How the Palley family preserves their parents’ artistic legacy in Miami
Live in a house of glass? Expect nervous tension. Young children seen and overseen.
But that’s been never the situation at the museum-quality home of philanthropists and art patrons Sheldon and Myrna Palley. That’s certainly not how their grown children engaged with the home now that the family patriarch and matriarch are gone.
“The house was never child proofed and my children never broke a piece,” said the Palleys’ daughter Donna Kass, 61, as she surveys the artwork filling the one-story, four-bedroom home she and her older sister and younger brother grew up in. “She would just say to them, ‘You know, you have your toys. These are my toys.’”
Today, most of these “toys” are earmarked for the public. Nearly all the art, save for what the Palleys’ three children and their five grandchildren may opt to keep, is cataloged and promised to galleries across the nation, especially the University of Miami’s 75-year-old Lowe Art Museum.
The Myrna and Sheldon Palley Pavilion for Contemporary Glass and Studio Arts at the Lowe resulted from the couple donating their 45-year collection of studio art glass to the venue in 2007. The senior Palleys’ support to the Lowe began in the 1970s.
Stepping up for Mom and Dad
“What has happened since their passing is my sister and I, and my brother, have stepped up,” said the couple’s firstborn, Lisa Palley, 65. “We’re managing the legacy and expanding on it. And then we have our personal philanthropy as well.” Lisa owns the family home.
The three Palley children — Lisa, Donna and Kevin, 59 — also endow various local programs and scholarships and underwrite a glass lecture series.
The UM connection
Among the family endeavors: underwriting ArtLab @ the Lowe, an upper-level seminar in 2025 that gave students hands-on curatorial experience and took them on a cultural tour to Los Angeles.
The Palleys also underwrite Friends of the Theatre to support UM’s Jerry Herman Ring Theatre. And In April, to herald UM’s Centennial Celebration, the family donated Lady, a 50-foot tall red metal sculpture by the late American artist John Henry. The piece towers atop a section of lawn next to Lakeside Village, facing the Lowe and Palley Pavilion across Stanford Drive.
Sheldon, a business and law student, and Myrna, an education student, met when they were studying at The U in the early 1950s. They married in 1956.
“The university was good to them,” said Palley. “They wanted to show their love back.”
The Palleys and New World School
Sheldon and Myrna Palley founded the nearly 40-year-old New World School of the Arts, the Miami-Dade school system’s performing arts high school, and supported the Miami Film Festival, YoungArts, and the UM’s business and law schools.
“From the beginning, Myrna and Sheldon treated New World School of Arts and its students as cherished members of their family,” said Jeffrey Hodgson, New World School’s provost and CEO. “They ‘adopted’ students throughout the years, helping with tuition, supplies, attire for dance classes, travel to auditions and much more.
“If there was a need, Myrna and Sheldon stepped up to help. It’s inspiring to see Lisa and Donna carrying forth their parents’ passion for the arts, education and philanthropy.”
In addition to supporting New World School, the Palley children individually or collectively help support Beaux Arts, Temple Judea, the Miami Book Fair, Exchange for Change and The Education Fund.
Miami Book Fair and feeding a community
Lisa and Donna Palley are on the Miami Book Fair board. Lisa spent more than 20 years promoting the annual literary institution in her role as a publicist. She’s produced “Poetry City,” an Aaron Glickman-directed documentary about poetry in Miami that is scheduled to premier Nov. 20 at the book fair.
Lissette Mendez, the book fair’s executive director, calls Palley “an integral part of the Book Fair,” which started at Miami Dade College’s downtown Wolfson Campus in 1984.
“She is irreplaceable, a pillar of the organization and a constant source of support. If Lisa was on it, we were gold,” she said.
In addition, on Saturdays, for nearly 15 years, Palley volunteers at Urban Oasis Project’s farmers market at Legion Park on Miami’s Upper East Side.
“We work diligently to ensure that there is a local and thriving food movement and community,” Palley said.
Oasis Project purchases from growers, producers and businesses statewide and internationally. Doubles SNAP purchases. Boxes fresh fruits and vegetables including jackfruit, sugar apples, oyster mushrooms. Builds community gardens.
“With the help of our community, we can do these things,” she said.
Poetry and artist documentaries
The Palley family has also gotten into filmmaking.
They are executive producers, along with “Yentl” and “Homeland” actor Mandy Patinkin, of a documentary, “The Ever Curious Man,” about glass artist Sydney Cash. Cash’s filmmaker son Ivan Cash is directing.
“The Cashes were very good friends of our parents so we did it in honor of Dad and as a thank you,” said Palley, as she pointed to an original work Sydney Cash created for Sheldon Palley in honor of his wife Myrna, who died at 85 in June 2020. Sheldon died at 90 in January 2024.
MORE: Myrna Palley, who turned a love of glass art into a multimillion gift to Miami, dies at 85
Connection to artists
Sheldon and Myrna first met Sydney Cash at New York’s Heller Gallery in the 1980s and as the relationship grew, they hosted the Detroit native at their Miami home to talk about a commission they envisioned for their living room. Cash stayed with the Palleys while installing the commission.
“The artwork was set into the wall, and had several mirrors arranged so that when you looked into it, you saw into a world with a complete dimensionality. And the lighting for that piece was also installed in the wall, so you couldn’t see it. I liked their enthusiasm for new ideas,” Cash said.
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A lifetime together with art
The early-1960s home in Miami’s Kendall neighborhood was once a mango orchard before it became a wonderland of glass art. Some are whimsical, like John Miller’s oversized glass cheeseburger sculpture on a dining table and Robert Levin’s banana goblet.
Myrna and Sheldon became collectors 50 years ago after strolling the booths at the 1975 Winter Park art show near Orlando. Artist Robert William Bartlett’s $45 cloudy white bowl with its patches of primary colors enraptured Myrna. That piece stays with the family. Mom’s request.
The house had to grow to accommodate the swelling art collection. An addition was built in 1975, when daughter Lisa was 15. The children and grandchildren grew up around the priceless collection that has grown to some 300 pieces.
“It was always a part of our lives. It was just how we lived. We never thought it was unusual,” Palley said.
At the Lowe
“The Palley Family has, for two generations now, embodied the true spirit of philanthropy,” said the Lowe’s executive director Jill Deupi.
“Beyond enhancing the quality of life on UM’s campus and throughout Miami-Dade County, Myrna and Sheldon and now Lisa, Donna and Kevin, have ensured that glass art is elevated, amplified and enjoyed by people from all walks of life.”
Art should never be in storage
The artists’ works often are showcased in the Palley home before venturing out to the galleries.
One artist, Tim Tate, remembers when he first met the Palleys:
“The first year I showed at SOFA Chicago, this unusual vivacious couple came over to see my new video domes. They were delightful, and introduced themselves as Sheldon and Myrna. They were so excited by the work they kept dragging people from their group over to see them, always saying, ‘We discovered him!’ And I was glad to be discovered.
“Thus began a decade-long love affair. I always tried to sit near them at every event. Their enthusiasm for glass was contagious to all,” said Tate, a co-founder of the Washington Glass Studio in Washington.
In April 2027, The Lowe opens Tate’s new show, “Imagining Utopia: A Journey Towards Acceptance.”
“We all owe the Palleys so very much,” Tate said.
Not every piece of art in their private home is glass. There’s artwork made with color pencils, shoelaces, ceramics, water colors, pen and ink, batik and metal screws.
All of this visibility is in keeping with Myrna Palley’s wishes.
“’If it’s in storage, it’s not living if it’s hidden away,’ she’d say,” Lisa Palley said. “They wanted it out to be enjoyed so that you can live with art. Why should I pay for storage?”
How to help
Here are some of the South Florida and national groups the Palley family supports and how you can reach the organizations:
- Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass at contempglass.org.
- Beaux Art: Underwriting Student Artist Showcase and its Myrna Palley Award/s for Excellence and Festival of Art Show’s Glass Award at beauxartsmiami.org.
- The Education Fund in Miami at educationfund.org.
- Exchange for Change at exchange-for-change.org.
- Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida at www.girlscoutsfl.org.
- The Jerry Herman Ring Theatre on the University of Miami Campus at theatre.as.miami.edu.
- Juggerknot Theatre Company at juggerknottheatrecompany.com.
- The Lowe Art Museum: Myrna and Sheldon Palley Pavilion for Contemporary Glass and Studio Arts; the Myrna and Sheldon Palley Glass Art Lecture Series; ArtLab @ The Lowe, all on the University of Miami campus in Coral Gables at www.lowe.miami.edu.
- Miami Book Fair at miamibookfair.com.
- Penland School of Craft in Bakersville, North Carolina at penland.org.
- Temple Judea in Coral Gables at judeagables.org.
- Urban Oasis Project at urbanoasisproject.org.
Editor’s note: This story is part of the Miami Herald Giving Section that highlights local nonprofit organizations in the community.
This story was originally published October 20, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
