Watercolor by Anne Marie Brown■ Free Friday Concerts: Where else can you go to chill out after a long work week and hear great music without having to shell out any cash?
■ Holiday Carousel: It’s mostly for kids, but it attracts grown-ups taking a stroll after dinner who may or may not have had a few too many glasses of wine.
■ Vintage Gym: You can’t go to the gym and not look up at the scribbling of students from long ago who dared to autograph the rafters.
■ Old School Beerfest Each May: With nearly 100 craft beers, what’s not to like?
■ Special Events: Name a popular event in Delray Beach—the 100-foot Christmas tree, Delray Affair, Cinco De Mayo and even the Palm Beach Poetry Fest—and you’ll find it happening at Delray Center for Arts.
■ Performances and Lectures at the Crest Theatre: With just 323 seats, the Crest Theatre is the perfect place to see musicals like “Titanic”; listen to the first lady of musical theater, Elaine Paige; or hear Joan Collins dish about life in Hollywood
■ Cool Contemporary Exhibits at the Cornell Museum of art and American Culture: Over the course of 25 years, Gloria Adams and her team brought outstanding art and cultural exhibits to the halls of the museum. Nothing, however, topped “Coloring Outside the Lines,” a crayon art exhibit in 2011. Who knew you could do so much with crayons?
■ Easy, Inexpensive Parking: With the garage right next door to Old School Square, parking is always easy and just a few bucks—plus, you can walk to any of the downtown restaurants after a show.
■ The Sense of Community: Maybe it’s the buildings, maybe it’s the people, but you can’t help feel like you’re a member of Delray Beach’s tight-knit community when you walk through the doors of any of the three buildings that make up the center.
■ The Staff: From president Joe Gillie on down, each member of the staff at the Delray Center for the Arts shares a passion for what they do and for Delray Beach as well.
