The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts – Richmond, VA

The visit to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was truly amazing.  This museum has nearly 50,000 works of art, which spans over 6,000 years of world history.

This museum is open every day of the full year and general admission to this museum is free!

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) located in Richmond, Virginia, opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the support of specific programs and all acquisition of artwork, as well as additional general support.

VMFA is considered among the largest art museums in North.  The VMFA’s comprehensive art collection includes African art, American art, British sporting art, Fabergé, and Himalayan art.  One of the first museums in the American South to be operated by state funds and donations, and because of this, VMFA offers free admission, except for special exhibits.

The museum includes the Leslie Cheek Theater, a performing-arts venue. Built in 1955 as a 500-seat theatre within the art museum, it started as a community theater and also hosted special programs in dance, film, and music.  In 1969, the director established an Actors’ Equity/LORT company known as Virginia Museum Theatre, hiring both local actors and professionals from New York City or elsewhere. Some of its productions received national notice. In 1973, the production of Maxim Gorky’s play Our Father transferred to New York, to the Manhattan Theater Club. Because of continuing financial problems, the nonprofit theater closed in 2002. After renovation, it reopened in 2011 as part of the museum to host a range of live performance events.

The VMFA has its origins in a 1919 donation of 50 paintings to the Commonwealth of Virginia by Judge John Barton Payne. During the Great Depression, Payne collaborated with Virginia Governor John Garland Pollard to gain funding from the federal Works Projects Administration under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to augment state funding and establish the state art museum in 1932.

The main building of the VMFA was designed by Peebles and Ferguson Architects of Norfolk.  Construction began in 1934.  Two wings were originally planned, but only the central portion was then built.  The museum opened on January 16, 1936.  Many expansions were done from 1970 through 1990, and the redesign of the campus and the McGlothlin wing expansion were done from 1991 through 2010.  In 2019, Rumors of War was installed on the front lawn of the museum facing Arthur Ashe Boulevard after being displayed in Times Square.  In June 2021, the VMFA announced that architectural firm Smith Group was designing a $190 million expansion of the museum and a renovation of current spaces such as the Evans Court and Leslie Cheek Theater.

Learn more about the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts at https://vmfa.museum/