The Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences, established by Boris Blai, who was also the founding Dean of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art in Elkins Park, is celebrating its 75th anniversary, writes Juliet Kaszas-Hoch for The SandPaper.

Blai was born in 1893 in Rivne, Russia. He got his early training in sculpture and painting at the Kyiv and Leningrad Imperial Academies and was later a student of the sculptor Auguste Rodin at Ecole des Beaux Arts. He also traveled to Munich, where he studied bronze casting and portrait painting.

After he came to the United States, he started teaching at the Oak Lane Country Day School in Philadelphia in 1927. Eight years later he founded The Tyler School of Art, and he remained its dean until he retired in 1960.

“The LBIF has continued Blai’s vision by offering thousands of classes, workshops, exhibitions, and educational programs to the community,” said the Foundation.

“Though it began as a seasonal operation, the LBIF has grown into a year-round organization, providing a place for learning, free expression, new experiences, and the exchange of ideas and understanding.”

Read more about Boris Blai in The SandPaper.

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Check out the Ceramics Studio at LBIF.