Unknown Studio at MAAM Conference
March 2026
On Friday, March 13, Unknown Studio’s Claire Agre will join an esteemed panel of Museum and design experts at the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums’ 2026 Building Museums Conference.
Together with Brady Roberts, Executive Director / CEO of the Vero Beach Museum of Art, Chelsea Grassinger of Allied Works, and Peter Hoskow, President and COO of CCS Fundraising, Claire will participate in “From Institution to Ecosystem: The Vero Beach Museum of Art’s 21st Century Transformation.”
Since opening in 1986 as an arts education center, the Vero Beach Museum of Art (VBMA) has grown into one of the most-visited small museums in the country, fostering community engagement, lifelong learning, and robust event programming. Yet its facility—an assemblage of decades-old projects—no longer reflects its mission or stature as a cultural leader.
To address this, VBMA launched a planning and fundraising effort to create a more welcoming, resilient, and flexible home. Designed by Allied Works, the new museum will amplify VBMA’s programming, showcase its growing collection, and prepare for future environmental challenges. New gardens, designed by Unknown Studio, will weave the surrounding park into the visitor experience, creating an immersive setting for art and connection to nature.
This vision to align physical infrastructure and mission-driven programming is made possible by VBMA’s largest-ever capital campaign—led by CCS Fundraising, leveraging early gifts of confidence and full Board endorsement that has informed the project scope and raised sights among the broader philanthropic community.
In this session, museum leadership, the design team, and fundraising consultants will share how a three-year process—beginning with facility assessment and benchmarking, moving through conceptual visioning and stakeholder messaging—culminated in a fall 2025 groundbreaking. Attendees will learn how design, philanthropy, and institutional strategy can intersect to strengthen community engagement, expand membership and the collection, and inspire philanthropic support for future generations.
See you there!
