For 50 years, Crealdé School of Art has been nurturing artists both professional and amateur while bringing people together.
“It’s a place of solace,” said executive director Emily Bourmas-Fry. “I’ve heard over and over again: ‘This is my safe place. This is my community.’”
Bourmas-Fry, who started leading the organization at the start of 2025, said she’s humbled to follow in the footsteps of decades of dedicated artists and volunteers who have made the school what it is today.
“This year has been one of listening and learning about the 50 years,” she said. “That’s an incredible legacy to step into.”
Nestled against serene Lake Sterling, just off busy Aloma Avenue in Winter Park, Crealdé was founded in 1975 by William “Bill” S. Jenkins, a veteran who became interested in the fledgling study of art therapy after his Army service in World War II.
“It was very important to him,” said his daughter, Ann Clement, the school’s first director and current board of directors member. “There isn’t anybody who’s been in war who hasn’t been traumatized.”
“The Changing South, 1940” is an oil painting by Crealdé founder William S. Jenkins. It’s on view in the “Crealdé at 50” exhibition at the Winter Park community art school. (Courtesy Crealdé)
In 1980, Jenkins donated the school to the community as a nonprofit. Since then, it has grown with new buildings, additional programs and ever increasing enrollment. In 2007, the school opened the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, which celebrates Winter Park’s African-American community.
Through it all, people have been finding more than classrooms and studios at Crealdé, Bourmas-Fry said. They have been finding healing and home.
Clement recalled how one man brought his young grandson to a class and told the instructor, “He doesn’t speak.” But art helped the little boy find his voice.
The “Crealdé at 50: Where Creativity Builds Community” exhibit consists of work by the school’s faculty, past and present. (Courtesy Crealdé)
“He started making puppets and talking through them,” Clement said. “It was so powerful.”
Adults, too, have found therapeutic value in the creative work they do at the school.
Joan Sanchez of Kissimmee first signed up for a Crealdé class a decade ago. Like Jenkins, he was an Army veteran. And he was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.
A co-worker recommended Sanchez, who “had drawn a little when I was young,” try Crealdé. So he took a basic class from painter Barbara Tiffany. And he was hooked.
“She became my mentor, and she guided me,” he said.
“Everything Out There Is Here” is an oil on canvas by Barbara Tiffany, curator of the Crealdé at 50: Where Creativity Builds Community” exhibit. (Courtesy Crealdé)
Sanchez would go on to become a Crealdé fellow, helping with children’s classes and events. He participated in the Winter Park Paint Out, began exhibiting with an artist collective and in 2024 was asked to become an instructor. He’s now working on a degree in art history at the University of Central Florida.
His PTSD noticeably improved, he said — and he’s not alone in finding healing with paintbrushes or at the potter’s wheel.
“There are many people who have wonderful stories because of Crealdé and the way Crealdé impacted their lives,” he said. “I can’t say my case is unique, but I know it reflects the intent of the school in many ways.”
Focus on the future
Bourmas-Fry wants to expand that intent, scheduling even more community events and formalizing more arts-and-wellness programs. She is already working on bringing back the popular “Night of Fire” event.
“We’re thinking about the next 50 years and what’s in store,” she said.
Emily Bourmas-Fry is executive director of Crealdé School of Art in Winter Park. (Courtesy Crealdé)
Next year’s exhibitions already are lined up: A celebration of America’s semiquincentennial, a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, a show by former Orlando Museum of Art chief curator Hansen Mulford, a show by abstract-figurative painter Tasanee Durrett.
To prepare for Crealdé’s future, a pair of older buildings will be removed from the campus and replaced with a new foundry and workshop to bolster metalworking, welding and woodworking programs. The renovation also will improve the view of Lake Sterling.
“I think the vision of what Crealdé is will be fully realized when this project is completed,” Bourmas-Fry said.
Another campus improvement will be the addition of a permanent installation, a camera obscura.
“It’s a good way to promote our photography department and the science behind photography,” she said. “We’ll have some fun with that.”
Smooth sailing
With a $1.5 million annual budget, the nonprofit’s finances are in good shape, Bourmas-Fry said. She is exploring more grant opportunities and cultivating more corporate sponsorships to supplement the school’s income, which traditionally has come mostly from tuition. For the first time in several years, the school is fully staffed, as well.
In fact, things are going so well that a consulting contract with former longtime executive director Peter Schreyer was ended early by the board. Schreyer, who has relocated to New Mexico, still serves on the Crealdé faculty and has a Central Florida-based exhibition, “Small Stories From a Big Country,” on view.
“Leila,” an oil on fabric by Rima Jabbur, and “King Ra’s Deli and Fine Dining Establishment,” a stoneware piece by Vince Sansone, are two of the artworks in the “Crealdé at 50: Where Creativy Building Community” exhibit in Winter Park. (Courtesy Crealdé)
Also on view: “Crealdé at 50: Where Creativity Builds Community.” Curated by Tiffany, it salutes the lasting impact of the school’s faculty members with a selection of their works from through the decades.
“Some of these were shipped to us from other states,” Bourmas-Fry said. “And it’s nice to honor some of the faculty members who are no longer with us.”
‘A nice place to be’
On a pre-Christmas tour, even though the campus is technically closed for the holiday, faculty members are still at work — some in the studio, some volunteering around the grounds.
Missy Kimsey-Hickman, a ceramics artist, is getting ready to do some cleanup work on the sculpture garden, filled with works both stately and whimsical.
A sculpture garden, pictured on Dec. 18, 2025, is found in the center of the campus of the Crealdé School of Art in Winter Park. (Matthew J. Palm/Orlando Sentinel)
“It’s an honor to take care of them,” said Kimsey-Hickman, who once was a Crealdé student herself.
Ceramics artist Vince Sansone has been on the Crealdé faculty since the beginning. He’s direct and succinct when asked why he has stuck around a half century.
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“Nice people. Other artists. It’s a nice place to be,” he said. “When students have a good time and learn things, it makes me feel good.”
Another veteran instructor, David Cumbie, remembers the early years when it was all hands on deck to get Crealdé up and running, from teaching to handling the administrative tasks.
“The faculty, we ran the school,” he recalled. “We took turns sitting in the office.”
The digital inkjet print “Johnny at Sun Studios, Memphis, TN 2013” is part of the “Crealdé at 50” exhibition at the Winter Park art school, representing former faculty member Rick Lang, who died in 2013. (Courtesy Crealdé)
He remembers years of working on outreach programs for the blind, the elderly, children who needed special education or who otherwise couldn’t afford arts education.
Instructor Ken Foster, who leads outreach programs for children today, has witnessed the generational effect of families falling in love with Crealdé
“I’ve seen kids come to my group class,” he said, “and now they have kids of their own coming.”
The student body keeps growing, with artists from ages 4 to 92 taking classes, said registrar Laura McBryde.
In 2004, second-grader Kyle Weatherly visits Crealdé School of Art on a school field trip. (Roberto Gonzalez/Orlando Sentinel file photo)
“You can be a beginner and love your teacher and take a class over and over for fun, or you can become a professional artist here,” she said. “It’s for everybody.”
Honoring founder’s vision
Bourmas-Fry would like to expand the school’s outreach to veterans, with free membership or classes exclusively for them, in honor of founder Jenkins.
“I want to honor his vision,” she said.
Sanchez, the veteran-turned-student-turned-teacher, knows how important an artistic outlet can be.
“I thought it was going to be some sort of hobby, and it became part of my life,” he said. “It will be part of my life for the rest of my life.”
Cumbie feels the same.
“I wanted to be a participant in the arts. And I accomplished that. I’m very happy with that,” he said of his 50-year tenure. “I ran into most of my lifelong friends here.”
Crealdé founder William Sterling Jenkins died in 1996. (Orlando Sentinel file photo)
Clement believes her father, who died in 1996, would be thrilled that his idea for a place that uses art to bring people together and improve their lives continues to thrive.
“The spirit of community is here,” Clement said. “And that’s absolutely what he had in mind.”
Follow me at facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Find more entertainment news and reviews at orlandosentinel.com/entertainment or sign up to receive our weekly emailed Entertainment newsletter.
‘Crealdé at 50’
What: Art exhibit highlighting faculty works from the past 50 years
Where: Showalter-Hughes Community Gallery at Crealdé School of Art, 600 St. Andrews Blvd. in Winter Park
When: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, through Jan. 25
Cost: Free
Info: crealde.org
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/12/29/crealde-school-of-art-future-plans/
