Don and Mary Blair with Brady Roberts, and Cindy and Mark Galant. PHOTO BY JOSHUA KODIS

The Director’s Society and Chairman’s Club Dinner at the Vero Beach Museum of Art ushered in another full season of events with an evening that featured a talk by famed architectural critic and author Paul Goldberger followed by a delicious dinner in the Buck Atrium, dinner catered by Elizabeth D. Kennedy & Company.

Museum CEO Brady Roberts welcomed everyone back to Vero Beach from their summer exploits, inviting them to make sure to see the M.C. Escher: Infinite Variations Exhibition, on view through Dec. 30.

“A month ago, we had over 500 people come to the general members opening, so we really started off the season with a bang,” said Roberts. He said that despite the extensive number of pieces in the exhibition, Escher’s works are generally small, leaving them room to highlight works from the museum’s permanent collection as well.

“And we’re very excited about the winter exhibition that’s coming up, Ancient Egypt & the Napoleonic Era, a beautiful old masters painting exhibition,” said Roberts. That exhibit will be on display from Jan. 27 through April 28.

“We’ve themed the season around it. So, the International Lecture Series will be featuring speakers who are going to shed different lenses on this fascinating period, and our [Jan. 26] gala will be ‘A Night at the Nile,’” said Roberts.

“Chairman Club members have been the heart and soul of this museum since our doors opened in 1986 and we couldn’t do great exhibitions and great programs without your support. So, thank you very much for being Chairman Club members; it’s critically important to us,” said Roberts, before thanking the guest sponsor, Croom Construction, and season sponsor John’s Island Real Estate.

Introducing the guest speaker, Roberts said, “Paul is a Pulitzer Prize Award recipient for distinguished criticism with the New York Times, where he spent 25 years of his career. Paul has also authored numerous books on architecture and has served on the design projects for institutions such as the New York Public Library, Harvard University, Lincoln Center and the Glenstone Museum, which you may not be familiar with, but it’s a beautiful new museum, right outside of Washington, D.C.”

“It’s a great pleasure to be here, as you prepare to move forward on the ambitious expansion of this already ambitious museum. And to think about what it could mean not only for this institution itself, but for all of this region,” said Goldberger.

He commented that it is equally important in terms of what it means for the architecture of culture, which is increasingly becoming central to almost every community’s sense of itself, through its museums, concert halls, opera houses and theaters.

“Every one of these places tells us something about what we are, about what we aspire to, about what we value, and about how we want to be identified as a community. That’s true in New York, it’s true in Los Angeles, in Miami, in San Francisco, in Dallas, even in that place down the road that I think it’s called Palm something or other,” said Goldberger with a laugh.

“And of course, here in Vero Beach. We may not be spending enough to teach about the arts in our schools, but we are surely willing to spend to house the arts and create places of community that are built around the arts and stand as testament of how communities want to be known.”

For additional information, visit VBMuseum.org.

Photos by Joshua Kodis