Established | March 27, 1934 |
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Location | 200 N. Boulevard, Richmond, VA 23220-4007 |
Collection size | 22,000 works (as of 2011) |
Director | Alex Nyerges |
Public transit access | Greater Richmond Transit Company bus route 16, stop at Grove Avenue on Boulevard between Thompson and Robinson. |
Website | |
Virginia Museum
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Coordinates | 37°33′23″N 77°28′29″W / 37.55639°N 77.47472°W |
Built | 1936 |
Architect | Peebles & Ferguson |
Architectural style | Georgian Revival; English Renaissance Revival |
Part of | Boulevard Historic District (#86002887) |
Designated CP | September 18, 1986 |
Home For Confederate Women
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Location | 301 N. Sheppard St., Richmond, Virginia |
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Area | 2 acres (0.81 ha) |
Built | 1932 |
Architect | Lee,Merrill |
Architectural style | Federal, Federal Revival |
NRHP Reference # | 85002767 |
VLR # | 127-0380 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | November 7, 1985 |
Designated VLR | April 16, 1985 |
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, in the United States, which opened in 1936.
The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia, while private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the support of specific programs and all acquisition of artwork, as well as additional general support. Admission itself is free (except for special exhibits). It is one of the first museums in the American South to be operated by state funds. It is also one of the largest art museums in North America. VMFA ranks as one of the top ten comprehensive art museums in the United States.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, together with the adjacent Virginia Historical Society, anchors the eponymous "Museum District" of Richmond (alternatively known as "West of the Boulevard").
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has its origins in a 1919 donation of 50 paintings to the Commonwealth of Virginia by Judge and prominent Virginian John Barton Payne. Payne, in collaboration with Virginia Governor John Garland Pollard and the Federal Works Projects Administration, secured federal funding to augment state funding for the museum in 1932. Eventually, a site was chosen on Richmond's Boulevard. The site was toward the corner of a contiguous six-block tract of land which was then being used as an American Civil War veterans' home, with additional services for their wives and daughters (the state having earlier acquired title in exchange for helping to subsidize the operations).