Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

VMFA c. 1931

VMFA 2015

 

Site: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Date of Construction: 1932

Reason for Construction: The original limestone structure was built for destitute female relatives of Confederate soldiers, and then part was set aside in 1936 to be the VMFA.  

Area History: During colonial times, Thomas Stegge owned the area around the modern-day VMFA.  The land passed down through the William Byrd lines.  Later, Anthony Robinson bought 170 acres of land on modern VMFA property in the 1830s through 1850s, building the the Robinson House that now stands behind the VMFA.  After serving as a Confederate camp through the war, the grounds were allocated in 1932 for the Home for Needy Confederate Women. The concept of the museum, after it was marked as a museum and built, has remained the same; however, the museum itself has changed drastically from the time of its creation. The largest change would be the many, many additions to the museum over time, which increased the number of works from its original 50 to 60 to its current 22,000+ works of art today. The area around the original VMFA has been slowly but surely added to the museum grounds, taking the museum grounds from its original 2 acre land plot to its current 13 and a half acre land plot.

Site History:  In 1936, despite the Great Depression, Virginia legislators and private donors came together and established the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  Then-Governor of Virginia John Pollard helped raise funds from private donors and he got grants and legislation for the museum past the General Assembly in 1934.  In 1954, Merrill C Lee, Architects, built the first addition to the Museum to house the first modern art collections at the museum.  The South wing was built in the late 1960s and completed in 1970.  This wing, designed by Baskervill & Son, included four new permanent galleries and new staff offices.  In 1976, the North wing was completed, and in 1985 the West wing was completed.  In the early 2000s the museum ran out of space again and begun the largest and most famous expansion in its history, the $150 million, 165,000 sq ft.  James W. and Frances G McGlothlin wing which, finished in 2010, is the modern architecture wing that has become the most famous part of the Museum.    

Changes Over Time:  The grounds of the museum have not changed too much over the last 100+ years: Obviously the Robinson house no longer is occupied, and the Museum is not  a house for Confederate women. Also there never used to be Art installations outside the museum, and there was no parking.  Also, the so-called Museum District has developed around the VMFA, now including the Virginia Historical society right behind the museum.  Meanwhile, the VMFA has remained free to the public and primarily filled by generous donations from private collections. 

Reflection: The most astounding part of the history of the VMFA would be that it was founded in one of the most economically difficult times of United States history: the Great Depression. Despite the fact that the Great Depression was one of the worst of times in U.S. history and people were struggling to eat, people gave money, along with the state government, to build a museum about art.  Another interesting (or rather funny) aspect of the museum’s history is the amount of expansions that they went through, owing to the astonishing popularity of the Museum with donors, once again despite the hard times at the beginning.  We also learned about the changes over time, as David for one did not realize there was a part to the museum that wasn’t in the modern architectural renovation completed in 2010, or that the Museum has been around for longer than our grandparents.  

Sources:

Carneal, Drew St J. Richmond’s Fan District. Richmond, Va: Historic Richmond Foundation, 1996

“History of the VMFA Grounds.” Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Accessed February 15, 2015. <http://vmfa.museum/about/grounds-history/>.

 David Normansell and Robin Donne