The Environmental Learning Center was founded in 1988 by a group of environmentally conscious pioneers from the Pelican Island Audubon Society, who lived in our community and cherished the nature that thrives in the Indian River Lagoon. Through the support of the community, donors, members, board, staff, and volunteers, they build their nature learning and stewardship programs. Their mission is to educate, inspire, and empower all people to be active stewards of the environment and their own well-being.

The Vero Beach Museum of Art, a nonprofit organization, was established in 1978 and has become the principal visual arts facility on Florida’s Treasure Coast. The museum serves as a regional center to appreciate and teach the arts and humanities. Its neoclassical structure in Riverside Park, along the scenic Indian River, serves more than 75,000 residents and visitors annually. Through exhibitions, art collections, events, and classes, the museum is applauded as the community’s cultural heart.

Arthur McKee and Waldo Sexton purchased the 80-acre tropical hammock in 1922 with the intention of cultivating citrus. The property’s natural beauty was deemed too special in its native state to disturb, so the two land developers employed landscape architect William Lyman Phillips to design the basic infrastructure of streams, ponds, and trails. Then they assembled an outstanding collection of water lilies and orchids – augmenting native vegetation with ornamental plants and exotic specimens from around the world. Now a Florida landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, recognized by the Garden Conservancy as a preservation project of national significance, and with its updated Children’s Garden, McKee Botanical Garden is, as its founders envisioned, a wild place of natural beauty for all.