumphant return to Miami Art Basel” with a show this week at the Miami Beach Bandshell.

9. On Saturday at the Fontainebleau resort, famed photographer Alex Webb will unveil the exhibit “All Smiles,” a collection of portraits of rock’s most dour musicians (Morrissey, Keith Richards, Marilyn Manson) all smiling. Coffee-table book: $125.

10. The youthfully hip event space Casa Nube Wynwood was transformed into a 15,000-square-foot party for plush toys called Pudgy Penguins.

11. Delilah Miami and Lanore Fine Jewelry have collaborated on two martinis for Art Basel Weekend, each entwined with a diamond tennis bracelet. The martini with a 5-carat bracelet will cost $4,000, and the 7-carat martini will be $7,000.

12. At NADA Art Fair, Miami artist Art Yo! will display a line of jewelry called Retired that incorporates “elegantly shredded” pieces of recycled tires from the Miami Grand Prix. Prices range from $750 to $18,000.

13. An Art Basel brunch at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU on Sunday will spotlight a survey of photographs of the collars worn by late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

14. Palm Tree Club Miami, the restaurant, hotel and live music venue, and California-based Archer Aviation hosted a party to promote a collaboration on electric air taxi service to music festivals.

15. Small-batch luxury tequila brand Casa Dragones is serving at the Miami Beach Convention Center under a chandelier made from 500 recycled tequila bottles.

16. For a sculptural installation at Wynwood Walls called “The Kitchen Muse,” luxury appliance manufacturer Miele provided a refrigerator ($9,000+) and a cooktop ($3,600+) to create “a kitchen reimagined as a living work of art.”

(ANSWERS: All are true except 2, 7, 9 and 12.)

For information on Art Basel Miami Beach events, visit ArtBasel.com/miami-beach.

Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on IG: @BenCrandell. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — On Friday afternoon, the Kennedy Center, best known for its theater, opera and ballet, will be the unlikely center of the sports world when the matchups for next year’s World Cup are announced there. By Sunday, in a quick pivot, the venue will assume its more traditional role as the host of the annual awards program honoring some of the top artists in the U.S.

The culture headsnap has one thing in common: President Donald Trump’s starring role.

Trump was instrumental in working with FIFA President Gianni Infantino to move the draw to the Kennedy Center after it was widely expected to take place in Las Vegas. FIFA may further recognize Trump at the event with a newly created peace prize. Infantino hasn’t confirmed that Trump will be the recipient but the two have forged a notably close relationship and Trump has openly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize. On the same day last month that FIFA said it would issue the new award, Infantino called Trump a “close friend” who has “such an incredible energy.”

If the prospect of a peace prize isn’t enough attention, Trump will assume a role played in the past by the broadcasting legend Walter Cronkite and other luminaires by hosting the Kennedy Center Honors, if current plans hold. When Trump announced the honorees at the Kennedy Center in August, he cast himself as reluctantly taking on the duties at the request of his chief of staff.

“I’ve been asked to host,” he said. “I said, I’m the President of the United States. Are you fools asking me to do that? Sir, you’ll get much higher ratings. I said ‘I don’t care.”

There are few recent parallels to the fervor that’s about to descend on the Kennedy Center. When the U.S. last hosted the World Cup in 1994, the draw was held in Las Vegas and Bill Clinton, the president at the time, didn’t attend. When presidents participate in the Kennedy Center Honors — Trump skipped the event during his first term — they generally stay in their box, wave to the audience and cheer the honorees.

This week’s lineup is a reminder that for Trump — a two-term president, bestselling author and onetime reality television star — his favorite role is that of a showman. And Trump’s transformation of the Kennedy Center from one of Washington’s relatively apolitical spaces into something of an extension of his White House affords him a natural stage.

A shift that began early in Trump’s second term

The shift at the Kennedy Center began quickly after Trump’s return to Washington in late January. Within a month, he ousted the institution’s leadership, filled the board of trustees with his supporters and announced he had been elected the board’s chair.

Trump and his aides criticized the Kennedy Center’s programming as “woke” and accused the previous leadership of financial mismanagement and neglecting the building. Some renovations have been underway in recent weeks, including using white paint over columns that were previously gold.

Deborah Rutter, who was fired as the Kennedy Center’s president, said in a May statement that allegations of poor financial management were “false” and insisted that when she left, “the Kennedy Center was fiscally sound.”

But the fallout has been intense with prominent musicals such as “Hamilton” canceling performances. Actor Issa Rae and author Louise Penny also withdrew from appearances while consultants such as musician Ben Folds and singer Renée Fleming resigned. Some artists have expressed a sense of sadness at the changes.

“It was always a joy to be asked to perform at the Kennedy Center,” Jane Alexander, an actor and former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, told The Associated Press.

For its part, the Kennedy Center’s new leadership has said it is focusing on programming that appeals to a broad audience and doesn’t lose money. Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell has emphasized “common sense” programming.

But Democrats in Congress are scrutinizing whether the new management is ultimately costing the Kennedy Center money. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, released documents last month showing the Kennedy Center entered into an agreement giving FIFA “exclusive” use of the facility from Nov. 24 through Dec. 12 at no cost, arguing that the venue was at risk of losing millions in potential revenue because of the arrangement.

Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, told the AP that it was being paid $7.4 million to hold the draw, including a $2.4 million donation from FIFA along with sponsorship opportunities and expenses. In a response to Whitehouse, Grenell said he has raised $117 million this year.

The Kennedy Center has a bipartisan history

The notion that the Kennedy Center would end up in a spat with Congress would have been unheard of just a few years ago. The venue’s history is rooted in bipartisan cooperation when Republican President Dwight Eisenhower worked with Democrats who controlled Congress at the time to pass legislation that would create a national cultural center.

Since then, the facility that would become the Kennedy Center became a place where political differences were mostly put on pause. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg — ideological opposites — famously attended the opera together.

The Kennedy Center Honors, which were established in 1978, have recognized a broad range of artists and, until Trump’s first term, presidents of both political parties attended the ceremony.

Conservative Charlton Heston was honored during the Clinton administration while liberal Warren Beatty received an award as then-President George W. Bush looked on.

The recipients are typically chosen by a bipartisan commission, though Trump said this year he was “about 98%” involved in the selections. Some of the 2025 winners have a history of backing Trump, including “Rocky” actor Sylvester Stallone, who has called Trump “the second George Washington” and founding Kiss member Ace Frehley, who endorsed Trump in 2020, calling him “the strongest leader we’ve got.”

But some Trump detractors will also be recognized, including Kiss musician Paul Stanley. And though singer Gloria Gaynor hasn’t publicly criticized the president, her 1970s disco hit “I Will Survive” is both a Trump favorite and an anthem for feminists and the LGBTQ community.

When Las Vegas hosted the draw, Vanessa Williams and James Brown were headliners. FIFA announced late Tuesday that supermodel and television personality Heidi Klum, comedian Kevin Hart and actor Danny Ramirez will be on hand on Friday along with performances by Andrea Bocelli, the Village People, Robbie Williams and Nicole Scherzinger.

The Kennedy Center’s big weekend caps what has been a difficult year for Washington as Trump has portrayed the city as crime-ridden even as the violent crime rate is down. The president has deployed the National Guard in the city and two members were shot — one fatally — last week just a mile from the Kennedy Center.

Tourism has taken a hit with travel research firm Tourism Economics predicting a 4.3% decline in international visits to Washington in 2025. That’s slightly down from an earlier projection, giving local officials hope that events like the draw could leave potential tourists with a better image of the city.

“For us as a destination, perhaps this gives us a chance to have some positive feedback,” said Elliott Ferguson, the president and CEO of Destination DC, the city’s marketing organization.

___

Italie reported from New York.

Her specialty: one-of-a-kind 3D pieces, from Judaica to vases and plates.

“My pieces are never exactly alike,” she said. Her current display at the senior living community The Arbor at Lake Worth, where she also lives, features her expansive collection, including ceramics and glass fusion.

Gilden found a way to intertwine art into every aspect of her life. “I used to draw on tablecloths,” she said. “I always wanted to do art.”

After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, she got a job designing children’s wear. This led her to other aspects of design, from interior design to women’s handbags (she designed fine leather bags under the name Eccentrix).

She moved to South Florida in 1991, and it was here that she learned how to do ceramics.

“I would get pieces out of the molds and carve them and add lace and fire them off in the kiln,” she said. “I learned to do different techniques and was always trying to make something different.”

Now, Gilden says ceramics are her favorite art form. She likes to focus on women’s faces and creates texture using foil, lace and rhinestones. She also incorporates methods like decoupage, cutting up magazines and placing the pieces together.

“You can see yourself or your loved ones in so many of the faces,” said Samantha Clark, engagement director at The Arbor at Lake Worth. “The community is purchasing a piece to put on display forever — it spoke to me.”

Gilden’s original inspiration for many of her current pieces came from her travels with her second husband, Marvin Liberson, whom she married in 2008. While visiting Spain, she was intrigued by posters of women, so she bought them and came back to Florida to create — something Liberson encouraged.

“He always supports me with all the work I am doing,” said Gilden. “When we moved in together, we made the second bedroom a place to display my art.”

Gilden eventually left her job — she was working at Barbara Katz, a boutique in Boca Raton — to travel. But art ended up becoming a full-time gig for her, and for Liberson.

“I call him ‘the schlepper,’ said Gilden. “It’s not easy to travel with this stuff. It’s heavy and there’s bubble wrap. He’s the one bringing my artwork everywhere.”

Gilden said she has showcased her art at various galleries throughout South Florida, including Gemini Art Gallery in Delray Beach and Artisans on the Ave in Lake Worth (both now closed) and at Art Palm Beach, the international show in West Palm Beach. She also recently had pieces up for sale at David Barry Jewelers in Boynton Beach.

Her Jewish faith inspires her to create unique Judaica. She has designed Sabbath platters, menorahs, and a special bowl for an Orthodox wedding.

Her biggest sellers, though, are mezuzahs. “We do have a large Jewish clientele [at The Arbor] and they all love the mezuzahs,” said Gilden. “You know, a lot of them have their homes furnished, but they still need a mezuzah for their door.”

Each piece usually takes weeks to create. “I keep working on it until I get the results I like,” she said. “It’s a process.”

But it’s a process she thoroughly enjoys. “It’s so relaxing for me; instead of being in a card game, I would rather draw something and paint it and get to the finished product. I just enjoy doing it. It’s my therapy in a way,” she said.

Pieces range in price, with mezuzahs costing about $35 and some bigger art deco pieces selling for upwards of $3,500. But, she said, on average they sell for $250 to $550.

And while she has sold many of her pieces during her artistic career, she is thrilled to be showcasing her work for her fellow residents at The Arbor.

“It’s very exciting. I’ve met so many people who have stopped and asked if I am the artist,” she said. “People signed a book with comments and I will have the memories from that.”

The display will be at The Arbor through the end of November, but Gilden isn’t stopping there. She continues to take art classes, learning new methods and making them her own.

“I always had a feeling that this was what I wanted to do my whole life,” she said. “I’m 90 years old now and I’m still doing it, and I think it’s what keeps me going.”

To learn more about Gilden’s work, visit dorisgilden.com.

The announcement came as the world’s most visited museum, housed in a former medieval palace, is preparing for ambitious renovations announced earlier this year. The Louvre is also still reeling from last month’s heist of crown jewels worth more than $100 million.

The museum said in a statement that a technical report submitted Friday flagged “particular fragility of certain beams holding up the floors” of the second level of the southern wing of the Louvre’s Sully wing because of “recent and unforeseen developments.” It did not elaborate.

Museum management decided to block access to the second-level offices and temporarily relocate the 65 employees working there for three days while experts assess the damage. The museum is also closing the Campana Gallery — which is situated below the offices and exhibits antique Greek ceramics — as a precautionary measure.

Modernizing the Sully wing is among priorities of the renovation efforts announced in January.