How Alex Dreyfoos engineered the framework of Palm Beach County's cultural landscape

The most successful endeavors often start with serendipity. In the case of Palm Beach Canton'due south now-prolific cultural scene, information technology all began with a series of isolated incidents in the life of one man: Alex Dreyfoos.

Although Dreyfoos is credited with setting the county's arts juggernaut in motion 40 years ago, he admits he didn't ever have a vision for it. His actions—in the beginning, at least—were propelled by self-interest. Over four decades, his journey in the arts evolved, condign a passion so strong that even now, at age 85, he continues to imagine what could be—and work toward it.

Rewind to 1968. Dreyfoos, a brilliant immature engineer, was riding high on the success of his inventions—electronic equipment for the photographic industry, then marketed worldwide by Eastman Kodak—and decided to focus equally much energy on life's pleasures as he did on his work. Five years later establishing Photo Electronics Corporation with business partner George Mergens, he traded in the cold winters of Westchester County, New York, for the perpetual sunshine of Palm Embankment County. An avid fisherman, scuba diver, crewman, and pilot, he could engage in all those pursuits while continuing to build his company. Life was good.

There was only one problem: Very few engineers wanted to join him in what they viewed as a "cultural desert." Looking dorsum, he can't blame them. At the fourth dimension, Palm Embankment Opera, The Society of the Four Arts, and the Norton Museum of Art were the pillars of culture hither, with a few smaller organizations in the mix. That'southward when he realized that civilization was a key role of fueling Palm Beach Canton'due south economic engine. But igniting an arts motion was the furthest thing from his mind.

True, his female parent was a professional cellist and he grew upwardly with the arts, but he was too focused on his career in engineering to build a cultural community from the footing upward.

As information technology turned out, culture became a repeating theme in his life. In 1978, five years after he and Mergens bought ABC chapter Channel 12 from John D. MacArthur and renamed information technology WPEC (afterward a CBS station), Dreyfoos wanted to see the area's cultural environment grow to nurture performances—and, in the process, help him recruit talent. To that finish, he aimed to develop a cultural calendar. Since there was no single source for such a thing, WPEC station relations director Judy Goodman suggested gathering organizations interested in starting an arts council. "We asked people to come in to the station [for a meeting] and we couldn't fit anybody in," Dreyfoos says. With a laugh, he adds: "I told them their first project was to put together my cultural calendar."

Alexander W. Dreyfoos - art&culture winter 2018

Dreyfoos helped build a prolific arts customs through projects like the Cultural Council, the Kravis Heart and the Dreyfoos School of the Arts.

The Palm Beach County Council of the Arts, the early iteration of the Cultural Quango of Palm Beach Canton, was chartered in June, 1978. Dreyfoos appointed Goodman as founding executive director of the nascent organization, a role she describes as "part of our gift to the community as a station."

As the Council expanded, it assessed needs throughout the county and found that the citizens wanted a performing arts heart. Strengthening the arts infrastructure via the Council was a tactical step in that direction. "If we didn't have programming strength and stability, we couldn't realize the dream of a performing arts center," Goodman says.

Simply the organisation needed funding. Working with a bed-tax consultant, Goodman devised the strategy and organized the advocacy for a tourist development tax that would raise money for, among other things, cultural programming. The referendum passed in 1982, forging a major turning betoken.

Dreyfoos, who served as founding chairman of the Council of the Arts, discussed the viability of a center with influential friends, including Leonard Davis, a major supporter of the regional arts. Recalls Dreyfoos: "He said that while he admired my drive, information technology wouldn't piece of work because this community would never pay for it." So he thought modest-scale. "I stupidly thought that a piddling $30 million eye was the only thing we could do."

It wasn't until tragedy struck that he got serious about the effort. In 1986, Mergens was hitting past a car while riding his bike in Palm Beach. The blow claimed his life a few days later—and Dreyfoos was devastated. "George and I had a wonderful ability to end each other's sentences," he says. "We were partners in everything, and best friends. Then George died, and I was in an emotional tailspin. I spent 100 percent of my time on the performing arts center as a distraction."

He turned offset to Palm Beach'south wealthy community. He polled a few friends and noted philanthropists and was surprised by what he constitute. "They didn't desire a 2-bit place," Dreyfoos says. "They were used to Carnegie Hall and the Boston Symphony. If they were going to support [a performing arts eye], it had amend be of that quality. It became clear that information technology would be easier to raise $threescore meg than $30 million."

Dreyfoos came up with a new plan and says, "Suddenly, everyone supported it." He and Davis each pledged $one 1000000 to kicking off the entrada, and things snowballed from there. It took 11 years of fund-raising and hurdle-jumping, but the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts opened, fully funded at $60 million, in 1992—and has been thriving since. "Leonard Davis really was the 400-pound gorilla, but he let me have all the glory," Dreyfoos says with feature modesty. George Michel, Dreyfoos'southward friend since the two were roommates at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1950s, says, "There's no question the Kravis Center would never have been built without Alex. When he'southward passionate about something, he [doesn't] surrender."

"Alex is very goal-oriented," says Judith Mitchell, CEO of the Kravis Center since information technology opened. "He searched and studied and looked at the dissimilar angles of how a heart like this could do good a larger community. I was actually struck by his want to make this the performing arts center for anybody—non just a toy for the rich."

Even later on the Kravis Center was congenital, Dreyfoos didn't sit on his award. The School of the Arts, located merely backside the performing arts center, invited him to become involved. He was impressed by the public schoolhouse, which admitted by audition, and in 1997 gave $1 million to push button the institution to a new level. Information technology was the largest individual donation ever bestowed upon a Florida public schoolhouse.

A graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School, Dreyfoos believes that a liberal arts foundation is important, fifty-fifty for STEM students, and that art and science should exist taught concurrently at educational institutions. "The arts and sciences are integrally linked," he says. "They both require conceptualizing and ideas. To be creative scientifically, i has to have a base of understanding."

The Alexander West. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, he says, also has a strong science plan and should exist renamed to reflect that. In fact, he'southward fabricated it a bit of a mission. And if there's 1 thing history has proven, it'south that Alex Dreyfoos doesn't give up on his goals.

Reflecting on his impact over the by 40 years, Dreyfoos insists that the legacy he has built is owed more than to teamwork than a singular vision. Either way, the accomplishments are impressive. According to Pollstar magazine's ranking of ticket sales worldwide, the Kravis Center is the top performance space (for venues with 10,000 seats or fewer) in Florida, selling more than tickets annually than Radio Urban center Music Hall. The Dreyfoos School is ranked among the 100 all-time public loftier schools in the nation by U.Southward. News & Globe Study. And culture in Palm Embankment County accounts for $633 million in annual economic impact—including more than xiv,000 jobs.

[Culture] has attracted a lot of people who used to come up downwardly only for fun in the dominicus," he says. "Because of the arts, they're now here every bit permanent residents, contributing to the economy."

Goodman, at present an attorney based in West Palm Beach, expresses pride at the way the Cultural Quango has developed: "What has happened is wonderful. The multifariousness of the customs has fueled a lot of incredible growth."

"A community becomes more cohesive when there'due south opportunity for cultural activity," Michel adds. "It ties people together."

Although Dreyfoos has a lot to be proud of, the achievement nearest to his heart is his recent gift of a Marshall & Ogletree Opus ane digital organ to the Kravis Centre. The one-of-a-kind instrument, the most technologically advanced in the earth, tin can reproduce 18,000 sounds from diverse pipe organs and has more than 200 stops and 96 audio channels. In 2016, Dreyfoos gave $1.5 million to acquire it—and defended information technology to the retentiveness of George Mergens.

In many ways, the gift was symbolic. "George would accept loved the mechanics of this organ," Dreyfoos says. Contemplating the sentiment, he adds: "It actually was the closing of the circle for me."

Learn more about the Cultural Quango's founder here »

Photos from A Photographic Odyssey

Alex Dreyfoos, who founded the Cultural Quango of Palm Beach Canton in 1978, is one of the region's foremost art patrons. But the MIT- and Harvard-educated engineer and inventor is also a prolific photographer. The avocation has yielded hundreds of thousands of photographs over seven decades. The gallery below is a sampling of his work, with more than appearing in A Photographic Odyssey: Around the World With Alexander W. Dreyfoos. The book is sold at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County Roe Green Uniquely Palm Beach Shop, and proceeds benefit the Cultural Council. —Daphne Nikolopoulos

Photos and captions originally appeared in Palm Beach Illustrated, July/August 2017