OVERVIEW:
The 3½-acre E. Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Garden will be the heart of the museum's campus when the VMFA expansion project is completed. The garden will include art, leisurely walkways, water features, stately trees, and flowers. The garden will partially cover a new and innovative 600-car parking deck tucked beneath a terraced, landscaped slope designed for sculpture display. The garden, which will replace a surface-parking lot, will bring part of the museum's excellent collection and programming outside and provide memorable experiences of public art in a new environment of changing light, climate and seasons.

Other landscape features of the VMFA campus will include an entrance plaza, providing easy museum access to pedestrians, motorists and buses. The plaza will offer ample drop-off space for visitors near the entrance and access to the adjacent parking deck. A special entrance for schoolchildren arriving by bus provides direct access to the museum and to the Art Education Center. Bus parking will be adjacent to the parking deck. Ramps from all levels of the parking deck to the entrance will provide direct access to the museum.

PHASE 1:
The Robins Sculpture Garden and other landscape elements of the campus will be completed in two phases. Phase 1, which includes the entrance plaza and the northern end of the Robins Sculpture Garden near the new VMFA entrance, is scheduled to open in May 2010 in tandem with the Grand Opening of the James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing. About a dozen works from the VMFA permanent collection and a small number of long-term loans will be installed in the sculpture garden. Installation of sculpture is expected to begin in the spring of 2010.

In July 2010, a series of exhibitions will begin, featuring international, national and regional artists as a key focus of the garden.

PHASE 2:
Phase 2 is scheduled for completion later in 2010 or early 2011. Phase 2 is the portion of the Robins Sculpture Garden to the south, near the present temporary entrance to the museum. Phase 2 construction will begin in May 2010 when the new museum entrance opens and the temporary entrance can be closed.

THE VMFA COLLECTION:
The VMFA permanent collection includes approximately a dozen large-scale works suitable for outdoor display (see listing below). Many - along with works lent by other museums and artists' estates - will be installed for Phase 1. These outdoor works span half a century, from the 1930s to the 1980s. They represent a broad range of movements and styles and include examples by some of the best-known sculptors of the period, such as Henry Moore, Aristide Maillol and Arnaldo Pomodoro.

EXHIBITIONS:
The first temporary exhibition in the garden will feature colossal sculpture by master ceramicist Jun Kaneko (born 1942). His works will be displayed in the center of the garden. Kaneko is an internationally renowned Japanese-American artist based in Omaha, Neb. He is designing an installation that will include one of his monumental heads - 8.5 feet tall and weighing three tons - reminiscent of figures found on Easter Island, and at least 8 of his dangos, which are slender, 9-foot-tall, totem-like forms. Kaneko's works have been chosen for the inaugural exhibition for their sensational physical presence and stunning beauty. They also make fascinating connections to the history of monumental public sculpture, to ancient Shinto concepts, to traditional ceramic techniques, and to industrial manufacturing processes. The exhibition will be on display for approximately six months.

By bringing sculpture and programs outdoors, VMFA will have a fresh opportunity to make art immediately visible, accessible, inviting and inspiring, helping to beautify and enliven part of the city's Museum District and raising awareness and appreciation of outdoor sculpture.

Olin Partnership served as landscape architecture consultant to Rick Mather + SMBW for the site design and the Robins Sculpture Garden. Daniel & Co. is the contractor.

SCULPTURES:
Among works from the VMFA permanent collection under consideration for exhibition in the Robins Sculpture Garden:

Arman (Armand Fernandez)
French, 1928-2005
Captain Nemo's Accumulation

Bryan Hunt
American, born 1947
Conductor, 1982

Anna Hyatt Huntington
American, 1876-1973
Fawns Playing, 1936

Seymour Lipton
American, 1903-1986
Oracle, 1966

Aristide Maillol
French, 1861-1944
La Riviere, 1938-43

Oronzio Maldarelli
American, 1892-1963
Bianca, No. 2, 1951

Carl Milles
Swedish, 1875-1955, active in the United States
Small Triton Fountain, 1916

Henry Moore
English, 1898-1986
Reclining Figure (Exterior Form), 1953-54

Henry Moore
English, 1898-1986
Working Model for Locking Piece, 1962

Arnaldo Pomodoro
Italian, born 1926
Rotating Sphere, 1968-69

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
American, 1875-1942
Daphne, 1933

EXPANSION OVERVIEW:
The VMFA expansion Grand Opening is May 1, 2010. The new James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing is now sealed and protected from the elements, allowing interior work to proceed. Key features of the expansion project:

• Some 165,000 square feet will be added to VMFA's pre-existing 380,000 square feet.
  
  
• The new atrium in the wing, a triple-height "main street," will connect the new building with two existing wings and open onto a new library, museum shop and café and onto galleries. Its innovative glass roof will deliver natural light to this central area and surrounding spaces.
  
  
• A 40-foot-high glass wall overlooking the Boulevard will signal the purpose of the museum from the outside by showcasing works of art and revealing public activity within.
  
  
• A glass beacon, enclosing a stairwell on the north façade, will draw attention to the main entrance and glow softly at night.
  
  
• A new plaza facing eastward will create a new main entrance to the museum visible from the Boulevard.
  
  
• The wing will provide expanded gallery space for VMFA's art collections and major exhibitions
  
  
• A new school-bus tour entrance from the plaza will accommodate more school groups and lead to children's studios, resource rooms and a gallery.

To download images click on the link of your choice. When the image is displayed...

MacOS: Click-Hold over image and choose "Save Image As..."
Windows: Right Click over image and select "Save Image As..."

preview download high-resolution image

CAPTION: "Reclining Figure (Exterior Form)" is a 1953-54 sculpture in bronze from the VMFA collection by Henry Moore (English, 1898-1986). (Photo by Travis Fullerton, © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

preview download high-resolution image

CAPTION: Jun Kaneko's "HEAD from the Mission Clay - Pittsburg Project," 2004-2007 is made of glazed ceramic and stands 10 feet 5 inches tall. (Photo by Dirk Bakker)

preview download high-resolution image

CAPTION: Sandro Chia (Italian, born 1946) created
"Man and Vegetation" in 1983. (Photo by Katherine Wetzel, © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

preview download high-resolution image

CAPTION: Arnaldo Pomodoro (Italian, born 1926) created "Rotating Sphere" in 1968-69. The bronze sculpture is in the VMFA collection. (Photo © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

preview download high-resolution image

CAPTION: This drawing depicts the walkway through the sculpture garden as it will appear looking north from Grove Avenue along the west side of the expanded museum. (Rendering © Rick Mather Architects)