Parkland Livestyle November 2013
This month’s cover look is modeled by Kavita Channe, Fox Sports reporter and local TV/Radio personality. Red Halter Cascade Gown by Caché. Accessories by Weston Jewelers: Diamond Necklace with Rounds and Marquise, White Gold Blue Sapphire Cabochon Bracelet, White Chandelier Earrings with Blue Sapphires Cabochon, Chopard Ladies Happy Sport Watch in Oval with Diamond Bezel, and Blue Tanzanite Diamond Ring Set in Platinum with Diamonds (Prices available upon request).
This month’s cover look is modeled by Kavita
Channe, Fox Sports reporter and local TV/Radio
personality. Red Halter Cascade Gown by Caché.
Accessories by Weston Jewelers: Diamond Necklace
with Rounds and Marquise, White Gold Blue Sapphire
Cabochon Bracelet, White Chandelier Earrings
with Blue Sapphires Cabochon, Chopard Ladies
Happy Sport Watch in Oval with Diamond Bezel, and
Blue Tanzanite Diamond Ring Set in Platinum with
Diamonds (Prices available upon request).
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
The Art<br />
of Museum<br />
Making<br />
Twenty-seven years ago, Mindy Shrago decided<br />
she wanted to create an art museum for the<br />
children of Broward County, especially those who<br />
lived in the west. It is now considered one of the<br />
top few—if not the best—of its kind in the nation.<br />
By JULIE KAY<br />
photo By downtownphoto/fort lauderdale<br />
It’s a Sunday morning at the Young at Art Children’s<br />
Museum, and a string of parents bearing gifts starts<br />
streaming in the door for the bevy of birthday parties<br />
that will ensue all day.<br />
Mindy Shrago, the creator, founder and CEO of the<br />
museum, is there to greet them all with her ever-present<br />
smile. With seemingly boundless energy she flies from room<br />
to room, chatting up employees and student volunteers<br />
while giving visitors a tour of the 55,000-square foot<br />
museum she created from dust starting 27 years ago.<br />
After a magazine photo shoot, Shrago meets a potential<br />
well-heeled donor—the cousin of U.S. Sen. Debbie<br />
Wasserman-Schultz—to give his family a personal<br />
pottery lesson. Then she’s off to a lunch with the head<br />
of the Association of Children’s Museums, who’s in town<br />
for a tour of local institutions.<br />
It may be hard for visitors to believe a self-described<br />
young hippie artist and her mother dreamed up the<br />
vision for a unique museum that draws visitors from<br />
around the country—and then singlehandedly raised<br />
the $26 million of funding, donor by donor. But Shrago<br />
is nonchalant about that. She steers all conversations<br />
back to the museum, and her life’s passion: Art.<br />
“We never had a strategic plan,” shrugs Shrago,<br />
60. “We just shot from the hip. We believe arts are<br />
involved in every aspect of your life.”<br />
Shrago was a successful Fort Lauderdale<br />
pottery artist when she and her mother, Esther<br />
Shrago, hatched the idea for a children’s museum<br />
dedicated to the arts. The Miami native had<br />
won best of show at the prestigious Las Olas<br />
Art Festival and was an acclaimed artist in the<br />
1970s and 1980s. But she wanted to do more.<br />
She, along with her mother, wanted to instill her<br />
LMGFL.COM | NOVEMBER <strong>2013</strong> 45
Change language