The first wall of the new Vero Beach Museum of Art is roughly 30 feet tall. It's cast in place from a blend of concrete, Florida beach shells and locally mined sand, and once it cures it will be sandblasted to bring more of the shell to the surface. Pouring the rest of the walls will take about seven months.
On Riomar's side of the island, the more immediate change is in a building most people have driven past many times. The museum has leased the 6,000-square-foot former Bungalow Home Outdoor Living store at 1716 A1A, and it took possession on October 1. For the next two years, the museum you can walk into on an ordinary weekday will be in Riomar, not at Riverside Park. The four months before that move are the last chance to see the old galleries.
What's Still Open at Riverside Park Through Mid-February
The museum stays open while construction goes on around it. The museum's visitor page lists these hours:
- Galleries: Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., last admission 4:15; Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m., last admission 3:45
- Art Zone: closes at 4 p.m. daily
- Museum Store: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m.
- Sculpture parks and café: closed indefinitely
With the café and sculpture parks closed, a visit now means the galleries and the store. Visitors still park in Riverside Park, and new directional signs mark a vehicle turnaround, a pedestrian walkway and accessible parking.
James Prosek: At Work closed on October 25, which leaves three exhibitions for the old galleries' last months. Museum in the Garden: Envisioning the New VBMA runs through January 3, 2027. It shows the building that will replace the one you're standing in. Jill Nathanson: Chromatic Phrases runs through February 7, 2027. On November 21, Hokusai, Hiroshige, Hasui: Japanese Landscapes in Print opens in the Holmes and Titelman Galleries, also running through February 7. February 7 is the last day of two of those shows, and it comes just ahead of the mid-February date for clearing out the building. Read that way, the Japanese print show is the last exhibition planned for these galleries.
The Dates That Close the Old Building and Open the New Arrangement
Two projects are on almost the same calendar this winter. The museum is moving out, and the City of Vero Beach is rebuilding the Humiston boardwalk. Put together, the season looks like this:
- November 1, 2026: Work on the Humiston boardwalk begins, and the beach there closes for construction.
- November 21, 2026: The Hokusai, Hiroshige and Hasui print exhibition opens.
- December 31, 2026: The Humiston Boardwalk Citizens Committee sunsets, though plank sales can continue until they sell out.
- January 3, 2027: Museum in the Garden closes.
- January 29, 2027: The museum's gala is held in the current building for the last time.
- February 7, 2027: The Nathanson and Japanese print exhibitions close.
- Mid-February 2027: The museum moves out of most of its building, and core staff relocate to 1716 A1A.
- March 1, 2027: Spring art classes begin at the Riomar location, and the Humiston contractor must be off the beach before turtle nesting season.
- March 4, 2027: Art in Bloom takes place off-site as an afternoon high tea.
The gala marks the end most clearly. Cocktails are at 6 p.m. in the Laura and Bill Buck Atrium, and dinner follows at 7 p.m. in Holmes Great Hall. The museum's gala page lists the event as sold out and offers a waitlist. The Hall won't host another one, because Holmes Great Hall, the Leonhardt Auditorium, the Education and Administration wings and every exhibition gallery are scheduled for demolition. Only the Collections Building stays in use.
A Former Patio Store on A1A Becomes the Museum's Classroom
The museum calls the Riomar space the VBMA Hub, and WQCS reported that it opens to the public in March 2027. Planned programs include spring art classes and workshops, Museum Studios for families, a mini-Art Zone for children, Classes for Veterans, A+ART and Summer Art Camp. About 25 administrative employees and security staff will work from the building. Starting in February, the museum's offices will be in Riomar.
The space is smaller than what the museum is leaving, and the programs shrink to match. Vero News reported that spring class sizes will be smaller because of space limits, and the eight-week summer camp for ages 5 to 16 will take fewer children. The film studies program is on hiatus until the new building opens. The foundry and two western art studios were demolished earlier this year, and the ceramics kilns went into storage. For now, ceramics students work in air-dried clay that can be painted and finished. If you want a spot in a spring class, plan on more competition for fewer seats than usual.
Some programs have moved elsewhere. Art in Bloom on March 4, 2027 becomes an afternoon high tea at Celebration Grove, an event venue on 66th Avenue west of the city. According to WQCS, the 2028 International Lecture Series will meet at Saint Edward's School so it can seat hundreds of subscribers. The lease costs $200,000 a year for two years, and an anonymous trustee is covering half of it.
Humiston's Beach Goes Behind Fencing on November 1
Further south on Ocean Drive, the other familiar spot closes on the same schedule. Hurricanes Ian and Nicole destroyed the Humiston boardwalk in 2022, and the city later demolished most of what was left. At the August 25 City Council meeting, Public Works Director Matthew Mitts said the beach will be closed during construction and the playground will stay open. The contract runs 110 calendar days, and the crew must be off the beach by March 1 because of turtle season. Materials are staged behind construction fencing on the grass area northeast of the park. The city's listings show lifeguards and parking at Jaycee Beach Park and South Beach Park, the other two city beach parks.
The money isn't settled yet. Ferreira Construction of Hobe Sound won the job with a low bid of $1,767,109.77. Vero Beach 32963 reported that once demolition, design, inspection, shipping and contingency were added, the full cost came to $2,975,141. The city has $2,515,953 on hand, which leaves it about $460,000 short. Clayton Sembler of CDS Manufacturing donated the prestressed concrete pilings, which are valued at $850,000. Funding is enough to start basic construction on schedule. Donations go through rebuildhumiston.org.
So from November until early March, the museum's last exhibitions and a fenced-off Humiston beach overlap. March 1 is when both settle into their next phase. The beach work has to clear the sand by then, and the museum's spring classes open that same day in Riomar.
What Rises at Riverside Park by Fall 2028
The museum expects to finish the new building in fall 2028. As of mid-October, $119 million of the $126 million campaign goal had been raised. Crews hit a short delay when they found old mechanical, electrical and plumbing structures that weren't on any plans, and museum president Brady Roberts told Vero News the project is back on schedule. He described the first wall to Vero News this way:
"It's one thing to look at renderings, which are beautiful, but when you're standing in the space and see that first 30-foot wall going up, you see the vertical expanse and the scale of the building. It's really impressive."
The programs that pause or shrink at the Hub come back bigger. Film studies returns in a new 300-seat auditorium, about 25 percent larger than the Leonhardt. Ceramics gets a 1,000-square-foot center sponsored by Indian River Community Foundation, with its own kiln room and glazing room. It will be the museum's largest studio. Until then, a ceramics class in March 2027 means air-dried clay in a former patio store on A1A.
If you're working out how the Hub, the reopened beach and your own walkable routine fit together, our Riomar neighborhood page and our fall guide to Ocean Drive and Riverside Theatre cover the rest of the island's season. Janyne Kenworthy has followed Riomar's corner of A1A for decades and is glad to talk through what the museum's two years in the neighborhood could mean for your plans. Let's connect.
