Temperatures ran hot and cold during the Vero Beach Museum of Art’s Fire and Ice-themed Holidays at the Museum event, inspired by the exhibition Changing Nature: A New Vision, Photographs by James Balog, which was on display through the end of the year.

Families were fully immersed in the arts as they strolled through the museum during its annual gift to the community. Docents and volunteers were on hand to give tours, answer questions and guide families through an Art Hunt that encouraged children to genuinely look at and think about the pieces featured in the collection, which included remarkable photographs of the world’s largest glaciers gradually melting into the sea.

For the youngest set, the interactive Art Zone was open for exploration, and in the Education Wing studios, children could get their creative juices flowing, making handprint wreaths and trees, experimenting with color and light, and making holiday ornaments.

Performances were held throughout the day in the Holmes Great Hall, Laura and Bill Buck Atrium, and Leonhardt Auditorium by various groups, including elementary school students, Vero Beach Classical Ballet, and Susan McDonald’s Animal Ballets – YASUNI: Dances from the Rainforest, and The Aquarium: A Marine Micro-Ballet for Guitar and Sea Creatures.

Outside, artists from the Duncan McClellan Gallery heated things up with glass-blowing demonstrations, while in a trunk show in the Museum Store, people could purchase some of their previously blown pieces.

The museum’s upcoming exhibit – Rolling Sculpture: Streamlined Art Deco Automobiles and Motorcycles – opens on Jan. 28 and runs through April 30.

For more information, visit VBMuseum.org.

Photos by Joshua Kodis