Raised by a family of artists and teachers, Benjamin Groff has been an artist since grade school and has been teaching art in public schools for more than twenty-five years. He studied art at the York Academy of Art in Pennsylvania and graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Liberal Art from Millersville University in 1986. Mr. Groff worked in commercial art and advertising sales for five years at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, while also establishing the Velvet Monkey Gallery in Daytona Beach. His paintings have been displayed in local art galleries and art shows in Lancaster, PA, Daytona Beach, FL and Miami. Mr. Groff’s art can also be found in private collections throughout the United States as well as in France, Spain, and Sweden. Since graduating from Florida International University with a Master of Science in Art Education in 1993, Mr. Groff continued to paint under the tutelage of various professors at FIU and produced work for The Ed Fund, Art in Public Places: The Flamingos on the Beach in 2002, The 2004 Masters Mystery Art Show at the Ritz Carlton, Arts for Learning (A4L), Art Miami 2008, Art Basel 2010, and he has directed eight works for the FIU Wolfsonian Museum Page at a Time Program. In 2014 Mr. Groff earned a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership from University of Texas, Arlington and became State Certified as a School Administrator. He is also a National Board Certified Teacher 2001-2021. For the last three years Mr. Groff has been partnered with FIU dual enrollment teaching both beginning drawing and beginning painting at Coral Gables Senior High.