Vero Beach's Brainy Season -- Books, Lectures and Conversations

Vero Beach is flexing its intellectual muscles this season, with two powerhouse lecture series on Riverside Park Drive cementing 32963 as the Treasure Coast’s smartest zip code. Together, Riverside Theatre’s Distinguished Lecturer Series and the Vero Beach Museum of Art’s International Lecture Series offer a brisk world tour of politics, media, food, travel, and American art—all before sunset.​

Riverside’s power players 2026

In 2026, Riverside Theatre’s Distinguished Lecturer Series leans into its role as Vero’s civic cockpit, packing four headliners — Michael McFaul, Sir Niall Ferguson, Kevin O’Leary, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders — into tightly staged 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. programs that feel more like live current-affairs tapings than traditional lectures. The format is brisk and subscription-driven, the houses are full, and the mood is distinctly newsy: this is where Vero’s power-listeners go to hear Russia, markets, and American politics decoded in real time, then argued over on the way back to the parking lot.

Michael McFaul

Sir Niall Ferguson

Kevin O'Leary

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

For more information and specifc dates, click here.

Museum’s global lens 2026

Across the park, the Vero Beach Museum of Art’s International Lecture Series continues to play the long game, threading national voices through its exhibitions to tell a slower, more layered story about American culture. With speakers such as Fred Minnick, Conor Knighton, Ashley Rose Young, and Regina Palm, topics range from bourbon to national parks, food history, and the Museum’s own collections as entry points into questions of identity, place, and memory, delivering talks that feel less like breaking news and more like deeply reported features you want to sit with.

Fred Minnick

Conor Knighton

Ashley Rose Young, Ph.D.

Regina Palm, Ph.D.

For more information, specific dates, and to register, click here.

Vero Beach Book Center Keeps the Momentum Going for 2026

Following a wildly successful 50th anniversary year in 2025 that featured packed houses for local favorites like Carl Hiaasen and Rody Johnson, alongside a steady stream of visiting marquee names, the Vero Beach Book Center is wasting no time rolling that momentum into 2026 with its recently announced lineup of author events from January through May.

2026 AUTHOR LINEUP

• January 9 – Kamilah Cole

• January 10 – Brad Meltzer*

• January 13 – Paula McLain*

• January 15 – Ivan Maisel

• January 22 – Ashley Winstead

• February 26 – To be announced*

• March 19 – Allison Pataki*

• April 8 – David Morton

• May 14 – To be announced*

*ticketed event.

This roster and the continued success of Vero Beach Book Center speaks to a broader nationwide resurgence in independent bookstores.

For more information, visit Vero Beach Book Center's website here.