Archive for month: October, 2014

Why am I having such a hard time writing this?

Why am I having such a hard time writing this?

Our director of public relations and marketing Domenick Casuccio (who has diligently put this message together each week) is ready and waiting for this last communication.

After 50 weekly updates, we are finally at opening week and I’m finding it difficult knowing exactly what to say.

Remarkably, we have been able to keep (relatively) calm as we hammered on for over a year.  

Our public programs staff has continued to serve the region with our education programs in schools. We have served more students in our outreach efforts that we did the previous year on-site.

Despite the chaos on the gallery floors below, our curatorial staff provided research access and care for the 1.6 million objects that have been entrusted to us by the community.

Even as the construction fences enveloped the block, our volunteers and visitor services staff never stopped giving tours of the 1812 John Wickham House and the Edward V. Valentine Scupture Studio. In fact, major new acquisitions were added to the house and a refreshed interpretative approach was introduced to provide information on the history of the museum and the Valentine family.  Weddings, special events and lunches from Sally Bell’s Kitchen all continued in the garden.

With the support of The Future of Richmond’s Past and TMI Consulting, our Community Conversations took us off Clay Street to explore the power of places across the city. From Shockoe Bottom to the Boulevard, we discussed the changing meanings of the city’s landscapes.

Bon Secours Richmond Health System and the Hollywood Cemetery Foundation kept us healthy by supporting our Richmond History Tours program. We offered almost 400 public walking tours that took people into undiscovered areas of the region, each with its unique histories.  (And that number doesn’t include the tours offered to schools and our step-on guide services.)

And all this, while the renovation created a new museum store and lobby, education center, exhibition galleries, and multi-purpose room. All of our spaces, including some fabulous new restrooms, are more welcoming to our visitors.  These incredible spaces will continue to serve future generations of the Richmond community.

We also planned a very exciting opening year. We will, through our programs and exhibitions in these new spaces, redefine and re-imagine the future of this very special place.

We open this week with “This is Richmond, Virginia.” The exhibition is built around the big questions (like “What do we value?”) that have echoed through Richmond’s history.  These questions are answered by objects from our diverse collections.

In January, we open our “Made in Church Hill” exhibition and begin this year’s Community Conversations. Both, generously funded by the Robins Foundation, will focus on communities that have experienced transitions over the past few years. The exhibition is a partnership with VCU, the University of Richmond, and Church Hill Activity Team (CHAT) who are collecting the stories of change in Church Hill.

Through our collaboration with Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME), this year’s series of conversations will include tours and other programming in selected Richmond neighborhoods to build our understanding of the changing demographics of the region.

There will be a unique photographic nod to the end of the American Civil War in March through a collaboration with the RVA Beard League and Terry Brown Photography.

Our first year of programming will close with the long awaited opening of our costume and textile galleries and the exhibition “Classical Allure” curated by our new Natalie L. Klaus Curator Kristen Stewart.  What a great way to end the first cycle of exhibitions and programs in our new place!

As we progressed through the year, and considered all of the new ideas for programs and exhibitions, we came to an important realization. Just like the city we love, this institution is hard to define.

With the support of our Board of Trustees and great research, we knew that we had to reaffirm what we always knew.

We are not just a gallery or a history museum, an historic house, a beautiful green space in downtown, or a walk through a Richmond neighborhood.

We are…plain and simple…The Valentine.

Hard to define but impossible not to love. We are the keeper of Richmond stories.

Okay…I’ve gone on way too long, but, as you can see, it has been an incredible year because of our incredible staff, volunteers, trustees and supporters. Many thanks to all of you!

It is now finally time to Keep Calm and Party On.

Bill Martin, Director
The Valentine

P.S. Join today and be part of the grand opening week celebrations (Oct 20-24). A donation of $250+ secures your spot at the special Wednesday night Grand Reopening Celebration.

   

It is a world of change and turmoil.

  

Ebola outbreaks, racial tension, religious intolerance and anti-Semitism, international conflict and war…I spent my Sunday morning with the New York Times, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and morning TV news.

It is a world of change and turmoil.

Somehow the normal weekend tasks of doing the laundry and straightening up the house didn’t seem necessary. But the day changed quickly when I stopped by the Valentine to meet with our staff (yes, they came in on a Sunday morning!) to talk about our Grand Re-Opening next week and my mood shifted.

I found an amazing group of people that are ready to welcome guests to the Valentine and to share their own stories of our city.

I took a quick walk through the new This is Richmond, Virginia exhibition and realized that Richmonders throughout history have faced all of the threats and challenges that assaulted me in yesterday’s news.

Our story is certainly not perfect, but I found in our exhibition powerful objects that challenge and inspire us and embody our best and worst moments.

There have always been Richmonders who have confronted and (sometimes) avoided the issues of their day and of their world.

It is sharing of these important stories that we have worked so hard over the last year to embody in the transformed Valentine.

At the end of the day, I walked through the crowds at the Richmond Folk Festival and, as music from all over the world filled the air, I saw a very different Richmond and I imagined a different world.

Richmond still has important stories to tell.

The Valentine tells these Richmond stories.

Bill Martin, Director
The Valentine 

P.S. Join today and be part of the grand opening week celebrations (Oct 20-24). A donation of $250+ secures your spot at the special Wednesday night Grand Reopening Celebration.

   

Now for the truth…

If you had asked me last week if we were going to be ready then I would have said that we were not going to make it. I do tend to be a “the glass is half empty” type of person.

Last Monday, as the first invitations to opening week activities were being mailed, I drove up Clay Street through the construction fences and the bustle of contractors and considered how we were going to get people into the building for Richmond History Makers and for the Grand Re-Opening events.

I worried whether we would be ready for our first school program in the new Sara D. November Education Center. Our first school group comes next week!

I wondered if our amazing new multi-purpose room would be available to host its first bride which was yesterday! (They were a very brave couple that booked their wedding over a year ago as the renovations began.)

We had a lobby without a desk to greet our visitors and no display cases for our new merchandise in the Valentine Store.

I even doubted that we could have the exhibition cases installed for the new exhibition This is Richmond, Virginia funded by Altria Group.

 

What a difference a week can make!
The glass is full thanks to magic from our friends at Kjellstrom+Lee and our remarkable staff!

Bill Martin, Director
The Valentine
P.S. Join today and be part of the grand opening week celebrations (Oct 20-24). A donation of $250+ secures your spot at the special Wednesday night Grand Reopening Celebration.