Sophie Bentham Wood and Brett Phares PHOTO BY JOSHUA KODIS

In a display of illuminating creativity, the Vero Beach Museum of Art again presented Art After Dark, offering it as a gift to the community to encourage art appreciation and foster a sense of community.

“This is the third year that we’ve done this project,” said Sophie Bentham-Wood, VBMA director of marketing and communications. “It’s a free event, which we’re really proud of being able to do.”

A vibrant tapestry of colors transformed the museum’s exterior walls for an evening of outdoor artistic exploration. The curated, digital art exhibition showcased a diverse array of artistic styles and mediums in artworks projected onto the museum.

“We’ve expanded the artwork, which is something we want to be able to do every year.

We’ve got nine countries represented, 18 artists in total,” said Bentham-Wood.

Using dynamic moving imagery, the artists created storytelling narratives ranging from the abstract to the literal, using everything from colorful marbles to a profusion of flora and repeating lines. Styles included motion graphics, experimental film, animation, and generative art, with several displays even including audio, further enhancing the sensory experience.

“When you impose something on the outdoors, you don’t know what you’re going to get.

The kinds of juxtapositions of these different works with each other, you don’t know how they’re going to sync up,” said Brett Phares, exhibit curator.

“It’s fascinating seeing the pieces on a small monitor [during the selection process] and then blown up on the exterior of this building. The perspective is completely different, and the emotion you feel is different,” said Bentham-Wood.

“It is fascinating the way the images stretch across the path and into the grass. It’s a perfect position. Those are the things you cannot possibly do in a museum,” she added.

One of the hallmarks of Art After Dark is that attendees can actively engage with and become a part of the artistic narrative.

Lighted LED foam sticks and finger light beams were handed out, so everyone could create their own light shows. The blank wall at the rear of the museum was tempting for a few of the more adventurous who had fun using it to create their own graffiti light art.

Many brought along chairs and snuggled up to view their favorite exhibit or dine on items purchased at onsite food trucks, while others strolled about from one wall to the next.

Friday night visitors were the lucky ones, as the two-night event was cut short when stormy weather rolled in on Saturday. The current exhibit at the VBMA – Ancient Egypt & the Napoleonic Era: Masterworks from the Dahesh Museum of Art – runs through April 28.

For more information, visit vbmuseum.org.

Photos by Joshua Kodis