Good enough -- for now

The new VMFA sign will be half as tall as the original proposal called for, and a hi-def video screen will not be included -- for now, anyway. (Rendering courtesy VMFA)

Half a loaf is better than none.

With a major international exhibition of works by artist Pablo Picasso set to open Feb. 19, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has caved and decided that half a sign is good enough for right now.

The problem is that VMFA has a brand new wing, but there's no sign out front that tells you what this spectacular building is all about.

The original plan was for a 15-foot sign incorporating a lit-from-behind VMFA logo on a frosted acrylic panel, topped by a changing hi-def video screen announcing current exhibitions and events. With a reported price tag for the Picasso show of more than $5 million, the museum wanted out-of-towners to be able to easily find the museum.

State officials had approved the sign, but when the museum announced that it would be going up, a few members of the all-powerful Fan District Association predictably got their knickers in a knot and raised cane. Some members of the Museum District Association followed suit.

After a contentious meeting with neighbors and an apology from museum director Alex Nyerges, VMFA agreed to review its plans. The museum announced last week that it will be developing its Boulevard sign "in phases."

"A decision about the changing exhibitions component of the sign will be considered [later] and includes a variety of solutions such as lit-from-behind color transparencies and high resolution imaging," the museum said on its blog. (That's a cobbled-together sentence, but I suppose correct syntax is not a requirement in a PR statement.)

Installation of the revised sign on the Boulevard began last week. At least passers-by will now be able to identify the building, although they won't know what's going on inside.

There was nothing wrong with the museum's original sign proposal. As I noted in a previous blog on the topic, the museum is not noted for tacky solutions to problems. There was never a question, in my mind, that the original proposal would have resulted in a tasteful identification of the museum and its exhibitions.

The museum's grumpy neighbors should keep in mind that if they really are proud, as they claim, of the expanded VMFA and the cache it brings to their neighborhood -- and we can safely presume that the museum was one of the factors that made the area attractive to residents when they moved in -- they shouldn't object to letting everybody know what's there and what's on view.

Or are the few stentorian and disgruntled members of the two neighborhood associations determined that VMFA will be merely their little secret?

Having a world-class museum at your doorstep and then making out-of-town visitors hunt for it is just so very Richmond.