Miami Life: Street Art Regatta, Meeting DeWoody, Dateline, Drag Dinner
We are going to drive north to Fort Lauderdale’s Intracoastal Waterway on April 7 to witness one of the most unique regattas ever formed. After hearing about Beth Rudin DeWoody for decades, I finally got to meet her last Saturday at a Fountainhead Arts trip to Palm Beach. If you are a “NBC Dateline” fan, then you will want to meet my friend Gloria Winkowski who lives a few blocks away from me in Miami Beach. She was actually involved in solving a 40-plus year murder mystery that took place in Rochester, NY. And a group of us will be attending a Spectacular Drag Dinner for a great cause. Join us.
April 7. Street Art Regatta
The Street Art Regatta, or StAR, is a sailing team that will be show off original artworks that local and national artists painted on their sail canvases. It should be spectacular. It’s being presented by the award-winning youth sailing team of the Lauderdale Yacht Club Sailing Foundation.
The interactive art installation can be viewed from the docks of the beautiful Lauderdale Yacht Club (LYC). The press release for the event says the show “Is almost like a water ballet promising a visually stunning experience for everyone who attends. Those who can’t make it can join online via social media on Facebookand YouTube.” Clare Vickery of Grace Arts Florida, Curator and Co-Presenter, said “The StAR event is sure to delight art and sailing enthusiasts alike, bringing together the beauty of both worlds in a unique and exciting way.
What: Street Art Regatta 2023
Where: Lauderdale Yacht Club East Lawn 1725 Southeast 12th Street Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316 on the docks overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway.
When: Friday April 7th, 2023 starting at 4:30 -6:30 PM
A Meet and Greet with Beth Rudin DeWoody
Beth Rudin personally greeted the Fountainhead Arts members in her Bunker Artspace, (personal museum) located in West Palm Beach, which houses 10,000 contemporary art pieces from her collection. It was an amazing experience to stand in the same room with a woman who devoted most of her life to promoting art.
DeWoody is truly one of America’s greatest art patrons, collectors, curators and philanthropists. She is often compared to Peggy Guggenheim who had one of the most important museums of European and American art of the twentieth century in Italy. It is located in Peggy Guggenheim’s former home, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in Venice.
Guggenheim was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim who went down with the Titanic in 1912 and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim who established Guggenheim Foundation. DeWoody was born into a family which owned a $5.1 billion real estate empire. She is the daughter of Gladyce (née Largever and Lewis Rudin.
DeWoody serves as President of the Rudin Family Foundation and sits on the boards of the Whitney Museum of American Artsince the mid-1980s, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Creative Time, The New School University, Design Museum Holon in Israel, New Yorkers for Children, New York City Police Foundation, the Photography Steering Committee at the Norton Museum of Art located in West Palm Beach, Florida and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
Friends who personally know DeWoody have told me she is incredibly generous. She has been known to buy art from unknown artists who she felt had strong potential. It was all about giving them the encouragement they needed to keep moving forward. Those who were present when that happened said it was incredible to watch DeWoody attend an art exhibit and scoop up 20 pieces of art from artists who may never have sold a piece of art before. The excitement in the room matched a first time Oscar winner. Everyone had the chills. DeWoody lives in New York, Los Angeles and Palm Beach.
A Miami Housewife Tells Her “Dateline” Experience
If you are a “NBC Dateline” fan, then you will want to meet my friend Gloria Winkowski who lives a few blocks away from me in Miami Beach. She was actually involved in solving a 40-plus year murder mystery that took place in Rochester, NY. She appeared on Dateline on Friday, January 20 to discuss the case with NBC news correspondent Andrea Canning.
When Gloria first told me about the murder of her girlfriend in Rochester and how she was working with Dateline to tell the nation about what happened so long ago, I couldn’t believe my ears. My husband Eliot and I became huge Dateline fans during the Covid-19 pandemic when we were shut-ins. After a while we realized that most of the cases were about small town, husbands and wives, who killed their spouses to collect on life insurance policies. That wasn’t the case with Gloria’s friend Kathy Krausneck who was murdered February 18, 1982. Gloria said her husband killed her because she was planning to leave him. Jim Krausneck was very abusive. He wasn’t going to let her go on her terms. He took an ax and plunged it into her head before he went to work that day at Eastman Kodak.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he also left his three-year-old daughter home alone while his wife was stretched out dead in her bloody bed. The little girl, who is now 40 years old, said she has no recollection of being by herself without food, water, and adult supervision. Her father wanted to make the scene look like an intruder busted into his home and killed his wife. He claimed that when he returned home that evening, he was shocked to see what took place in his absence. Gloria didn’t believe a word he said because Kathy had been telling her that she was basically living a life totally being controlled by her husband Jim. He didn’t allow her to talk on the telephone when he was home because he wanted her totally devoted to him. He also kept her captive at home every day because he refused to buy a second car for her use. Kathy often relied on Gloria to drive her daughter to school, the doctor, and food shopping. Gloria said Jim was generally very nasty to Kathy. It took 40 years and several marriages later for Jim to be convicted and sent to jail for the rest of his life. It sickens Gloria to think it took the Rochester police all those years to gather enough evidence to put him away. Smaller cities just do not have the investigation resources as bigger ones.
Gloria was also upset with Dateline. She felt they didn’t tell the true story of Jim Krausneck. They just gave the highlights to fit the two hour slot and never gave Kathy the justice she deserved. “She was a sweetheart and he was disturbed. Jim was under investigation at Eastman Kodak for claiming he had a PhD when he never finished the program. They kept asking him to see his documents but he never produced it. He was about to be fired. Dateline, with all of their resources, also never covered that fact and that the Krausneck dog was locked up in the basement for the day. That was something Kathy would never do.”
Gloria realizes that Dateline produces a shows for TV entertainment. She just wishes they showed more facts why Jim was the killer. It was bad enough that Gloria had to tolerate Jim being free for four decades while her girlfriend’s life was cut short.
Gloria lives with her husband Bill, a retired pharmacist, in Miami Beach. They have a beautiful life filled with their four adult children and 11 grandchildren. Dateline is a newsmagazine that has been an airing staple since in 1992. Cases involving murders and missing people are frequent topics on the series that has won multiple Emmys in the news and documentary category.
April 2. If You Are in Town Join Us
A group of us will be attending a Spectacular Drag Dinner. Proceeds from the night will benefit Silver Lining Mentoring, a nonprofit organization that empowers youth in foster care. Our friends Tom Shirk and Felipe Lara are very involved in this organization, and we love supporting them.
Get ready for a fun night of amazing music, food and entertainment to raise much needed funds to support our country’s most vulnerable young people. It’s also Tom’s birthday so please come celebrate and support this cause.
Silver Lining Mentoring, a nonprofit organization, empowers youth in foster care by connecting them to committed volunteer mentors and teaching critical life skills. LGBTQ, Black and Native American youth are disproportionately represented in the foster care system. This means that some of the most vulnerable young people in our country are also the ones who have to navigate these systems without stable, consistent adults to help them along the way. When they age out of the system after turning 18, these resilient young people are often left without the resources, skills, and relationships they need to thrive. Silver Lining’s mission is to change that. Join us on April 2nd to help make this change possible! R House Wynwood, 2727 NW 2nd Ave, Miami, FL 33127.
Together, we can do better for young people impacted by foster care – doing good will never be more fun! Let me know.
P.S. This will be the third year Eliot and I will be staying at the bed and breakfast Tom and Felipe own in PTown.
As Co-Founder and President of HWH PR, Lois Whitman-Hess has been actively involved in public relations for a vast array of business sectors including technology, Internet-based companies, entertainment, law, publishing, fashion, beauty and art. For the last eight years, Lois has authored a daily blog called “Digidame.” It mostly covers her personal journeys as well as tech innovations, art, travel, and entertainment. In addition, Lois co-hosts a weekly podcast called “Lying on the Beach” with TV personality Steve Greenberg who is a contributor on NBC's Today Show. They interview luminaries who discuss their expertise and views on current events.
