Fall is here, in spirit if not in temperature.

Students have returned to their academic classes in Palm Beach County schools. Next week, students of all ages at the Armory Art Center will return to their brushes and canvas, cameras and film and sculpture.

Called the 1992 pre-season fall term, the six-week session will open Monday and run through Oct. 24. The many classes offered by the West Palm Beach art center include drawing and pastels, painting and watercolors, sculpture and ceramics, photography and jewelry making. Saturday morning programs for children include ceramics, painting and drawing.

“Everybody wants to take basic drawing,” Executive Director David Edgar said. Other popular courses are portraiture, painting, pastels and sculpture.

The art center features a gallery where the work of living Florida artists is exhibited. The large, newly air-conditioned assembly hall is also available for rental for special events.

“We see ourselves as a larger community organization,” Edgar said.

Art classes meet once a week and are limited to 15 students each. The average class has eight to 12 students. Armory Art Center offered its first art classes in August 1987. Edgar said during the past year (1991-92) the center served about 2,000 students, including the children’s summer art camp.

The camp was expanded from 300 to 390 children this summer, but people still had to be turned away. “We are looking at ways to expand,” Edgar said.

Lake Worth painter Pamela Melvin taught during the summer program and will begin teaching adult classes in painting next week.

“I just renovated my (home) studio and I was going to teach small groups,” Melvin said. “I would rather be at the school. I feel it will do a lot more for me to be in a community environment.”

Artist Matthew McCarthy has taught at the Armory Art Center center since it was founded. Trained in painting, the Palm Beach resident has worked almost exclusively in pastels for the last three years.

He will teach classes is pastel drawing and figure drawing.

The drawing instructor said he is an artist first, but he has learned a lot from his students. “My students are like a mirror to me,” McCarthy said.

When describing his students’ ages, McCarthy said, “I have taught high school seniors to seniors in life.”

The art center is not an accredited art school and grades are not given to students. “I like that aspect,” McCarthy said. His students do not work for grades but for the art itself. “People are there because they want to learn.”

The only “grades” given are those the teachers receive. The students evaluate their teachers at the end of each term.

As a founding member of the faculty, McCarthy said he feels a special affinity for the nonprofit art center. “It’s exciting to see it grow. I think it can only get better,” he said.

The center’s name reflects its history. The Art Deco-style building was designed by architect William Manley King and was built in 1939 as the Palm Beach National Guard Armory Building.

This summer, the building was listed for the first time on the National Registry of Historic Places. Edgar said he hopes the designation will be helpful in the center’s ongoing efforts to obtain state funds for historic preservation.

The recognition may also help alert the community to its heritage and serve as a rallying symbol in the move to continue restoration of the area, he said.

The community has played a vital role in the Armory Art Center. The armory building was used until 1982, when the National Guard moved to a building on Gun Club Road. After several years of neglect, it was scheduled to be torn down. But residents of the Flamingo Park Neighborhood Association and others got together to save the building. With assistance from the Palm Beach County Council of the Arts, a board was formed to renovate the building for an art school.

Some of the same classrooms where National Guard members once trained now are used for painting, sculpting and other fine arts. Executive Director Edgar uses an office once occupied by a colonel.

And Monday, art classes will begin again. Armory Art Center will present an open house for the public on Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. Faculty members will be on hand and some will demonstrate their work. Visitors may tour the art center and enroll for classes.

LEARNING ART

— WHAT: Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach will begin a new term of classes on Monday, running through Oct. 24. An open house will be held on Saturday.

— WHEN: Open house hours are 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday.

— WHERE: Armory Art Center, 1703 S. Lake Ave., West Palm Beach.

— INFORMATION: Call the center at 832-1776.