Wearing outfits as lovely as the floral arrangements they were about to view, a stylish group of women descended upon the Vero Beach Museum of Art for what has become an annual rite of spring: the Art in Bloom Luncheon, which this year featured a demonstration by Jennifer Figge, owner of the Figge Floral Studio in Boston.
The event’s showstoppers are always the outstanding floral arrangements created by talented floral designers. This year, the 11 designers were tasked with interpreting works selected from the museum’s permanent collections, as strict restrictions had been placed on the Ancient Egypt & the Napoleonic Era: Masterworks from the Dahesh Museum of Art exhibition.
Guests from the Gardenia group were the first to arrive and, ballots in hand, wandered about the Holmen Hallway and the Stark, Schumann and Titelman galleries before voting on their favorites to determine the winners.
As they filtered into the Holmes Great Hall for a luncheon catered by Elizabeth D. Kennedy and Company and the demonstration by Figge, the process began anew for the Azalea group, who enjoyed their demonstration in the Leonhardt Auditorium before lunching in the Buck Atrium.
Brady Roberts, VBMA CEO, welcomed the ladies of each seating, commenting on the amazingly beautiful arrangements and thanking the numerous sponsors. He also paid tribute to Art in Bloom Luncheon chairs Barbara Hathaway and Courtney Kagan, and to the Exhibition Design co-chairs co-chairs (and designers), Julie Hermann and Barbara Kaytes.
“It’s such a beautiful orchestration of our exhibition. And of course, there would be no Art in Bloom without the designers,” said Roberts, before introducing Ginger DeSimone, Ann Jones, Nancy Ladd, Lee LaPointe, Nancy Murray, Elaine Sigler, Ann Webber, Liza Weihman and Arun Wijetilleke.
“It’s my pleasure now to introduce Jennifer Figge. She graduated from the European Masters Certification program of the International Floral Designer instructor Tomas de Bruyne in 2018 in Brugges, Belgium,” said Roberts. “She also has an Art Certificate from Sotheby’s American Art.”
Guests could also peruse a Museum Store Trunk Show of LPL Jewelry that day, and this year the floral displays remained on view throughout the weekend for museum visitors to enjoy.
Funds raised at the event help support the Museum’s educational outreach programs. For more information, visit VBMuseum.org.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
