It’s been 65 years since the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts did something no other museum in the world had tried – putting part of its collection on board a truck so people in distant communities could see original paintings and other works of art. Now, the museum is poised to start the engine on Artmobile 2.0.
When Jeffrey Allison was six years old, he had an inspiring experience.
“I grew up in Saltville, Virginia, nowhere near an art museum in those days and still not very close to one," he recalls. "My aunt came to my house, and she said, ‘Jeffrey, I’m going to take you to an art museum!’ And I thought we were going to pack our bags and go to New York City, because that’s what I knew from watching television, and she drove me about 15 minutes and stopped, and I said, ‘Hmmm.’ I got out to find this huge truck, and it said Virginia Museum of Fine Arts outside.”
What he found inside was thrilling, and many years later – after winning two fellowships from the VMFA -- Allison would become its manager of statewide programs. In that role, on October 30th, he’ll launch a new artmobile in Fredericksburg.
“We are the state art museum of Virginia, and our goal is to reach every citizen of the Commonwealth, and it doesn’t matter if you live in Wise, Virginia or if you live across the street from the museum on Grove Avenue in Richmond. We want to share your art, because it belongs to you, and our educational programming with everyone,” he explains.
Stops will include the Taubman Museum in Roanoke, the King Museum in Abingdon, PVCC in Charlottesville and a number of schools and universities statewide.
Click here for more about Artmobile 2.0
Allison hopes it will help others to discover that creativity can take you anywhere you want to go.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is a financial supporter of RadioIQ.
