Treasures at The Beach

Thanks to an expansion, West Palm Beach now boasts the largest art museum in Florida.

I'm spending an afternoon lazing beneath tropical palms, sipping cool drinks, and diving deep to see starfish and sharks, but I'm not at the beach. I'm at an art museum.

Darn it, I forgot to bring sunscreen. I could use some while I relax in the outdoor sculpture garden. Then I slip into the curving stone spaces of the recently opened wing that made the Norton Museum of Art the largest showcase of its kind in the state.

I take a seat on a bench in an airy new gallery topped with a Dale Chihuly glass ceiling titled Persian Sea-life. It's filled with nearly 700 handblown glass sculptures of shells, starfish, sea horses, and other creatures. It's okay to stare. In fact, it's even encouraged.

Treasures at the Top

To reach the top two levels of the new wing, I climb a dramatic spiral staircase that looks almost as if it's floating on air. Remarkable quotes from artists are displayed in lit boxes to illuminate the way up.

"Stare," reads the one from famed Depression-era photographer Walker Evans. "It's the easy way to educate your eye."

Don't I know it. There are some dazzling things to see. The second level displays the renowned Chinese collection, including porcelains, jade carvings, tomb figures from the Han dynasty, and the Colossal Head of a Buddha.

The third level exhibits European art before 1870. It includes 17th-century Flemish paintings by contemporaries of Peter Paul Rubens and portraits by British artists Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Thomas Lawrence. The new wing made room to expand the collection started in 1941 by industrialist Ralph Hubbard Norton and his wife, Elizabeth Calhoun Norton.

Before I leave, I eat lunch in the new Café 1451. I order a refreshing drink, a bowl of gazpacho ($5.50), and a tomato-and-fresh mozzarella sandwich ($7). I notice that the children's menu features a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Hmm. I'm not surprised. This is an art museum, but it's fun. LES THOMAS

Norton Museum of Art: 1451 South Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL 33401; (561) 832-5196 or www.norton.org.

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Sep 2004
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