Museums - Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

In the midst of the Great Depression, Virginia’s political and business leaders demonstrated their faith in the future and their belief in the value of art by opening the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in the city of Richmond. The English Renaissance–style headquarters building, designed by Peebles and Ferguson Architects of Norfolk barely hinted at the innovative mandate given to the fledgling institution: the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was to serve as the state’s flagship art museum and as the headquarters for an educational network that would bring the best of world art, past and present, to every corner of the commonwealth. Additional gallery space was desperately needed by the mid 1960s, and the museum’s second addition, the South Wing, opened in 1970.
Over the course of more than half a century, the museum has assembled a wide-ranging collection of world art characterized by both breadth and aesthetic quality. It includes holdings of Classical and African art numbering over 400 pieces. In 1994 and 1995, the museum exhibited its entire African art collection in Spirit of the Motherland: African Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Major donors to the collection include Robert and Nancy Nooter, Dr. Hilbert and Lori De Lawter, and Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Hammer. The museum also has an important collection of Indian and Himalayan art, in part due to the purchase in 1968, with funds from Paul Mellon, of more than 150 paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts from the region from the noted collection of Nasli Heeramaneck.
About three-quarters of the tribal art collection is on display. Storage is accessible to researchers by special appointment.