Lawrence A. Sanders Lifetime Achievement in the Arts
Jim Dirks was born in Washington State and at the age of 10 moved to Maryland with his family. His Art career started at age 5 when he received a Jon Gnagy Art kit for Christmas . He had finished everything in the kit by New Years. In High School he attended a new school with new Ceramics tools and Kilns but no one knew how to use them. With another student they researched and spoke to people and learned enough to get things up and running. In 1977 Jim came to Florida on a three week vacation to take a boat to the Bahamas. After 3 weeks in Florida and 3 weeks in the Bahamas in February he never went back to Maryland. He worked on boats, installed solar and in his younger days was a lifeguard. so in 1982 he was diagnosed with Melanoma. As a hobby he had started doing stained glass , he needed to get out of the sun and the shop he was buying supplies from was for sale. So for 43 years he and his wife Tess has been serving the Treasure Coast and beyond making beautiful art glass for homes, churches and businesses. Along the way he and other merchants and professional business people brought Downtown Stuart from the brink of collapse by obtaining the Mainstreet Program which sparked Downtown Stuart's Revitalization. It thrives to this day. Stuart, Martin County and the Treasure Coast have been a wonderful place to grow a business . Recently after 25 years in their building on West Ocean Blvd. Jim and his wife sold their building and moved to a new location on Federal Hwy. Starting the next chapter in their life.
