Education Center prepares for a sumptuous season

Here’s some food for thought: This season’s programming at the Longboat Key Education Center will fill your plate as well as your mind.

According to Education Center Executive Director Susan Goldfarb, this season’s programs will be a treat for the taste buds, as well as the brain.

A new “Afternoon Tea” series featuring “Meet the Artists” with Observer music critic June LeBell, along with tea sandwiches and treats, will take place from 3 to 4:30 Wednesdays Jan. 6 through Jan. 27. A four-part “Lunch and Learn” series began Monday, Jan. 4, with a lesson on “Mozart in Vienna” by Warren Roberts. A three-part “Cocktail Hour: Eat, Drink and Think!” series will kick off at 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5, with “The Playwright and the Actor/The Actor and the Playwright.” And the always popular movie nights will take place throughout the season — and participants are guaranteed to get more than their fill of movies.

“Movie nights are always fun because we serve pizzas and we watch movies that people might not watch on their own,” said Goldfarb. “Plus, we pop our own popcorn.”

The winter semester of the Education Center, a non-profit organization that provides adult-enrichment education, began Monday, Jan. 4. New classes will begin later this month and also in February and March. Classes range from four to eight weeks and focus on topics from Abraham Lincoln to Yiddish.

According to Goldfarb, the Education Center currently has 2,000 registrations, but space is available in many programs. The Education Center will prorate registration costs if space is available in a class that has already begun. For a brochure about the Education Center’s programs, call 383-8811 or stop by the Education Center at 5370 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Suite 212. But don’t expect to find everything that the Education Center has to offer in the brochure. Additional classes have been added to the schedule, and Goldfarb is planning a new “Outside the Box” series that will be developed throughout the season.

“Most people say they have not come across another organization in the area that has so much to offer,” Goldfarb said.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected].