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

Caligula loses his head

Conservators Amy Fernandez and Greg Byrne examining the newly removed head with curator Peter Schertz

Nearly two-thousand years after his brutal assassination by members of his own bodyguard, Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (popularly known as "Caligula") has lost his head yet again in an operation performed over the course of several months at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The operation was performed on a full-length marble statue of Caligula now in the VMFA's ancient art collection and resulted in the successful separation of the head from the body. The museum will now be able to determine definitively whether the head and body were originally part of the same sculpture and reattach the head with a more accurate alignment than had been done in previous restorations. Following present-day best practices in conservation, all work done on the statue will be fully reversible.
 

The work took place in VMFA's Sculpture and Decorative Arts Conservation Studio by Amy Fernandez and Greg Byrne under the supervision of VMFA’s conservator and department head Kathy Gillis with curator Peter Schertz consulting. Using steel wire and a solution of water and ground pumice, and later piano wire treated with diamond dust, Ms. Fernandez and Mr. Byrne carefully sawed through the epoxy used to reattach head the body the last time the statue was conserved. They also cut through a copper rod that had been used to stabilize the head.

The emperor was popularly known as "Caligula," a nickname given him by members of his father's army when Gaius was but a lad. He became Princeps, or first citizen, of the Roman Empire in 37 CE, following the death of his uncle Tiberius. Initially hailed as "our baby" and "our star" upon his ascension, Caligula soon found himself at odds with the Roman senate and wide swaths of the population. Despite a successful military campaign against the god Neptune, Caligula was never able to regain his early popularity. On 24th January 41 CE, members of the Praetorian Guard under the leadership of Cassius Chaerea assassinated Gaius. Although not condoned by senatorial or imperial decree, images of Caligula throughout the empire were soon defaced and destroyed; today only two of the thousands of statues made of Caligula survive intact, one in Richmond, VA at VMFA and the other at Gortyn, Crete, in the local antiquarium.

Upon Caligula's death, the Praetorian guard hailed his uncle, the stuttering, limping scholarly historian Claudius as Princeps. Faced with the swords of the Praetorians and threats of public disorder, the Senate quickly granted Claudius the powers and honors of Princeps and Claudius was no less quick to pay the faithful Praetorians their promised bonus of 15,000 sesterces per soldier.

Peter Schertz, Jack and Mary Ann Frable Curator of Ancient Art

Photo: Travis Fullerton