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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives
Margaret R. and Robert M. Freeman LibraryCourtney Yevich Tkacz, VMFA Archivist
The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.
The collection is open for research.
The collection is comprised of archival materials found in the VMFA Library's holdings. The collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in August 2004.
Records of Virginia Arts Organizations (SC-03). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.
The collection was initially processed in August 2004. A large accretion was processed in November 2005. During processing, original newspaper clippings were photocopied, with identifiers transferred, and incorporated into the vertical files in the Library collection.
On May 8, 1786, the Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts of the United States of America was founded in Richmond, Virginia, the first institution of its kind formed in the States. The establishment of the Academy was the result of a zealous young French soldier and scholar, the Chevalier Alexander Marie Quesnay de Beaurepaire, who landed in Portsmouth, Virginia in early March 1777. Quesnay lobbied for over ten years to see his Academy built and was finally rewarded on June 24, 1786 when the cornerstone for a gallery, museum, theater and school was laid at Academy Square by Richmond's Masonic Lodge No. 13. After the completion of the building later that year, and the opening of the Academy strictly for theatrical purposes on October 10, the Academy quickly started experiencing financial problems. Within months of the opening, Quesnay quietly slipped out of the country to return to France on a quest to secure further funding, and he spent the next two and a half years trying to enlist the support of members of Paris' learned societies. With the fall of the Bastille in July 1789 however, Quesnay was called upon to serve as a commander in the Parisian militia, surviving the revolution, but never to return to his Academy or even to America's shores. The Academy continued to serve as a center for drama until the building was destroyed by a catastrophic fire on January 23, 1798.
After one hundred and thirty years elapsed, it was Quesnay's Academy that many noted Richmond artists sought to revive in the early 1930s, when the Academy was resurrected in Richmond. Decades earlier, members of another Richmond art organization, the Art Club of Richmond, directed their attention towards this task and created an Academy Committee within the Club to promote interest in its revival. In the spring of 1917, the Committee began a fund-raising effort by selling subscriptions for a sum invested in Liberty Bonds, to be paid towards an Academy Fund. The continuing war effort stalled the project however and the Art Club passed out of existence. In 1919, the Virginia League of Fine Arts and Handicrafts was organized by Adele Clark and Nora Houston, and one of its main objectives was to restore the Academy, a movement which didn't gain real strength until 1924-1925, but finally resulted in the chartering of the Richmond Academy of Arts in 1930 "to resume and promote the cultural activities and purposes of the Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts of the United States of America." While all the while remaining true to the goals of fostering and preserving the artistic culture of Richmond, the new Academy was re-chartered in 1936 as the Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts, although it was known by both names until its charter was revoked and the organization went out of business in 1948, largely due to the Academy's failure to gain enough support to build an adequate facility, and its purpose was eventually subsumed into the mission of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Source: "Poet, Patriot and Pedagogue," by John G. Roberts, Arts in Virginia , Winter 1966
The collection's inclusive dates are 1888-1942, with the bulk of the material dating from 1931 and 1938. The collection is comprised of exhibition catalogs, correspondence, invitations, tickets, newsletters, bulletins and other ephemeral material.
The collection is organized into five series, and items are arranged chronologically within each series. Items with no date are placed at the end of a series.
This series is comprised of exhibition catalogs from various shows presented in Richmond and sponsored by different arts organizations from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in the decades before the revival of the Richmond Academy of Arts in 1930. In 1888, the statewide "Virginia Exposition" was held at the fairgrounds in Richmond and mainly showcased artifacts of historical significance. Judge John Barton Payne donated his entire painting collection to the state of Virginia in 1919, which formed the core of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' collection when it was founded. The Virginia League of Fine Arts was the successor to the Virginia League of Fine Arts and Handicrafts, and merged with the Academy just two years after their "First Municipal Art Exhibition of Richmond" in 1928.
The series is comprised mainly of exhibition catalogues from various shows sponsored by or shown at the Academy. Much of the material relates to the two Tournaments of Arts and Crafts, held in April of 1931 and 1932, and which proved to be wildly popular month-long programs of juried exhibitions and competitions in drama, music, literature, elocution and dancing. Several of the items in the series have been cut out of a scrapbook created by Sallie Leigh Cole sometime in 1931 (see Series 4 for Cole's notes). It is not known when or by whom the items were removed.
The series is comprised of correspondence, chiefly between Thomas C. Colt, Director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Captain W.M.F. Bayliss, Secretary of the Board of Trustees and later President of the Academy, who discussed the possibilities for a new home for the Academy in 1938, including the consideration of housing the Academy at the museum. Eventually, Colt convinced Bayliss that the museum and the Academy needed to remain two separate entities, while still supporting the Academy's mission and purpose. In 1940, the discussion turned to the topic of a Salon des Refuses, which presented paintings that were denied entry into the Third Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at the museum, an idea Colt strongly supported. Other correspondents include Thomas Singleton, Director of the Academy, Adele Clark, State Director of the W.P.A. Project, and Blythe Branch, Richmond resident and philanthropist.
The series consists of correspondence and notes relating to Sallie Leigh Cole, a local Richmond artist, and her relationship with the Academy in the early 1930s. In one letter she is invited to submit her artwork (media unknown) to a traveling exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints. Another letter notifies Cole that she is to serve as a hostess for the opening tea of the second Tournament of Arts and Crafts in 1932. Cole's notes outline the contents of a scrapbook that documented the early history of the Academy; her handwritten Foreword reads, "This scrapbook was assembled by the Art Appreciation Class of Richmond Normal School in the spring of 1931. An attempt has been made to collect and compile data of the history of the Richmond Academy of Arts from its beginning in 1786 through its revival in 1931. The members of the art class working on this scrapbook were"; the Foreword stops there. The scrapbook is no longer extant, although several of the items once glued into the book can be found in Series 1 of the collection. Cole also compiled information on French artist Charles Hoffbauer, who painted the murals "The Four Seasons at the Confederacy" at Battle Abbey in Richmond, which were completed in 1921. The series also includes a few items of unknown origin or relevance to Cole and the Academy, but were kept with the collection as they were discovered along with the other items.
The series is comprised of issues of the Southern States Art League Newsletter, a prominent regionalist artist organization, headquartered in New Orleans and in operation from 1922-1950, dedicated to promoting the cause and interests of Southern artists and the South through art. Holding annual conventions and exhibitions for almost every year of its 28-year existence, members of the League hailed from thirteen Southern states and the District of Columbia. Active membership was based upon the artist having been born in the South or a resident for two years, and in active practice of an artistic profession. It is unknown how many Richmond artists were members, but the Virginia Museum was a Sustaining Member, and in 1947, the League's annual exhibition of Southern artists was hung concurrently with the museum's annual exhibition of Virginia Artists, suggesting a strong link between Richmond and the League.