Richmond, VA — The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) announced today that Commonwealth of Virginia employees and preschool and K–12 teachers, public and private, will receive free admission to the museum’s two special exhibitions, American, born Hungary Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy and A Long Arc: Photography and the American South since 1845. Both exhibitions are on view at VMFA through January 26, 2025.
“The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts serves as an important educational institution for all Virginians,” said the museum’s Director and CEO Alex Nyerges. “We welcome schoolteachers and our colleagues from the Commonwealth of Virginia to see these exhibitions. Visitors will be captivated by the images, which reflect the importance of photography in shaping our understanding of history.”
The two exhibitions can be helpful teaching resources for courses including social studies, American history, visual art and photography.
American, born Hungary Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy follows a remarkable number of émigrés and exiles from Hungary to Berlin and Paris and then on to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, where they reinvented themselves and American photography. While some of these artists developed radical, experimental photographic techniques, others brought with them innovative approaches to photojournalism, advertising and fashion photography. Their encounters with different facets of early 20th-century American life have informed our understanding of history. The most comprehensive exhibition to explore the geographical reach and extensive influence that Hungarian-born photographers have had on the medium, American, born Hungary examines the pioneering artistry that often emerged out of backdrops of persecution and perseverance.
The first major exhibition of Southern American photography in more than 25 years, A Long Arc: Photography and the American South since 1845 contemplates the region’s central role in shaping American history and identity and its critical impact on the development of the medium. The exhibition comprises more than 175 years of photography, including images made during the American Civil War, the Reconstruction era and the Civil Rights Movement. A Long Arc also examines the emergence of documentary photography in the 1930s and the materialization of reflective photography in the latter 20th century. The exhibition concludes with provocative works made in the last two decades, forged by legacies of slavery and white supremacy and marked by myriad contemporary cultural, economic and social concerns.
To pick up their free tickets to see these exhibitions, Commonwealth of Virginia employees and educators must show their employee IDs or badges at the museum’s Visitor Services desk. One free ticket is available per badge. Reservations for first-available tickets to these special exhibitions can also be made in person at the Visitor Services desk.
One ticket enables visitors to see both American, born Hungary and A Long Arc. Combined tickets are also available for purchase at VMFA.museum: $12 adults, $10 for seniors 65+, and $8 for youth 7–17 and college students with ID. Museums for All participants can purchase combined tickets to these two special exhibitions at the reduced price of $2 each with a limit of four tickets per Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card. Combined tickets to the two exhibitions are also free for VMFA members and children ages 6 and under. In addition, VMFA provides free tickets for all active duty, National Guard and Reserve military personnel and their immediate families as a participant of Blue Star Museums.
VMFA is open 365 days a year with free general admission. In keeping with its annual schedule, the museum will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
For more information about the exhibitions American, born Hungary and A Long Arc at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, visit VMFA.museum.
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Exhibition Sponsors
American, born Hungary: Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy and A Long Arc: Photography and the American South since 1845 are sponsored by the Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Exhibition Endowment; the André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation; Julia Louise Reynolds Fund; Davenport Family Foundation; Elisabeth Shelton Gottwald Fund; Mr. and Mrs. Charles N. Whitaker; Carol Ann Bischoff and Mike Regan; Nancy and Wayne Chasen; Community Foundation for a greater Richmond; Anne and Gus Edwards; Tibby and David Ford; Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Garner, Jr.; Dr. and Mrs. William V. Garner; Bertie Heiner; Richard S. Reynolds Foundation; Virginia Sargeant Reynolds Foundation; Michael Schewel and Priscilla Burbank; Mary and Don Shockey; YouDecide; Anne Battle and Leonard Slater; Cindi Cobbs and Jim Ludwig; Kate Neale Cooper and Matt Cooper; Birch Douglass; Gray-Nyerges Charitable Fund; Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc.; Adrianne Joseph; James W. Klaus; Alexandria Rogers McGrath; Teri Craig Miles; Peachtree House Foundation; Tom Williamson and Janet Brown; Edie and Bob Cabaniss; Ann B. Carpenter in memory of Richard H. Carpenter, M.D.; Page and John Corey; Drs. Ronald A. and Betty Neal Crutcher; Dana Foundation, Inc.; Christopher English and Meda Lane; Eucharia “Ukay” and Richard Jackson, M.D.; Tammy and Brian Jackson; Arnel Manalo; Nancy and Tom McCandlish; John McGurl and Michelle Gluck; Dr. and Mrs. Kent Minichiello; Michelle and John Nestler; Candace H. Osdene; Dr. and Mrs. Carl Patow; Celia Rafalko and Rick Sample; Ellen Ray, Main Street Law Offices; Reynolds Gallery; Anne Carter Robins and Walter R. Robins, Jr. Foundation Exhibition Endowment; Agustin E. Rodriguez and Coleen Butler Rodriguez; Deborah and Mark Wlaz; and two anonymous donors. Marketing support is provided by the Charles G. Thalhimer Fund. Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund provided support for the exhibition catalogue for American, born Hungary: Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy. The media partner for both exhibitions is En Forme.
About the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, is one of the largest comprehensive art museums in the United States. VMFA, which opened in 1936, is a state agency and privately endowed educational institution. Its purpose is to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret art, and to encourage the study of the arts. Through the Office of Statewide Partnerships program, the museum offers curated exhibitions, arts-related audiovisual programs, symposia, lectures, conferences, and workshops by visual and performing artists. In addition to presenting a wide array of special exhibitions, the museum provides visitors with the opportunity to experience a global collection of art that spans more than 6,000 years. VMFA’s permanent holdings encompass more than 50,000 artworks, including the largest public collection of Fabergé outside of Russia, the finest collection of Art Nouveau outside of Paris and one of the nation’s finest collections of American art. VMFA is also home to important collections of Chinese art, English silver, French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, British sporting and modern and contemporary art, as well as renowned South Asian, Himalayan and African art. In May 2010, VMFA opened the James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing I after a transformative expansion, previously the largest in its history. A new expansion, the McGlothlin Wing II, is planned to open in 2028. Comprising more than 170,000 square feet, it will be the largest expansion in the museum’s history and will make VMFA the fourth largest comprehensive art museum in the United States.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is the only art museum in the United States open 365 days a year with free general admission. For additional information, telephone (804) 340-1400 or visit VMFA.museum.
Media Contacts
Jan Hatchette | (804) 204-2721 | jan.hatchette@vmfa.museum
Amy Peck | (804) 773-1791 | amy.peck@vmfa.museum
Camryn Royal | (804) 204-2717 | camryn.royal@vmfa.museum
200 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd., Richmond, VA 23220