VERO BEACH — Among the crowd queuing up at the Vero Beach Museum of Art for the Children’s Art Festival Saturday morning, there were certainly moms and dads who, as children themselves, had clung to their parents’ hands, eagerly waiting for the doors to swing open on a day of creative fun – free to all.
Since 1981, the museum has offered the popular outreach to the community’s children, which has grown to include musical performances, children’s art exhibits, musical face painting and numerous creative activities. This year’s Presenting Sponsor was KAST Construction. Patron Sponsors included: Atlantic Pro Audio, Barker Electric Air Conditioning and Heating, Lozada School of Music, Palm Beach Parking, Southeastern Printing, and Vero Chemical Distributors. Presenting Sponsor for the 2013 Indian River County Student Juried Art Exhibition was Jim and Alvina Balog.
For the littlest festival-goers, strollers were the transportation of choice, the newest models about the size of a small sports car and apparently able to transport not only the passenger but also most of his/her earthly belongings.
Nine-year-old Catherine Caldwell has attended the festival each year since she was 2. Her mom, Shelly Caldwell, remembered, smiling, the wiggly picture her toddler daughter had created on that first visit.
Kids could start off under the porte cochere, bending, laughing and toppling over in a game of Art Twister. Throughout the day, students groups offered vocal, instrumental and dance performances, and student art from county elementary schools was displayed in the Great Hall. Performing groups represented: Treasure Coast Elementary, Liberty School, Citrus Elementary, Osceola Magnet, Rosewood Magnet, Beachland Elementary, Vero Classical Ballet, Christi’s Dancers, Lozada School of Music and VBHS.
First-time Festival attendee Maximus Curren could barely contain himself, eagerly pulling his dad, Al Curren, through the entrance, clutching the handmade invitation Citrus Elementary art teacher Terry Parker had created for each student. First grader Maximus’s work, a representation of a Lascaux (France) Cave painting, was part of his school’s exhibit.
The exhibit hall filled with excited conversation, as the young artists pointed out their works, and parents and grandparents ooh’ed and aah’ed. Carter Liverman, 8, explained the technique he had employed to create a slender-billed water bird (using a sponge to apply the paint) to mom, Michelle Liverman, and grandma, Sheryl Mills. Third grader Grant Newcombe is following in the footsteps of his artistic family, and his sea turtle painting, rendered in shades of green, drew applause from his parents Robert and J’Laine Newcombe.
During the Festival, all the museum exhibitions were open at no charge. One of these, “Recycled Dreams: Pablo Cano’s Marionettes,” was the inspiration for a delightful, imaginative work created by Indian River State College students within a project called “Science, Technology, Engineering and Math,” through the Keep Indian River Beautiful Art Lab. The students created marionettes using found objects donated by KIRB.
Cano’s exhibition also inspired the five studio projects: art supplies were heaped upon long tables, and children were cutting, twisting, pasting, folding – creating stick figure marionettes, hand puppets and finger puppets, assisted, as needed, by parents and student volunteers. “He definitely enjoys the puppets,” said Tyler Andresen, as son Atreyu, 3, brandished a colorfully adorned paper bag puppet.
Throughout the day, dedicated VBMA volunteers provided the power that kept everything flowing smoothly. “Directing traffic” at a studio door, Eileen Connelly has been a VBMA volunteer for 10 years– “I love working with the kids!” A small girl in a pink dress approached shyly, twirling her hair. Connelly bent down, smiling. “How can I help you?”
In its fourth decade, The Children’s Art Festival continues to broaden the creative experiences of community children, thus carrying out the museum’s mission of “enriching lives through the arts.”