Walking into Arline Jacoby's apartment in Rivercross is like entering a sanctuary of creativity.  The walls swirl in a marbled peach design, and paintings, sculptures, and trinkets fill every space.  Cacti poke out of pots on window sills, and plants twist to find sun from corners of the room.  One has the impression of having stepped inside a living museum.

Jacoby, who today is a gravelly-voiced grandmother tickled at the opportunity to display her work to guests, knew she would pursue art even as a small girl growing up in Philadelphia.  The youngest of eight children born to immigrant parents, Jacoby was brought up in an artistic family - her father was an artist and musician - and Jacoby remembers the kiln in their house where they would fire ceramics.

A teacher introduced Jacoby to jewelry-making, which soon whetted her affinity for sketching.  After high school, Jacoby attended the Stella Elkin Tyler College of Fine Arts at Temple University, where she solidified her training in a wide variety of media.

Today, the works in her apartment bear testament to her broad foundation, with sculptures in marble and bronze, ceramic pieces, and paintings that range from classical realism to the abstract.  When asked about her influences, Jacoby thinks for a moment before responding, "I can't say.  I admire everyone.  I try to come up with my own creativity."

While creating has always been important to Jacoby - she has had her art exhibited in both solo and group showings in New York and New Jersey - she stresses the importance of using art to enhance people's lives.  "I'm not one of those artists who just want to go to a studio and paint.  I want my community to have studios, and kids to enjoy art."

Jacoby's activist streak led her to pursue a Masters degree in Arts Education.  After her three children were old enough to attend school, she worked as a high school art teacher on Long Island for 23 years.  Her belief that art should be used for constructive purposes is reflected in her work itself.  A special exhibition at Adelphi University displayed Jacoby's sculptures depicting the horrors of the Holocaust.  "I said, I want this not just to be pretty, but to enable people to learn something," the artist explains.

Among the countless pieces of Jacoby's own artwork displayed in her apartment, she keeps on hand a book in which former students' sketches of sneakers were published, and proudly exhibits a sculpture given to her by a young Vietnamese student.  Thinking about the boy, who was put, alone, on a boat for America by his parents during the Vietnam War, still gives Jacoby goose bumps.  The boy used the therapeutic effects of molding clay to create a painstakingly-labored sculpture, which he would later offer his teacher as a gift.

Jacoby has used her work as a bridge between cultures, teaching art to non-native English-speakers as a catalyst for cultural adjustment.  She has traveled extensively on six continents, including a summer spent working at the marble yards in Pietra Santa, Italy.  But after all her travels, it is to Roosevelt Island that Jacoby returns.

The artist, whose children had lived on Roosevelt Island since 1984, moved here from Wantagh in 1989. Jacoby has been very active on Roosevelt Island, serving on the Residents Association Common Council for six years and teaching art at the Youth Center and for PS 217.  She continues to work with the Youth Center's after-school Beacon program.

Jacoby says the magic of the Island is a perfect environment to create an artistic community.  "We're so fortunate to live here."  As president of the Art Association, she leads a group of Island artists who meet every Friday evening in their studio on the 12th floor of 546, where they sketch live models.  The studio is available for the use of Art Association members at any time, as part of the $25 yearly membership fee.  Jacoby has been responsible for curating art in the windows in Rivercross and Westview, and for bringing sculptures by renowned artists to the Island.  Most recently, Jacoby was responsible for bringing the Queens Council on the Art's ArtFrenzy celebration to Roosevelt Island.