Family, friends and art collectors are honoring 88-year-old Cuban master artist Rafael Soriano with an exhibit of his surrealist works, The mystic and spiritual, which opens this weekend at Miami Dade College's West Campus.

Soriano is known for the virtuosity of his lighting technique, inspired by the way he remembers light falling on the bay of his native Matanzas, and for the changing sea-blues in his mystical paintings of amorphous figures.

The exhibit opens Saturday and runs through Dec. 19. The tribute begins at 6 p.m. Saturday at Miami Dade College, West Campus, 3800 NW 115th Ave., in Doral.

-- FABIOLA SANTIAGO

Another French gallery -- this one belonging to Helene Lamarque, who runs a gallery on the Left Bank in Paris -- has opened an outpost in Wynwood to exhibit modern and contemporary art.

Beyond the Body: An Inaugural Exhibition is the gallery's first group show that includes a series of photographs titled The United States of France by French artist Thierry Farcy that ''explores the idea of the United States as a now necessary melting pot of ideology.'' Lamarque opened her first gallery in 1994 at age 24. This is her first outside France.

Galerie Helene Lamarque is at 125 NW 23rd St., Wynwood; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, and by appointment;www.galeriehelenelamarque.com; 305-576-6095.

-- FABIOLA SANTIAGO

A free lunch may be hard to find, but in these tight times, you can experience free theater.

Conundrum Stages is presenting a staged reading of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Northwest Branch of the Broward County Library, 1580 NW Third Ave., Pompano Beach. Rachel Finley directs Will Barnes, Yvone Christiana, Crystal, John Fell, Devounte Hohing, Kevin Johnson, Dorothy Morrison, Gary Simpson, Me'lissa Smith and Keith Wade in the play about a family, its dreams and racial prejudice. 954-786-2186.

Oakland Park's Rising Action Theatre kicks off its Senior Reader's Theatre program Sunday and Monday. The free program is a double bill of the first act of Terrence McNally's Bad Habits and The Cruise, a one-act by Readers Theatre member Harry Wagner. Performances are 2 p.m. Sunday at the Stonewall Library and Archives, 1717 N. Andrews Ave., Wilton Manors, and 7 p.m. Monday at Rising Action Theatre, 840 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Oakland Park. 954-561-2225 or www.risingactiontheatre.com.

-- CHRISTINE DOLEN

Lawrence Wilker, outgoing president and chief executive of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, is more accustomed to producing and presenting performances than giving them. But this week, during his last meeting with the independent Performing Arts Center Trust that manages the county-owned arts complex, Wilker received a standing ovation from his board and staff for helping to turn around the once-flailing center.

''What started out as a six-month adventure has turned into one of the best experiences of my professional career,'' said Wilker, who will be succeeded on Dec. 8 by M. John Richard, executive vice president of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

During Wilker's tenure, which began in October 2007, attendance and ticket sales increased over the past year, and costs for utilities and maintenance dropped by $1.6 million -- two issues that bedeviled the center in its inaugural year. The center, which cost $482 million to build, opened in October 2007.

-- DANIEL CHANG

Miami Symphony Orchestra and the University of Miami's Frost School of Music announced this week the creation of an assistant conductor program that will give a UM teaching assistant the opportunity to work with MSO Maestro Eduardo Marturet and to conduct for two years.

The first candidate selected is Cristian Grasses, who is completing his last year of Doctor in Musical Arts study at the Frost School.

Grasses will conduct during the symphony's ''Made in America'' concert series on Feb. 7 and 8.

-- DANIEL CHANG

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