Art Zone is an interactive children’s space inside the Vero Beach Museum of Art that opened Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018 in Vero Beach. It features ten different play areas with hands-on activities including magnetic and chalkboard walls, floor puzzle, and a puppet theatre. An interactive sketch aquarium is part of the space where children can sketch their own sea life and have it scanned and projected in the sketch aquarium on the wall. ERIC HASERT/TCPALM
The youngest visitors at the Vero Beach Museum of Art can now safely look and touch.
On Wednesday, the museum opened Art Zone, a new and permanent creative space designed with the museum’s littlest learners in mind.
Geared toward children up to age 12 and their families, the 672-square-foot space featuring over ten different activity stations encourages hands-on exploration for museum-goers with a tendency to touch anything they see.
"The space was designed to be multisensory, everything is hands on," said Pam Sommers, who helped the Art Zone come to life. "When children are in the galleries, they look at art, obviously they can’t touch, so it’s the complete opposite in here.
Sommers, the museum’s youth and family program manager, knew it was essential to engage the community in a fresh way.
With attendance at the museum’s family programs tripling in the last two years, she said there was a need for not only a permanent space for families, but a different approach as well.
The museum added sensory areas including sound and aroma therapy panels, where children, by pushing buttons, can imagine smelling or hearing the art they are viewing.
“We want the children to connect with the art because just looking at art and not being able to touch it is challenging," said Sommers, who traveled the country scoping out similar zones at other museums. "Developmentally they’re at the stage where they need to touch and feel and hear and taste sometimes.”
In addition to the sensory panels, the space is packed with other kid-friendly activities and multi-functional furniture which can be turned and shifted to create tables, chairs, tunnels and cubbies for all ages and programs.
The Art Zone includes floor to ceiling magnetic and chalkboard walls, a giant puzzle floor, a ceiling adorned with major constellations, a gallery wall and a puppet theater.
“The goal is to connect families with art that we have here, but also inspire creative thinking,” Sommers said. “It’s a place where you don’t need directions, they just go up and play.”
For parent, Kelsey Giles and her daughter, Hadley, 22 months old, the new space is a game changer.
“This is a place for her to be able to come and be more hands on with art and exploring and that is something that’s very important to me,” Giles said. “It’s a place we can enjoy together and a place where they can be themselves a little bit more.”
Liz Kazmerowski, mother of 2-year-old Emmy, likes that the area's multiple stations can keep her daughter's attention.
“I think everything she’s played with so far has kept her interest,” Kazmerowski said. “She loves anything where she can be active and doing something so this is perfect and it’s nice to have a place in Vero where you can take the young kids where they can almost destroy anything and it’s okay.”
The interactive sketch aquarium caught both Kazmerowski and Emmy’s attention. Visitors' artwork is scanned and virtually dropped in the 25-foot long aquarium projected on the wall.
“It’s nice that they can see something that they’ve done and touch it and see it in action,” Kazmerowski said. “It’s rare to find something like that anywhere, but especially Vero and especially for the kids.”
The interactive aquarium also is a favorite of the museum’s executive director, Brady Roberts.
“I love it because it’s creative and interactive, it’s not a passive video stream, so it’s just a perfect compliment to the other things going on in the Art Zone,” Roberts said. “This place is super sticky and engaging and people just want to stay there and play all day.”
MORE: Whimsical children’s area planned for McKee Botanical Garden in Vero Beach
About the Art Zone
Creation of the Art Zone was made possible by a $125,000 grant from the Hearst Foundations. In addition, Warren and Virginia Schwerin created a fund to support programs in the zone, which also helped pay for the interactive sketch aquarium.
Art Zone hours will be the same as regular art museum hours, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday
Admission to the Art Zone is free with paid admission (Children are always free).
Museum admission: Adults $10, Seniors (65 and older) $9, Students with ID $5; Members, Children (17 years and under), and Active Military with ID receive free admission.
Seasonal rates (Memorial Day – Labor Day): Adults $ 6 and Seniors $5. Museum members receive free admission, store discounts and more.
Information: http://www.verobeachmuseum.org/