April 17, 2009

VMFA SETS MAY 1, 2010, AS GRAND OPENING
FOR JAMES W. AND FRANCES G. MCGLOTHLIN WING

The Grand Opening of the expanded and transformed Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will be May 1, 2010, VMFA Director Alex Nyerges has announced.

The new James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing “is now sealed and protected from the elements, allowing interior work to proceed full speed ahead,” he says.

“In less than a year our superb collections will be on view once again for all to enjoy in a spectacular setting that is itself a work of art,” he says.

In addition to the work on the new wing, the museum is upgrading fire-suppression and other mechanical facilities that serve its present galleries.

Because of safety and accessibility issues and because, in the fall, workers will begin reinstalling thousands of works of art, Nyerges says, “our galleries will be off view after June 28 as we prepare for an even more exciting future that will allow us to serve all Virginians in a transformed facility and in new, improved and livelier ways.”

Nyerges notes that the museum will not close its doors. “We will continue to offer a variety of VMFA events and programs that are important to our local and statewide communities.”

• Exhibitions, programs and classes will continue in the Pauley Center and the VMFA Studio School.
• The museum’s extensive statewide programs and exhibitions will not be interrupted. With more than 200 partners statewide, including museums, art centers, primary and secondary schools, college and university galleries, libraries, hospitals, and retirement communities, VMFA serves more than 270,000 Virginians each year in their own communities.
• The popular 3rd Thursdays and Art After Hours series will be ongoing.
• VMFA exhibitions at Richmond International Airport will continue.
• Special occasions such as wedding receptions and corporate events will be accommodated.

Nyerges says no full-time state employee or VMFA Foundation jobs will be affected. “Where necessary, staff members will be reassigned and facilities and activities will be redirected as we focus on the completion and opening of the new McGlothlin Wing and the E. Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Garden,” he says.

When the expanded VMFA opens next May, gallery space will be half again larger and special-exhibition space will double. Some 165,000 square feet will be added to the VMFA's existing 380,000 square feet. More than 5,000 works of art will be displayed, significantly more than were on view before. The cost of the project, which includes the expansion of the museum, the 600-car parking deck that was completed last year and the Robins Sculpture Garden, is approximately $150 million.

The McGlothlin Wing, the parking deck and the Robins Sculpture Garden were designed by London-based architect Rick Mather, who incorporated with Richmond-based SMBW Architects to form the partnership of Rick Mather + SMBW. The 1998 facility plan was developed by planning consultants M. Goodwin Associates Inc. and Randall Stout Architects Inc. Olin Partnership served as landscape architecture consultant to Rick Mather + SMBW for the site design and the Robins Sculpture Garden.

More information on the project, plus a photo gallery, is available online.