Education & Classes in Delray Beach

Not many actors can say they've performed in a production directed by a 12-year-old, but Erin Coley has always had an instinctive sense of how to put on a show. Years later, she and her husband, J.R., founded Standing Ovation Performing Arts, assembling eight other experts in the field to encourage kids to get on the stage as early as possible. Improv comedy, puppetry, and playwriting help students express themselves while giving them the skills to deliver confident class presentations and rousing monologues on the futility of naptime.

Master craftsmen lead the production team at McMow Art Glass, bringing experienced craftsmanship to each new project that the 9,000-square-foot studio takes on. A group of 25 employees with art degrees from all over the country assist the veterans, and together they produce an array of fine glass items that range from classic stained windows to carvings, etchings, and mosaics for residences and commercial buildings. When not combining liquid bits of color into cold plates of art for clients, the staff teaches classes to students of all skill levels. Class topics start with the basic skills of fusion and slumping, and ultimately cover more advanced techniques such as how to repair a broken vase after using it as the ball in a harmless game of rugby.

Art-Sea Living owner Babs Lentz caught the entrepreneurial bug at age 12, when she helped her father sell his car for $200 more than what he was asking. But Lentz has always intertwined her business savvy with free-spirit artistry, creating a children’s clothing line, designing jewelry, and opening the Art-Sea Living boutique gallery. Inside this welcoming studio, Lentz displays her own handmade creations as well as items from other local designers. Above all, she believes that art can be a great healer. Visitors can unleash their own inner artists during pottery-painting sessions, clay-sculpting classes, and watercolor studies. And for special events, Art-Sea Living can bring its studio on wheels to your party, offering paint-your-own pottery, wineglass painting, and more.

Named after the historic art-deco structure rescued from demolition nearly 30 years ago, the Armory Art Center is home to a dedicated staff of artists, instructors, and community activists. These passionate individuals make media from ceramics and jewelry to computer design accessible to aspiring artists young and old through art classes. Their campus sprawls over three buildings and acts not only as a school but also as a gallery for students and residents to showcase their projects. The Armory's staff is proud of their youth-outreach programs and offer need-based scholarships for qualifying students of all ages, and since all ages includes the age of 537, Michelangelo is eligible.

For more than 35 years, Palm Beach has seen flocks of Tradewinds Flight School's students soar into its clear skies and over its blue-green waters. The company's certified flying instructors unlock the secrets to navigating aviation landscapes. Nestled within the cockpits of single- and multiengine aircraft, they send prospective pilots soaring toward private licenses and professional careers farming cotton candy from the clouds. Using an FAA-approved curriculum, the pilots operate out of Fort Pierce International Airport, and can cater their lessons to a student's desired pace. The veteran pilots also charter flights, leaving passengers free to relax and give directions to lost birds.