The Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond is set to reopen to the public on May 14 after a $30 million renovation, the largest in the two-century-old museum’s history.
Nearly two-thirds of VMHC’s 250,000,000 square-foot-building has been renovated, including a new two-story entrance atrium, 50 percent more exhibit space, an updated orientation theater, outdoor gathering spaces, and a revamped cafe and gift shop.
Just as notably, the research library that is frequently used by the public and scholars researching the Commonwealth’s history is getting an upgrade. The library is home to the museum’s nine-million-item collection.
With the update also comes the brand-new major exhibit “Our Commonwealth,” which tells the story of Virginia through 5,000 square feet of stories, artifacts, “living murals,” and soundscapes.
It will be divided into five regions, including one devoted to Northern Virginia.
“The stories [in the exhibit] will help explain what makes each region unique,” Andy Talkov, the museum’s senior director of curatorial affairs, tells Northern Virginia magazine. “But it also helps build what it means to be a Virginian.”
The Northern Virginia section of the new exhibit will highlight the region’s diversity, its history as a center for horse culture, and for being home to many who have served in the military, explains Talkov.
A number of local institutions and projects are lending artifacts and expertise to the exhibit, including the Manassas Museum, the Office of Historic Alexandria, and Columbia Pike Documentary Project.
One of the most diverse parts of the Commonwealth is the couple mile stretch of Arlington’s Columbia Pike, where people from more than 150 countries live and more than a hundred languages are spoken. The Pike is frequently referred to as “a world in a zip code.”
“We’ve partnered with the Columbia Pike Documentary Project to bring an interactive piece that focuses on the [Pike] and some of the people that live there and what brought them to the Commonwealth,” Talkov says.
Talkov notes that the exhibit is trying to weave the deeply personal into a greater story of what makes Virginia’s past a microcosm for the American experience.
One of the artifacts on display in the Northern Virginia section of “Our Commonwealth” is a 1966 Christmas card sent by a Marine serving in Vietnam back to his family in Alexandria. Shortly after sending the holiday note to his loved ones, the Marine was killed while serving in the war. He’s now buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
A number of other exhibits and experiences are also set to open with the museum on May 14, including one about alcohol crafting and consumption in Virginia, a new “17-minute immersive film highlighting indelible moments and scenes in Virginia history,” and the Great Hall.
The two-story Great Hall will serve as the entrance and will feature a 1950s-era “kiddie” airplane amusement park ride, as well as one of only two surviving century-old “Kline Kars” manufactured in Richmond. This particular 1918 automobile was owned by Black Richmond businessman A.D. Price, who owned a very successful funeral home in the city.
The museum has been closed to the public since January 1 to allow crews full access to work on the significant renovation.
In 2018, the Virginia Historical Society rebranded to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
With that came plans to revamp the museum, including a capital campaign to raise funds to start construction in 2022. But the pandemic accelerated that timeline, since visitation was already going to be impacted, and the museum moved up plans to start the project in September 2020.
The May 2022 opening date is actually about the same time the museum had originally planned to start construction, a VMHC spokesperson tells Northern Virginia magazine.
Feature image courtesy Virginia Museum of History and Culture
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