How are we open 365 days a year?

Recently, I was asked how we can afford to be free and open 365 days a year. My answer was simply, "How can we afford not to be?"

Alex Nyerges, VMFA Director 

One of the three basic tenets of our business model is accessibility. Accessibility is more than just compliance with Federal and State regulations on physical accessibility with barrier-free facilities. It also applies to intellectual, geographic, and cultural accessibility. Being open 365 days a year and offering free general admission is one important way we make ourselves accessible to the widest audience possible.

Why free? Free is one of the most beautiful words in the English language. We at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts know that admission fees to museums are in direct competition with more important financial choices in this current fiscal climate. As an institution dedicated to serving all Virginians, being free is important. It means that everyone can come and visit without a barrier.  Now, more than ever, we are working overtime to dispel the elitist image that many people still associate with art museums.

So how do we do it? We are able to do it in part because of the generosity and support of our VMFA Members, Trustees and Foundation Directors.  It is also all about priorities. When we begin our budgeting process each year, maintaining our 365 day schedule and free general admission is as basic as our care for the museum’s wonderful permanent collections. One other perspective is the business formula we follow. We believe offering free admission generates traffic, lots of it. We've had more than a million and a half visitors since we reopened in May 2010. That traffic generates business - business for our store, the Best Cafe, and Amuse Restaurant. Add to that the stellar business of our store and food service - they know how to produce a sensational product and understand the importance of great customer service! Free admission to the permanent collection also generates traffic for our special exhibitions and that's where it counts. A half dozen years ago, with both a suggested donation admission policy and a contribution box sitting at the front door, we rarely generated more than a few hundred thousand dollars a year in admission revenue. It didn't even pay for our admissions staff and associated expenses. And our average attendance was only 300,000 a year. Now, with free general admission, an admission charge (for non-members) to attend our robust and varied offering of special exhibitions, admission revenues have increased and our average attendance since reopening is a half million visitors a year. Plus, our membership ranks have skyrocketed from just under 7,000 households in early 2010 to more than 37,000 today! The arithmetic is pretty simple.
So, you see, free admission is not only good business, it's good for business. I love it when I hear people answer the question about our operating hours, "Oh, they're always open." And we are. I look forward to seeing you soon and often

Alex Nyerges, Director 

A butterfly flowerbed with Victorian roots

Today, VMFA volunteers planted over 500 pots of annuals contracted by the VMFA and grown for us by Stranges Wholesale growing division in Mechanicsville.  Most are exotic, some native, and all reflect the colorful bedding planting that was the style during the late 1800’s as the world’s plants were coming to Europe and North America as a result of worldwide plant exploration. 

The technological development of rolled glass, cast iron and steam heat enabled the construction of glass houses in which to grow these new plants year-round. This type of garden design resembles a stacked wedding cake with graduated heights of the plantings. As an added benefit, many of the plants will attract butterflies.

Special thanks to our volunteers!

Dave Herbst

Ken Dotson

Linda Walter

Alice HIggins

Marlene Culpepper and Louise Brierre

Skip Walton

A growing volunteer program

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts gardening volunteers, many of whom are on the The Council of the VMFA, have been completing spring projects. Shown here (L to R) are Bob Allen, Carmella Allen, Dave Herbst, Skip Walton, Alice Higgins, Bill Cooper and Richard Lister.  The project shown is the mulching of newly planted trees along Shepherd Street. These oaks have been planted by the City of Richmond under the direction of City Arborist, Luke McCall. Providing follow up care, the garden volunteers will add shredded hardwood mulch to the tree beds which provides moisture retention and heat buffering during the summer. The volunteers and staff will continue the weekly care by watering them during their first full season of growth. 

Other projects for the volunteers include planting and care of floral beds and pruning shrubs and small trees.

VMFA has also just planted three magnificent flowering  Kwanzan cherry trees which grace the hillside leading up to the Belvidere.

The Garden Volunteer Program is in its second year and has already donated nearly 300 hours of horticultural care to VMFA's  E. Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Garden and 13 acre campus.Volunteers meet each Wednesday morning during the growing season, starting in February with winter pruning and ending in November with the planting of bulbs and pansies in the floral beds. Each work session teaches techniques and includes tips on home gardening.

For more information about the Garden Volunteer Program or other volunteer opportunities at the VMFA, contact VMFA Volunteer Programs Coordinator, Kim Frola at 804-340-1461 or kim.frola@vmfa.museum

- Tom Brinda, VMFA Horticulturist

The welcome mat is out at VMFA

Most people do not typically see a museum as a fast-paced, dynamic and constantly evolving place.   I think the popular notion is that museums are stale and nice places to visit for a history class. Even though I have only been here for three weeks, I can honestly say VMFA is throwing a coup d’état on the traditional expectations of what museum can be. 

 

Having spent some time working in a broadcast TV station in Baltimore I’m used to the idea of tight deadlines, lots of moving pieces, and a constant flurry of activity.  I did not expect to see that same culture translated into the museum setting.  It was a refreshing surprise!  Not only do we acquire and exhibit new art all the time, the museum also offers hundreds of programs a month on campus and across the state.  The variety and depth of these offerings is remarkable especially when it comes to embracing a multicultural global perspective. 

There are many organizations that practice a “check-the-box” mentality. They talk about black people during black history month or Latinos during Hispanic history month or women during women’s history and so forth. Once that month is over the celebrating ends until the next obligatory time period.  VMFA is different.  We celebrate a rich variety of cultural heritages, identities, time periods and faiths every single day.  We do this not out of obligation but because that is who we are.  Our permanent collections are among the finest in the world; representing over 4,000 years of history and depicting life in almost every corner of the earth.    It is hard to imagine building such a comprehensive museum without individuals who understand the incredible value diversity brings.

Darrian P. Mack
Director of Audience Development

Remembering Marian Anderson

Today, April 9, 2013, marks the 20^th anniversary of the death at the age of 96 of the internationally renowned singer and humanitarian, Marian Anderson. Since my childhood, I had known of Anderson’s great musicality and barrier-shattering reputation as the first African American artist to perform at the White House (in 1936) and sing a major role on the stage of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House (in 1955). For this awareness, I credit my mother, herself a talented singer, and father, a progressive humanitarian in his own right. Then came my graduate-school move to Philadelphia, where I found myself in 1993 at a memorial service for Anderson at the Union Baptist Church, the place she first sang in public and whose supportive congregation provided financial assistance for her early music lessons.

Fast forward to December 2012, when I had the great privilege and pleasure of acquiring for VMFA Beauford Delaney’s majestic homage to Anderson. The portrait was painted in 1965, the year of her last public performance, which occurred on Easter Sunday, April 18^th, at Carnegie Hall—26 Easters after her momentous concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. That cultural milestone transformed the Lady from Philadelphia into the voice and symbol of America’s nascent civil-rights movement; some have gone even further in describing the significance of the event, calling Anderson the voice of the American Soul. So, when you pass through the American Midcentury gallery today, pause to admire Delaney’s hieratic depiction of this remarkable woman and artist—in all her encompassing golden warmth and dignity.

Sylvia Yount, Chief Curator

Beauford Delaney, Marian Anderson, 1965, oil on canvas, J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art, 2012.277