This year’s Chairman’s Club Dinner at the Vero Beach Museum of Art kicked off the start of the museum’s most transformational year since its opening 40 years ago.
Guests, whose upper-level contributions provide major support to the museum and its programs, mingled over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, before moving into the Holmes Great Hall to hear a talk about plans for the “Museum in the Garden: Designing the New VBMA.”
“We’re thrilled to have you all back in town here at the museum,” said Brady Roberts, VBMA CEO/executive director. He added that it had been an exciting day, having just broken ground that morning on what will eventually be a whole new museum.
“And tonight, we’ll have a conversation with the creators of the stunning design for this Museum in the Garden. In case you weren’t with us this morning, we have raised $100 million towards our goal. What an incredible community; it’s really an extraordinary achievement,” said Roberts, of what they expect will be a two-year, $126 million project.
“And of the 100-plus people who brought us to this century mark, almost all of them are Chairman’s Club members,” he added. You’re such a great, generous group. Thank you for what you do for the museum and for Vero Beach. It is quite exceptional.”
Roberts moderated a conversation with guest speakers Brad Cloepfil, principal of Allied Works, and Claire Agre, co-founder of Unknown Studio, the architect and landscape architect, respectively.
Roberts said that when the design process began three years ago, Cloepfil stressed the need to bring in a landscape architect from the start, rather than toward the end as is more common, as it was integral to the design, and he suggested Agre.
“A project like this, where we’re brought in to integrate the inside and the outside at the same time, is thrilling,” said Agre.
Cloepfil said even before he began designing the building, his first concept sketches had been a series of terraces and gardens, “setting the ground” for the building, because Florida is so rich in terms of what can be done with plant life.
“My belief is that the garden is a fine art in and of itself,” said Agre, calling it an art form universal to every civilization.
Their design calls for blurring the line between the garden and the building; making it difficult to discern where one ends and the other begins, essentially embedding the two-story building into the landscape.
In addition to the abundant structural and flooding concerns, a need for additional gallery space prompted the rebuild.
“One of the great strengths of the museum is that we have an art school,” said Roberts, adding that the museum also has numerous outreach and humanities programs.
“That’s why we’re one of the best attended small museums in America. Because that’s our roots; having that broad community impact. What has reduced us is we have half the gallery space of every museum our size in the country,” said Roberts.
He said one of the first observations Cloepfil made was that most other museums have a collection of galleries and are trying to become more connected within their communities.
“We’re the exact opposite. We haven’t had sufficient gallery space to even show the growing collection that we have,” said Roberts.
The new design will accommodate both, with the first floor offering free admission as a community and education center and the second floor showcasing the art galleries.
For more information, visit VBMuseum.org.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
