Members of The Circle, a philanthropic group of women who provide additional support to the educational outreach programs of the Vero Beach Museum of Art, opted to get aboard the Moonshot Moment rocket, voting for that initiative from among four finalists last Monday.
This year’s 118 members, who each contributed $250 or more, were granting $30,250 and soon learned that two anonymous donors made additional gifts. As she did last year, one woman contributed a further $4,000 to fund the Fellsmere Adopt-A-School program and another gave $6,100 to fund Afternoon at the Museum, bringing the Circle’s six-year total to $159,050.
Before the votes were made and tallied, ladies enjoyed wine and hors d’oeuvres as they mingled and learned a little more about the choices. The programs had been narrowed down from an initial listing after a series of site visits and informational meetings to determine the final four.
Lucinda Gedeon, VBMA Director-CEO thanked the ladies and offered “a toast to every single one of you. The Circle has grown, your enthusiasm has grown and you’re all so pleasant to be with. This is such a great group of women.”
She also congratulated them for their efforts to “push the message forward” that arts education is important for the enrichment of the entire community.
“We look forward to this day every year,” said Marshall Adams, VBMA education director, before giving a brief overview of each of the finalists, beginning with the Indian River County Moonshot Moment.
The Museum joined the community-wide collaborative initiative last year in partnership with the Learning Alliance and the school district. Fostering the Moonshot goal to have 90 percent of third grade students reading at grade level by 2018, the Museum’s program works with teachers from every elementary school and parents from five kindergarten readiness centers, teaching them about ways to integrate visual arts into the curriculum to support student literacy.
Of the programs not chosen this time, Family Festivals includes Holidays at the Museum and the Children’s Art Festival, two free events offered to enhance the lives of children and families in the community. The other was a program called Arts Integration & Cultural Literacy at Indian River Academy, which provides an in-depth arts experience for children at that Title 1 school through a collaborative mural project.
Of the programs funded by anonymous donors, one was Afternoon at the Museum, a partnership with the Alzheimer and Parkinson Association, which gives a creative outlet to dementia patients and their caregivers through docent led gallery tours and studio activities with trained staff. The other, not a finalist this year, was the Fellsmere Adopt-A School Program, which provides students at Fellsmere Elementary School, a Title 1 school, with an introduction to the arts, culminating with a field trip to the Museum.
“The steering committee is a true working group and has been even more so this year,” said committee chairwoman Susan Smith, thanking all those who were circling off the committee before introducing the 2015-16 committee – Nancy Edmiston, chairwoman elect; Lee Albro, Mackie Duch, Cindy Binder and Holly Lentini.
New members are welcomed to join The Circle, which will begin its process again in November. For more information, call Robyn Orzel at 231-0707 x 106.
