The grand opening celebration of the largest expansion project in the history of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will be Saturday and Sunday, May 1 and 2, with an array of free special events and activities, including a ribbon cutting, Tibetan Monks creating a sand mandala, exhibitions, lectures, artist demonstrations, music, dance demonstrations, refreshments, highlights tours and family art activities.
The museum will be open Saturday from 10 a.m. to midnight and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
VMFA Director Alex Nyerges urges all Virginians to see the expanded museum. “Everything about it is bigger, brighter and – with free admission – more welcoming. Our new James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing gives us a thrilling, glamorous stage from which to welcome visitors and to display more of our global collection and present important special exhibitions,” he says.
The expanded museum includes double the space for major traveling exhibitions and increases total space for VMFA’s permanent collections and exhibitions to 134,000 square feet. Major expanses of glass allow natural light to pour into the heart of the museum.
The McGlothlin Wing is the primary feature in the museum’s redevelopment of its 13-1/2-acre site that knits together additional new elements – the E. Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Garden, the Mary Morton Parsons Plaza, and a new landscaped parking deck – with the original museum and three other historic buildings on the museum’s grounds.
Indiana-limestone and glass cover the exterior of the wing, which also includes an art education center, conservation studios, the Margaret R. and Robert M. Freeman Library, a gift shop, and restaurants.
The expansion was designed by London-based Rick Mather Architects in partnership with a Richmond architectural firm, SMBW. The project is the first major U.S. commission for Mather, an American who has also designed modern additions to a number of Great Britain’s most venerable cultural institutions, among them the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
VMFA’s grand opening is sponsored by Altria Group, Dominion Resources, the Richard S. Reynolds Foundation, and SunTrust Foundation, with support from individuals, foundations and corporations that made the VMFA expansion possible.
(Note: all food and non-alcoholic beverages are free; alcoholic beverages will be available at cash bars.)
Here is a schedule of events for the grand opening weekend.
SATURDAY, MAY 1
Exhibitions on View
10 a.m.-Midnight
“American Art from the McGlothlin Collection”
10 a.m.-Midnight
“German Expressionist Art: Selections from the Fischer Collection”
10 a.m.-Midnight
“Matisse, Picasso and Modern Art in Paris”
Mary Morton Parsons Plaza
8-10 a.m.
Coffee and donuts
10-10:30 a.m.
Ribbon-cutting ceremony with VMFA donors, government officials, and current and former VMFA trustees, with music by the Huguenot High School Marching Band
11 a.m.-Noon
Performance by the Bucket Drums
Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Atrium
11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Lego art project recreating artist Barry Flanagan’s “Large Leaping Hare,” a 20th-century sculpture from the VMFA collection, with public participation
Noon-12:45 p.m.
Ezibu Muntu African Dance Company presents dancers, drummers and entertainers dedicated to bringing African culture, values and cultural arts to the community
1-1:45 p.m.
Greek Folk Dancers
2-2:45 p.m.
Latin Ballet of Virginia Dancers
3-3:45 p.m.
Indian Dancers
4:30-4:45 p.m.
Dancers from the Tai Yim Kung Fu School in Kensington, Md., will perform the traditional Chinese Lion Dance, a 1,000-year-old expression of joy and happiness
5-5:45 p.m.
Women of Selket Belly Dancers
6-7 p.m.
Music by Mariachi Las Americas, an eight-piece ensemble performing both traditional mariachi music from Jalisco in southern Mexico and more modern mariachi music
7:30-8:30 p.m.
Music by Mariachi Las Americas (see above)
9 p.m.-Midnight
Music by Marionette, a six-member collective from Richmond that includes art students, jazz musicians and friends
Richard S. and Julia Louise Reynolds Lecture Hall
1-2 p.m.
Lecture: “Affairs of the Heart: Love and Romance in Masterpieces of Art,” by art historian Dr. Mary Sweeney Ellett, who will explore the theme of love as depicted in works from ancient to modern times
2-4 p.m.
Screening: “Avant-Garde Short Films Through the Ages,” including films ranging from “Emak-Bakia,” a 1926 work by Man Ray, to “Tower Bawher,” a 2005 film by Théodore Ushev
4-5 p.m.
Lecture: “The Positive Image: Early Photographic Processes,” by award-winning photographer Phil Nesmith, who offers an overview of photography’s early days and today’s renewed interest in 19th-century methods
Conference Center
11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Artist demonstrations of glasswork and painting in oil by VMFA Studio School instructors Jude Schlotzhauer and David Tanner. Schlotzhauer works with colored glass to make tiles, plates and mirror frames for fusing. Tanner is a Realist painter who also teaches at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, where he was elected Master Teacher in 2006
Best Café
10:30 a.m.-Noon
Coffee and donuts
Noon-3 p.m.
Picnic fare
3 p.m.-Midnight
Coffee bar and other beverages
Amuse Restaurant and Claiborne Robertson Room
3-5 p.m.
Tea and cookies
7-10:30 p.m.
Winetastings and small plates
Marble Hall
10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Lemonade and tea
4-7 p.m.
Kentucky Derby and Hat-making party
8:30-11:30 p.m.
Jazz Café featuring the Quiet Steps Trio performing jazz standards and featuring keyboards, upright bass and soprano saxophone
Exhibition Gallery East Lobby
11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Tibetan Monks from the Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca, N.Y., will be in residence at VMFA for one week to create a sand mandala titled Avalokiteshvara (Wheel of Compassion); the art of painting with colored sand is unique and exquisite and is called dul-tson-kyil-khor (mandala of colored powders) in the Tibetan language
E. Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Garden
8-9 a.m.
Tai Chi
Galleries
10 a.m.-11 p.m.
VMFA gallery highlights tours, departing from the Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Atrium on the hour 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 7-10 p.m.
Education spaces
10:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
Family art activities including creating prints and T-shirts
VMFA Gift Shop
10-a.m.-5 p.m.
Trunk shows by Littala and Fabergé (featuring the debut of the museum’s reproduction of the Czarevitch imperial egg), plus the debut of exclusive VMFA chocolates and wine-filled Bacchus chocolates
SUNDAY, MAY 2
Exhibitions on View
10 a.m.-5 p.m.
“American Art from the McGlothlin Collection”
10 a.m.-5 p.m.
“German Expressionist Art: Selections from the Fischer Collection”
10 a.m.-5 p.m.
“Matisse, Picasso and Modern Art in Paris”
Mary Morton Parsons Plaza
Noon-1 p.m.
Performance by the Bucket Drums
1-4 p.m.
Roving performance by Paperhand Puppet Intervention, a group dedicated to varied styles of puppetry and artistic expression including giant puppets, masks, stilt dancing, rod puppets, shadows and silhouettes.
Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Atrium
11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Lego art project recreating artist Barry Flanagan’s “Large Leaping Hare,” a 20th-century sculpture from the VMFA collection, with public participation
Noon-1 p.m.
Indian Dancers
2:30-3:30 p.m.
Cheick Hamala Diabate with Hotel X; Diabate is a modern-day griot and master of the n’goni ( a West African stringed instrument made from a calabash), who will perform with Hotel X, Virginia’s world-music ensemble
4-5 p.m.
Cheick Hamala Diabate with Hotel X (see above)
Richard S. and Julia Louise Reynolds Lecture Hall
1-2 p.m.
Lecture: “Mystery of ‘The Night Café’: Hidden Key to the Spirituality of Vincent van Gogh,” by Dr. Cliff Edwards, professor of philosophy and religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University
2-4 p.m.
Screening: “Avant-Garde Short Films Through the Ages,” including films ranging from “Emak-Bakia,” a 1926 work by Man Ray, to “Tower Bawher,” a 2005 film by Théodore Ushev
Founder’s Conference Room
10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Artist demonstration by VMFA resident potter and Studio School instructor Steven Glass, who will make pitchers, platters, cups and bowls, and answer questions
Best Café
10-11 a.m.
Coffee and donuts
11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Picnic fare
3-5 p.m.
Coffee bar and other beverages
Marble Hall
11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Lemonade and tea
Exhibition Gallery East Lobby
10-5 p.m.
Tibetan Monks from the Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca, N.Y., will be in residence at VMFA for one week to create a sand mandala titled Avalokiteshvara (Wheel of Compassion); the art of painting with colored sand is unique and exquisite and is called dul-tson-kyil-khor (mandala of colored powders) in the Tibetan language
Mary Morton Parsons Plaza and E. Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Garden
1-4 p.m.
Roving procession by Paperhand Puppet Intervention, a group dedicated to varied styles of puppetry and artistic expression including giant puppets, masks, stilt dancing, rod puppets, shadows and silhouettes
Galleries
11 a.m.-4 p.m.
VMFA gallery highlights tours, departing from the Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Atrium on the hour
Education spaces
1-5 p.m.
Family art activities including creating a miniature sketchbook and artistic buttons
VMFA Gift Shop
10-a.m.-5 p.m.
Trunk show by Fabergé (featuring the debut of the museum’s reproduction of the Czarevitch imperial egg), plus the debut of exclusive VMFA chocolates and wine-filled Bacchus chocolates
Additional information about VMFA’s grand opening weekend is available at www.vmfa.museum.
General admission is always free at VMFA.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is at 200 N. Boulevard in Richmond, Va. VMFA’s holdings include more than 22,000 treasures spanning more than 5,000 years. The museum houses extraordinary collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, American and British art as well as internationally recognized collections of decorative arts, Contemporary art, South Asian art and African art. The museum’s galleries also include a world-class collection of jeweled works by Peter Carl Fabergé. In addition, VMFA presents a wide array of special exhibitions.
Programs in Richmond include educational activities for all ages and entertaining after-hours events. Statewide outreach programs through partner organizations across Virginia include traveling exhibitions, artist and teacher workshops, media resources, and lectures. For additional information, telephone 804-340-1400 or visit the museum online at www.vmfa.museum.
