American Civil War Museum

The mission of The American Civil War Museum is to be the preeminent center
for the exploration of the American Civil War and its legacies
from multiple perspectives: Union and Confederate,
enslaved and free African Americans, soldiers and civilians.

To learn more go to: www.acwm.org

Virginia Holocaust Museum

The VHM first opened in 1997, founded by Mark Fetter, Jay Ipson, and Al Rosenbaum. Housed in the former Education building at Temple Beth El, the museum became an attraction for school field trips. Within a few years, the museum outgrew the space at Temple Beth El, and required additional room to handle the growing number of visitors and school groups.

The Virginia General Assembly offered the American Tobacco Company Warehouse for the relocation of the museum. After restoration and reconfiguration of the building, the expanded Virginia Holocaust Museum was dedicated on Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Day of Remembrance, 2003.

The Virginia Holocaust Museum has grown steadily since 2003, and now has an average of over 42,000 visitors each year. The VHM remains an important location for Virginia field trips, with students from over 100 middle and high schools visiting yearly.

The museum began an extensive ongoing exhibition renovation project in 2015. Much of the permanent exhibition had never been updated since opening in 2003, and the renovations serve to both update the information contained with newly uncovered facts and figures, as well as update the core exhibition space to professional standards. The VHM hopes these renovations will be completed by 2020.

To learn more go to: www.vaholocaust.org

Virginia Museum of the Fine Arts

History of the Museum

Serving Virginia, looking out to the world: The development of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
In the midst of the Great Depression, on January 16, 1936, Virginia’s political and business leaders bravely demonstrated their faith in the future and their belief in the value of art by opening the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. The English Renaissance-style headquarters building designed by Peebles and Ferguson Architects of Norfolk barely hinted at the innovative mandate given to the fledgling institution: the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was to serve as the state’s flagship art museum and as the headquarters for an educational network that would bring the best of world art, past and present, to every corner of the commonwealth.
The idea of a state-operated art museum in Richmond, and the beginnings of an unusual partnership between private donors and state legislators, actually surfaced long before the new museum was built. In 1919, Judge John Barton Payne, a prominent Virginian who held high offices in law and national politics, donated his entire collection of 50 paintings to the commonwealth. Gifts of art to the state from other donors soon followed, and in 1932 Judge Payne proposed a $100,000 challenge grant to build a museum for this burgeoning public art collection.
The challenge was accepted by Virginia Governor John Garland Pollard. He not only helped to raise funds from private donors, but also promoted the use of state revenues to support the new museum’s operating expenses. Virginia’s General Assembly approved legislation authorizing the museum on March 27, 1934. With additional funds from the Federal Works Projects Administration, Judge Payne’s dream became a reality.

To learn more go to: https://www.vmfa.museum/about/museum-history/

April - Virginia Things to Do

During the month of April, Let's Go Kids, LLC will be looking into places, people and things to do in and around the State of Virginia.

Share with us places you've been, or you would love to go?