Virginia Museum of Fine Arts receives main reward of images

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) introduced on May 19, 2026, a serious reward of 1,986 pictures from Joy of Giving Something, Inc. (JGS), a nonprofit group dedicated to advancing the artwork of images and entry to photographic works and training. This donation to VMFA options essential pictures by greater than 450 artists and consists of practically 200 our bodies of labor created between the Nineteenth century and the current day.

“One of the extraordinary aspects of this gift is that it enables the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to explore the work of so many talented photographers,” mentioned Director and CEO Alex Nyerges. “Together, these wonderful works will strengthen our ability to present the rich history of photography in focused ways and augment opportunities for display and public programming in the museum’s five new photography galleries, which are scheduled to open in 2027 as part of VMFA’s expansion and renovation project.”

The pictures are drawn from the intensive holdings assembled by financier Howard Stein (1926–2011), who started to gather images within the Eighties and amassed one of the vital important collections of historic, trendy and modern images within the United States. In 1998, Stein based Joy of Giving Something, Inc., a not-for-profit group, to assist forward-thinking artwork tasks and youth training initiatives in images and associated media.

In 2017, JGS started inserting work from Stein’s assortment with choose museums throughout the United States. As a part of this distribution plan, in 2023 the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts acquired a serious reward of photographic portfolios and sequence, together with Paul Strand’s Photographs of Mexico (1940) and Larry Clark’s Tulsa (1980). The reward additionally included massive our bodies of labor by David Maisel (American, born 1961), Tanya Marcuse (American, born 1964), Raymond Meeks (American, born 1963) and Mark Steinmetz (American, born 1961), amongst others.

Following that reward, the JGS basis’s board elected to supply the museum the overwhelming majority of the remaining assortment. Among the highlights are a considerable group of works by Charles Marville (French, 1813–1879), uncommon daguerreotypes by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (French, 1804–1892), distinctive prints by Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884), Eugène Atget (French, 1857–1927) and Nadar (French, 1820–1910), and practically 200 Nineteenth-century vernacular and cased objects that reveal the inventiveness and social makes use of of early images.

Equally important is the reward’s depth in American images and documentary traditions. It consists of works by groundbreaking modernists corresponding to Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864–1946), Dora Maar (French, 1907–1997), László Moholy-Nagy (American, born Hungary, 1895–1946), and Man Ray (American, 1890–1976), in addition to seminal documentary figures together with Berenice Abbott (American, 1898–1991), Walker Evans (American, 1903–1975), Leonard Freed (American, 1929–2006), Dorothea Lange (American, 1895–1965), Mary Ellen Mark (American, 1940–2015), Arthur Rothstein (American, 1915–1985) and Margaret Bourke-White (American, 1904–1971).

The donation extends into the later twentieth century with essential work by Adam Fuss (British, born 1961), David Goldblatt (South African, 1930–2018), Gilles Peress (French, born 1946), Marc Riboud (French, 1923–2016), Fazal Sheikh (American, born 1965), Rosalind Fox Solomon (American, 1930–2025), and plenty of different photographers whose work broadens and complicates established narratives of photographic historical past.

“Through its breadth and depth, this gift significantly elevates the museum’s standing as a center for the study and presentation of photography,” mentioned Dr. Sarah Kennel, the Aaron Siskind Curator of Photography and Director of the Raysor Center for Works on Paper at VMFA. “It opens new directions for future collecting — particularly through greatly expanded holdings of 19th- and early 20th-century photography — and will serve as a cornerstone for exhibitions and rotations in the new photography galleries, offering visitors a richer and more inclusive view of the medium’s history across multiple voices and practices.”

In addition to increasing the museum’s holdings general, the donation of photographic works is accompanied by a big grant to assist the cataloging and housing of the gathering. VMFA is profoundly grateful to Joy of Giving Something, Inc. for its foundational assist of the museum’s images program.

“JGS is extremely pleased to make this landmark donation to VMFA. It is the largest donation that JGS has made to any museum or university across the country, and we are confident that it will complement and grow the major commitment the museum has already made to the field of photography,” mentioned Jeffrey Hoone, president of Joy of Giving Something. “We look forward to all the good things that stem from the donation in the years to come.”

Among a very powerful images collectors of the previous 50 years, JGS founder Howard Stein enthusiastically embraced the variety and creativity of the photographic medium, qualities which can be mirrored on this essential reward.

To study extra in regards to the museum’s everlasting artwork assortment, go to www.VMFA.museum.

About Joy of Giving Something, Inc.

Joy of Giving Something (JGS) is a basis based mostly in Syracuse, NY, that was based in 1998 by Howard and Janet Stein to assist artistic tasks in images and associated media that try and illuminate the influence of present-day occasions and discoveries on future situations. To accomplish this purpose, JGS makes grants to arts organizations that assist rising artists working in images and associated media and helps instructional packages in images and associated media for middle- and high-school-aged youth.

JGS has donated important parts of its assortment to museums and universities together with the Peabody Essex Museum, the Yale Center for British Art, Harvard Art Museum, Syracuse University, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Museum of the City of New York.

About the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, is without doubt one of the largest complete artwork museums within the United States. VMFA, which opened in 1936, is a state company and privately endowed instructional establishment. Its goal is to gather, protect, exhibit and interpret artwork, and to encourage the examine of the humanities. Through the Office of Statewide Partnerships Program, the museum presents curated exhibitions, arts-related audiovisual packages, symposia, lectures, conferences, and workshops by visible and performing artists.

In addition to presenting a wide selection of particular exhibitions, the museum gives guests with the chance to expertise a worldwide assortment of artwork that spans greater than 6,000 years. VMFA’s everlasting holdings embody greater than 50,000 artworks, together with the biggest public assortment of Fabergé exterior of Russia, the best assortment of Art Nouveau exterior of Paris and one of many nation’s best collections of American artwork. VMFA can also be residence to essential collections of Chinese artwork, English silver, French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, British sporting and trendy and modern artwork, in addition to famend South Asian, Himalayan and African artwork.

In May 2010, VMFA opened the James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing I after a transformative enlargement, beforehand the biggest in its historical past. A brand new enlargement, the McGlothlin Wing II, is scheduled to open in 2029. Comprising greater than 170,000 sq. toes, will probably be the biggest enlargement within the museum’s historical past and can make VMFA the fourth largest complete artwork museum within the United States.