Andrea
Virgin
President, Boca Raton Center for Arts and Innovation
How a ballerina became a civil engineer: My mom was a civil engineer, and I was good at math and science. I kind of figured it would be a great
backup career to move into after dancing. In 2008 I was dancing for Ballet Florida at the Kravis Center and the recession hit, and of course the arts sector took a massive hit. I had to make a decision [whether to] stay in the arts for two or three years and try to get by financially [or move on.] I had just graduated from FAU, where I had finished my undergraduate degree in engineering and I was given a nice offer at a company, so I decided it was probably time to go ahead and switch out the pointe shoes for the hard hat. So I switched careers and went straight into engineering. I was about 24 when I switched.
You always have a lesson that you leave a place better than you found it....I would love to do what I can to fill the [cultural] piece here, because it is something I am passionate about.”
Why she became involved: You always have a lesson that you leave a place better than you found it. … One missing piece of the puzzle for this to be the true world-class city that we all believe it to be is cultural infrastructure, which is so lacking here. I would love to do whatever I can to fill that piece, because it is something I am passionate about. … Charlie Siemon and Wendy Larsen were such pioneers [in the arts in Boca] to make sure Mizner Park was a pillar for the arts in Boca Raton. It’s incumbent on the next generation to do what they can to carry that legacy and honor their work and try to bring it full circle. How it’s going: I feel very optimistic. We’re having very exciting conversations about cornerstone gifts, and we haven’t even gotten a signed ground lease. … We already had a strong feasibility study, and we would not have embarked on this had we not had the backing of the philanthropic community. Even more so, the pandemic was one of the best things that could have happened to this project, because the people who have moved here either want to make their name known, or they are looking to infill the cultural infrastructure they are missing from New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. ... Every day the number of people who call and want to be involved grows.
AARON BRISTOL
A
ndrea Virgin is no stranger to the stage—but this time she’s advocating for it, rather than performing on it. Virgin is president of the Boca Raton Center for Arts and Innovation, the group behind the building of a performing arts center at the north end of Mizner Park. The center is an ambitious project, which Virgin estimates will cost between $100 million and $110 million to build, and will include an innovative facility design that has seven different spaces for both indoor and outdoor performances and events (including the existing amphitheater—reimagined), a six-story parking garage and more. It will also provide a home for local arts organizations and will be the capstone of Mizner Park’s original mission to provide a cultural arts center in the heart of Boca Raton. Virgin, 36, who grew up in Boca Raton, was a former ballet dancer with the Houston City Ballet HB2 company and Ballet Florida before she became a civil engineer and launched her own design firm, Virgin Design. She became a proponent of the center following the tragic death of her young husband in a plane crash in 2015 that motivated her to change her life—and get more involved with the community. Today, the center is well on its way to becoming real. After four years of pro bono work by engineers and attorneys and planners and architects, plans are drawn, donors have been contacted, presentations have been made and the group is now awaiting a ground lease from the city (as of this writing—Ed.) coming this fall—which will mark the starting block for serious fundraising. A founders’ circle of 25 people has been formed, seed money of $2 million is in place for initial development costs, and Virgin anticipates the center opening “to be conservative” by the end of 2026 or early 2027, “with the amphitheater being turned around by the Boca centennial year of 2025.”
BOCA CHAMBER ANNUAL 2022
BOCA LEADERS FEATURE CHAMBER 22V2.indd 111
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9/13/21 5:20 PM
