Parkland Livestyle November 2013

passion for art in children, and to spread the gospel of the
healing nature of art to disadvantaged youths.
In the mid 1980s, mother and daughter traveled the
country visiting childrens’ museums, only to discover
there were none that focused solely on art. So in 1987 the
two incorporated Young
at Art and two years later
opened their first museum
in a 3,500-square-foot
storefront donated by The
Fountains shopping center
in Plantation.
For Shrago, a Hollywood
resident, it was important
to locate her museum in
suburban west Broward,
home to tens of thousands
of families but short on
culture. Married to then
Broward Circuit Judge Jay
Spechler, Shrago had some
powerful friends in Broward
County, which helped. She
had served as her husband’s
campaign manager when he
ran for state representative
in 1974, and found she had
a gift for fundraising.
“We had political ties,”
she acknowledges. “We
were able to get a lot of
in-kind donations. I love
fundraising... talking about
my passion.”
Says Spechler: “I’ve
always been involved in
politics and she has as well. She’s known and met everyone
in the community and has been a part of Broward County
her whole life along with me. We’ve integrated art and
politics.”
Shrago’s first fundraising success was cold-calling
Plantation-based American Express. She secured a check
for $10,000. At the time, the arts were being slashed in
public schools. Shrago began to feel it was her mission to
replace whatever arts the children were losing in school
with her museum.
“Arts are what teach you about every subject matter,” she
says. “They integrate math, science, history. Kids can learn
about measurements from a sculpture.”
Shrago was also an early advocate of recycling and ecology.
She made sure to incorporate lessons on these topics in
her museum, always in a fun way. Another steadfast goal
was to focus on teaching art to the kids, not just showing
it. By 1991, the museum began offering studio art classes
for children, taught by professional artists. Scholarships,
underwritten by corporate and foundation partners, were
offered to children in need.
A key early supporter of Shrago’s mission was Broward
County Property Appraiser Lori Parrish. “Basically, Mindy
46 NOVEMBER 2013 | LMGFL.COM
Mindy Shargo is the creator, founder and CEO of the
Young At Art Museum—voted the “Best Children’s Art
Museum in the Nation” by Child Magazine.
and her mom created the concept of Young at Art at Mindy’s
kitchen table,” recalls Parrish. “I think it just evolved from
there. Mindy is a free-spirited liberal soul and she’s always
been interested in helping children from lower socioeconomic
backgrounds become exposed to the arts. I
just think Mindy wanted
everyone to love art like
she did.”
Parrish said it took a
while for corporate donors
to warm up to Shrago.
Parrish encouraged her to
start a “Women of Vision”
fundraising auxiliary,
asking 100 women to give
$1,000 a year, with Shrago
matching the donation
four-fold. The Women of
Vision auxiliary was formed
in 1995 and was highly
successful. Parrish would
also nudge corporations
like Wheelabrator and
Broward philanthropists
like Maya Ezratti, Director
of Community Relations
at GL Homes, to become
donors.
In 1998, with a grant
from the Broward County
Cultural Division, Young
at Art moved to its second
location—a 23,000-square
foot storefront in west
Davie. In keeping with the
mission of encouraging kids
to create art themselves, the museum featured lots of handson
arts and crafts projects. In one area, kids could learn
about various countries like Japan by seeing a short film,
sitting in a pagoda, and then creating their own morikami
art. In another area, kids would become archaelogists and
dig for relics in the sands of Egypt with tiny shovels. They
would get their “passports” stamped in each country.
The museum started garnering national attention. In
2002, Young At Art was named “Best Children’s Art Museum
in the Nation” by Child magazine. It was also about this time
that Shrago embarked on her mission to bring what she
sees as ‘healing art’ to disadvantaged youths. She began an
“artreach” program where artists would teach art to kids
at a homeless shelter every day after school. Now, a new
“Arthouse” is under construction in a low-income duplex
in the Sistrunk neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale. “We want
to make sure we’re touching every community member,”
Shrago says. “It takes a village, remember.”
But Shrago still wasn’t satisfied. She wanted a permanent
home for Young at Art, an utterly “green” building designed
by her and a hand-picked architect, one that would
incorporate generous space for exhibits, artist studios,
pottery rooms and outdoor kiln, a computer animation lab,