How many more Saturdays will the Vero Beach Museum of Art be open in its current building? Counting from the Thursday this post goes up, about 14. In mid-February 2027, the museum will close almost all of its Riverside Park facility so construction can start on a new campus scheduled to open in 2028.
For anyone living around Vero Beach Country Club, Riverside Park is the arts campus just over the Merrill Barber Bridge. It has worked the same way for a long time. This season it is changing on both sides of the lawn. The museum is in its last months in the current building, and Riverside Theatre is halfway through a renovation of its own. Over the next three months you can still see the old campus, and one Saturday in December puts nearly all of it on a single free day.
What Leaves in Mid-February, and What Stays
The museum's October 19 announcement says VBMA will vacate the entire facility except the Collections Wing. The rest of the building gives way to indoor and outdoor gathering spaces, galleries, gardens, terraces and courtyards for the new arts center.
Here is where the museum's programs go during construction:
- Classes and family programs move to a 6,000-square-foot "Hub" at 1716 Highway A1A, which opens March 1, 2027. It will run Spring Term art classes and workshops, Museum Studios family programming, a mini Art Zone for kids, Classes for Veterans, A+ART and Summer Art Camp, and it will house staff offices.
- The 2028 International Lecture Series moves to St. Edward's School so it can seat the hundreds of subscribers who attend.
- Art in Bloom and GALA 2028 will also be held offsite.
According to the museum, an anonymous trustee is covering half of the two-year Hub lease, and two other trustees are paying to outfit the space. Executive Director Brady Roberts described the plan in the same announcement:
"We look forward to welcoming the community to the incredible ... final season we have planned for our current facility and will hope to see them often at the Hub and other locations while our new Museum building and transformed campus are under construction."
Part of the campus has already changed. The museum's visit page lists the Sculpture Parks and café as closed indefinitely during campus improvements. Visitors now use a new turnaround, a new pedestrian walkway and new accessible parking.
The Last Show in the Old Galleries Is a First
The museum is ending its time in this building with an exhibition that has never been shown in the United States. Hokusai, Hiroshige, Hasui: Japanese Landscapes in Print opens November 21 in the Holmes and Titelman Galleries and runs through February 7, 2027. According to the Indian River Guardian, Vero Beach is the show's first U.S. stop, and it is VBMA's first exhibition devoted only to Japanese prints in the museum's 40-year history.
The show closes about a week before the mid-February move-out, so it is the final major exhibition in these galleries.
Down the hall, the Stark Gallery shows what replaces them. The Museum in the Garden: Envisioning the New VBMA is on view through January 3, 2027. You can walk out of the plans for the new campus and into the galleries that will soon give way to it.
The Hokusai show also anchors the season's talks. The 45th International Lecture Series has Noriko Murai on November 30 and Andreas Marks on January 11, 2027, both at 4:30 p.m. Tickets in Holmes Great Hall cost $130 for members and $160 for nonmembers. Streaming and simulcast tickets cost $90 and $110. Next year's series moves to St. Edward's, so this is the last one held in the Great Hall before construction.
Ballet Vero Beach also performs in the building this month. Interpretive Dance Series: A Retrospective runs November 14 at noon and 3 p.m. in Leonhardt Auditorium. Tickets include museum admission and cost $30 for VBMA members and Ballet Vero Beach subscribers, or $36 for everyone else.
Next Door, the Theatre Is Partway Through Its Own Rebuild
The museum leaving is only half of what is changing at Riverside Park. Jon Moses, Riverside Theatre's executive producer and CEO, told Vero News that the theatre's renovation is split across two seasons: "we will have partial use of the new facilities this season and then full use of the new facilities next season." Work on the kitchen and bars picks up again after the final show in May, and the project is expected to wrap up by January 2028.
That puts both buildings on the same schedule. The new museum is scheduled to open in 2028, and the theatre's renovation is set to finish in January 2028. The Riverside Park of 2028 will look different from both ends.
The renovation has already changed this fall's opener. My Vaudeville Man!, the Southeast premiere of a two-character tap show based on the life of Jack Donahue, is running for five weeks in the round on the Waxlax Stage. Normally the opener gets three weeks on the Stark Stage. Its last performance is November 22, and Riverside lists tickets at $85. Moses told Vero News he wants an immersive Waxlax show every fall, even after construction is finished.
The next mainstage show is Clue: A Murder Mystery, January 6 through 31, 2027. Single tickets run $55 to $120 depending on the section. Moses said Riverside meant to stage it last season but had to push the rights back a year. Hunter Foster, who directed last season's A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, returns to direct. If you want to see how a show is built, the adult Backstage Access class for Clue meets January 5, 7 and 14. Tuition is $75 for each two- or three-week class, or $300 to attend all of the sessions.
December 12 Puts the Whole Campus on One Free Day
On a single Saturday in December, the museum, the theatre and the lawn are all busy at once. That day is the museum's Second Saturday, when admission is free all day. It is also the date of VBMA's free Holidays at the Museum festival. And Riverside has a matinee of Nutcracker on the Indian River that afternoon.
Here's how the day lays out:
- 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Holidays at the Museum. Admission is free. The festival includes the Japanese taiko ensemble Fushu Daiko, youth and community music and dance, family tours, art hunts, artmaking and food trucks. The galleries are open free, including the Hokusai show three weeks after it opens.
- 2 p.m., Nutcracker on the Indian River at Riverside Theatre. This matinee is the last of three performances. The other two are Thursday, December 10 and Friday, December 11, both at 7:30 p.m.
The taiko drumming fits the occasion. The museum's last holiday festival before construction pairs Japanese performers with its first-ever all-Japanese print show.
The free days keep going after December. Second Saturdays stay free every month while the museum is open, and Bank of America cardholders get in free on the first full weekend of each month. Children 17 and under, members, veterans and active-duty military always get in free. Regular admission is $12 for adults, $11 for seniors and $5 for students with ID.
The Calendar From Here to Move-Out
Live in the Loop is Riverside Theatre's free outdoor concert series. It runs rain or shine and starts at 5:30 p.m. You can take an unreserved table, bring a lawn chair or sit on the grass. Reserved cabanas cost $80 for up to eight people.
Here is the rest of the season in order, with the Loop dates included:
- Saturday, Nov. 14: Ballet Vero Beach at VBMA at noon and 3 p.m.; 20th Street Jazz Band at the Loop
- Thursday, Nov. 19: Rockin Rx at the Loop
- Friday, Nov. 20: East Harbor Trio at the Loop; the museum closes early, at 4 p.m.
- Saturday, Nov. 21: Hokusai, Hiroshige, Hasui opens; SteelHouse at the Loop
- Sunday, Nov. 22: Final performance of My Vaudeville Man!
- Nov. 26 to 28: No Loop performances. The museum is closed on Thanksgiving Day and on Friday, Nov. 27.
- Monday, Nov. 30: Noriko Murai lecture at 4:30 p.m.
- Dec. 10 to 12: Nutcracker on the Indian River at Riverside Theatre
- Saturday, Dec. 12: Holidays at the Museum, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., free
- Dec. 17 to 19: Riverside Children's Theatre's CATS: Young Actor's Edition, at 7 p.m. on Dec. 17 and 18, and at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Dec. 19
- Dec. 24 and 25, Dec. 31 and Jan. 1: Museum closed
- Sunday, Jan. 3: Last day for The Museum in the Garden
- Jan. 6 to 31: Clue: A Murder Mystery at Riverside Theatre
- Monday, Jan. 11: Andreas Marks lecture at 4:30 p.m.
- Jan. 28 and 29: Museum closed
- Sunday, Feb. 7: Last day for the Hokusai exhibition
- Mid-February: VBMA leaves the current building except the Collections Wing
- March 1: The VBMA Hub opens at 1716 Highway A1A
The museum's current hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with last admission at 4:15, and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Even with three closures on the calendar, the Japanese print show gets about eleven weeks in the old galleries before the building starts its next chapter.
Alexis Miller follows projects like the new VBMA campus and Riverside Theatre's rebuild because they change what living near the Merrill Barber Bridge looks like in 2028. If you'd like to talk through how Riverside Park's next few years fit your plans around Vero Beach Country Club, Schedule Your Personalized Vero Beach Consultation.
