Members of the Circle, a philanthropic women’s group who collectively fund Vero Beach Museum of Art community-focused, art enrichment initiatives, met recently at the Vero Beach Yacht Club to hear from one of last year’s grant recipients.
Becky Torbin, chair of the Circle, welcomed guests, including 28 new members, and thanked the breakfast underwriters, whose support ensures that 100 percent of the $250 annual dues goes toward outreach programs.
The guest speaker was Elizabeth Thomason, executive director of the Boys and Girls Clubs, a participant in the 2021 Museum Exploration summer program.
“Hearing from Elizabeth will give us her unique personal perspective of the positive effect that this program had on its participants,” said Torbin.
Thomason gave a brief history of the Boys & Girls Clubs in Indian River County, which now has facilities in Vero Beach, Sebastian and Fellsmere.
“Like Becky said, COVID hit us all personally. It also affected our operations,” said Thomason.
After closing for a short time, the clubs reopened cautiously for summer camp in June 2020, limiting the number of children to less than half. Lower numbers were continued during the year and the summer 2021 camps, although they are slowly bringing numbers back.
“A lot of kids did not get to come back to the clubs, and we are still working our way through that. To give you some perspective, in 2019 we had 679 children in our summer program. That’s at all three sites. In 2021 we only had 234, so that is a staggering number,” said Thomason.
As field trips to the museum and elsewhere were canceled, Sara Klein, VBMA director of education, offered a modified version of Museum Explorations – Museum Explorations on the Go.
Each of the clubs has a different summer camp theme, so Klein and her team tailored a program for each club.
“At the Vero club they were all about Harry Potter,” said Thomason, noting that Klein integrated slides of artworks and sculptures that meshed with that theme.
“It was a hit. It’s like the museum came to us, and that was really important for the kids because there were no field trips that summer,” said Thomason.
In Fellsmere, Klein displayed pieces that connected with its movement and creativity theme.
“It was a huge, huge hit with those kids,” said Thomason, adding that the director of the Fellsmere club would love to do the program again.
“So, through your generosity, you made this possible. You made it possible for the museum to send their staff and their resources.”
The children at all three clubs also received an art packet of activities to take home and tickets to visit the museum with a parent.
“So not only did they get a nice visitor coming in showing all this great artwork, but they walked away with something. I mean, that and food and you’ve won them over,” said Thomason with a chuckle.
“Thanks so much for your support of this program. It really does make a difference, especially to the underserved children in our community who have probably never walked through the doors of the Art Museum. And that is staggering, because it is such a prominent resource in our community. The more we can get the kids involved, the better.”
As an affiliate of Boys and Girls Clubs of America, they participate in some national programs, including a National Fine Arts Exhibit, currently underway.
“Everything that they work on, every creation, every medium, gets considered,” said Thomason.
Judging is narrowed by categories, mediums and age groups, and winners here can go on to compete at the regional and national levels.
“We have had a couple of kids that went to the national level. I personally think that if you put a Michael’s frame around any piece of kid art, you’ve got a Picasso.”
For more information visit VBMuseum.org or BGCIRC.org.
Photos by Mary Schenkel
