Salvatore Zagami teaching a student at Cypress Bay High School.

Henry David Thoreau once said, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.” That’s precisely what Salvatore Zagami is doing. A professional artist since 1968 when he sold his first portrait, Sal has indeed been living his dream, teaching a variety of art courses to teenage and adult students in Broward County.

His enthusiasm for his craft and his desire to share it resulted in a triple major in the fields of fine arts, education and psychology. He studied at Marymount College, Florida Atlantic University and the University of San Diego. His teaching career started in 1975, when he taught art to mentally challenged students at Melrose Park Center. He served as a substitute teacher and taught part-time “to survive” while practicing his art until becoming a full-time teacher 11 years ago. In 2001, as an art teacher at Hallandale High School, he was named that school’s Teacher of the Year. In 2002, he joined the staff at Cypress Bay High School, where he’s currently teaching ninth graders architecture, ceramic pottery and portraiture.

During the course of his artistic career, Sal has had numerous exhibits. The Boca Raton Museum of Art chose him as one of 15 artists to help celebrate the museum’s 50th anniversary with a retrospective of key artists from the previous five decades. In 1995, the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art hosted an exhibition of Sal’s work alongside that of the renowned Fernando Botero and Kenny Scharf. Art in Public Places even commissioned Sal to create an 18-foot tall sculpture, currently housed in the Imperial Point Library entitled, “Three Horses Above the Cat Walk.” The South Florida Consortium Award went to Sal in 1991; presented by the National Endowment for the Arts, it included a $15,000 prize – the highest monetary amount given to-date. His proudest achievement? While teaching a class at Hallandale High School, he was able to teach a group of mentally handicapped students how to express themselves through art.

Sal is currently teaching in three different settings. By day, you can find him at Cypress Bay High School, where he teaches art not only for expressive purposes, but also in the hope that his students will identify career opportunities through art. On Monday evenings, he can be found at Plantation High School, where an enthusiastic group of adults are benefiting from his experience in ceramics. But it’s his Wednesday night activities at Northeast High School that are garnering the most interest these days. He recently began a stone-carving class there, making him the first stone-carving teacher in the Broward County School District. Using marble, alabaster and soapstone, his students are learning how to create finished works that will have the eternal immortality of stone.

Working with such materials as stone, plastic, ceramics and steel, Sal credits the artistic trio of Jackson Pollock, Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso for giving artists like him the freedom to express themselves in the world of art using whatever materials they choose. “When I was young, I was inspired by the works of Rene Magritte, Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti. Now, it’s the history of art that inspires me,” says Sal. “I look at all of the artists throughout history. They’ve made me who I am and now I use my own ideas, rather than borrowing from other artists.”

Salvatore Zagami working with Cypress Bay High School students.

Sal truly enjoys what he does and believes he’s come full-circle. “To become an artist, you have to go inside of yourself. You can’t be a teacher until you’ve had some life experience. I’m old enough and have had enough experience to know that I have something to teach. The more life experience you have, the more you have to give.” Sal’s goal is to “keep the wheel of art going.”

To Sal – who hopes to achieve National Board Certification this year – art isn’t work – it’s a way of life, an attitude. “I’m carrying out the dream I began in 1968 and like Thoreau said, I’m living my dream awake.”