An intergenerational crowd of families and friends poured into the Vero Beach Museum of Art for a festive afternoon of activities and entertainment at the recent 2015 Holidays at the Museum open house. “Head Elf” Jackie Farrell and her co-chair Susan Smith coordinated a large number of enthusiastic Friends of the Museum, who kept things running smoothly as visitors and school groups of performers transitioned from one place to another.
Many arrivals were clustered around various performances taking place throughout the day, including those by the Atlantic Children’s Chorus, Osceola Singers, Rosewood Magnet Panther Performers, Indian River Charter High School’s Moonshot Masterpiece Theatre Pop Ups, Treasure Coast Strings, Beachland Little Shark Singers and Christi’s Dancers. In the great hall, a tempting assortment of cookies – roughly 400 dozen of them – was continually replenished and ARTful Storytime readers kept the younger set enthralled.
Over in the studio classrooms, Christine Thomas coordinated the volunteers helping children at tables named after each of Santa’s reindeer, to construct their own holiday folk art tree ornaments. As with an interactive Lego project which took place in the atrium, the various activities were tied into the museum’s current exhibits, which everyone was encouraged to stroll through and enjoy.
“It’s nice because a lot of the people who came today don’t normally come to the museum and are not exposed to the exhibits,” said Shanti Sanchez, School and Youth Programs manager.
Also in the atrium, youngsters waited – mostly patiently – eagerly looking forward to the arrival of the big man himself. Findlay, age 8, had snagged the coveted spot as the first in line. “It’s a secret,” she declared, miming that she was zipping her lips closed, when asked what she planned to tell Santa she wanted for Christmas.
“Look at these faces!” said Farrell, who was tempting the children with candy canes to get them off of Santa’s lap and keep the line moving. “This is the museum’s contribution to the community. Who could be here and not be happy?”
