"Here we are!"

Hats off to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and to the "irreverent friend" who sent VMFA an image of an "alternative sign" (above) for the museum's front lawn. The spoof sign, posted on the VMFA blog, evokes a Holiday Inn aesthetic, and I'm delighted to see that the museum is letting its humorous side shine through.

When the museum announced its plan for a sign to accompany its new $150-million wing, it was as though the fox had been set loose in the henhouse. The sign would be 15 feet tall and feature an eight-foot wide video screen with static images promoting special exhibitions and events. (You can see the real sign proposal by clicking here.)

The museum's plan for marking its presence on the Boulevard is in keeping with the design of the new wing, of which the neighborhood seems to be quite proud. But there are those fussbudgets who live in the Fan District and the Museum District who call it garish and inappropriate.

Poppycock.

The sign was developed well after I retired in April of last year, so I wasn't involved at all in its creation, but I do know this: In my 33 years there, nobody ever accused the museum of being tacky. Good taste at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts? That's pretty much a given.

The proposed sign is tasteful, even impressive, and just as contemporary as some of the art inside. With the blockbuster exhibitions now on its schedule, VMFA needs some way to let out-of-town visitors -- and there will be many of them -- know, in effect, "Here we are!"

I live about a mile and a half from the museum, and I drive by on the Boulevard almost daily. I think the few grumpy neighbors who oppose the sign should reflect instead on the cache and status and the intellectual opportunities that the august and accessible VMFA brings to their districts. It's safe to assume the museum was one of the reasons they chose to live where they live. The museum has been a good neighbor since 1936, when it opened. And that's not to mention the great economic opportunities that the museum creates for the city and the commonwealth.

And congratulations, also, to VMFA for having the guts to poke fun at its own mini-crisis on its blog.