Less than ten months after announcing on Nov. 22, 2014, a $40 million capital campaign to expand and upgrade the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg as the top capital priority of its $600 million Campaign for History and Citizenship, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has raised $19.18 million, or 48 percent, of its goal. The major gifts have been pledged from across the country, proving that expanding the Art Museums is a meaningful and necessary component of fulfilling the foundation's mission both to strengthen and re-imagine its role in the 21st century as a leader in both historical preservation and history education.
The $40 million project represents the first large-scale expansion and upgrade of the building that houses both the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. When complete, the project will add 8,000 square feet of new gallery space to the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, as the two museums are collectively known, and greatly improve public access to the building.
To further support the Art Museums' expansion plans, the Cabell Foundation of Richmond, Va., has awarded the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation a $350,000 challenge grant for which it will match on a two-to-one basis new gifts totaling $700,000 pledged to the foundation from May 21, 2015, to June 30, 2016. The Cabell Foundation is widely recognized for leadership in guiding and supporting education, the arts and cultural opportunities. Through thoughtful philanthropy, directors of the Cabell Foundation have generously supported museum collections and exhibitions that reach beyond regional audiences.
"The pace of this campaign is exciting and invigorating and accentuates the fact that people from across the country value our national story, a story that continues to be told through our decorative arts, folk art, and programming," said Mitchell B. Reiss, president and CEO of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. "This support is amplified by the challenge offered by the Cabell Foundation, which provides us the opportunity to raise $700,000 toward a project that is central not only to Colonial Williamsburg, where it all started, but to our nation."
The major gifts committed to the project thus far come from donors across the country. In addition to generous giving from Virginia residents, donations have been pledged by supporters of the Art Museums in California, Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.
"Like so many other aspects of Colonial Williamsburg's educational offerings, the Art Museums have appeal far beyond the city of Williamsburg," said Ronald L. Hurst, the foundation's Carlisle H. Humelsine chief curator and vice president for collections, conservation and museums. "We are delighted by the fact that visitors to the Art Museums come from every state in the nation and many foreign countries on an annual basis. But the equally diverse origins of the support we have so far received for this enhancement is truly gratifying. These gifts-many of them in seven-figures-are yet another measure of the high value the public places on our collections, programs, and exhibitions."
The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, which attract more than 200,000 visitors annually, thus placing them among the 50 most visited art museums in America, boast internationally renowned collections of American folk art through the present day and of British and American fine and decorative arts from 1670-1830. These diverse, extensive collections play critical roles in Colonial Williamsburg's mission to inform and engage Americans in the dramatic story of their country's founding.
The plans for the 50,000-square-foot addition to the Art Museums include a new entrance that will replace a circuitous, partly-underground route through the reconstructed Public Hospital of 1773. The new gallery space, an increase of 22 percent, will enable the Art Museums to showcase much more of their renowned collections of furniture, paintings, silver, numismatics, ceramics, tools, textiles, maps, weapons, and other media and early American folk art.
Other improvements will include the following: a new lobby and orientation space overlooking the pastoral site of the John Custis House and Garden and a grand concourse that will provide access to both museums; enhanced programming and activities to engage visitors and an enhanced museum education studio; an expanded museum cafe and store near the entrance; new, expansive windows overlooking the picturesque Bicentennial Park, providing natural light for the museum cafe and store; space and equipment for efficient museum operations and exhibition presentations; and new and upgraded mechanical and climate-control systems.

New York-based architectural firm Samuel Anderson Architects has been selected to design the expansion. In 2006, the firm designed the space that now houses the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum when it moved from its previous location.
Colonial Williamsburg has evolved through the decades as a source of education and inspiration about the complex story of our nation's origins. To this day, visitors to the historic area walk the paths and visit the halls where revolutionary ideas and debate gave rise more than 230 years ago to revolutionary acts that changed the course of world history. Now, as Colonial Williamsburg embarks on its ambitious Campaign for History and Citizenship, it will use these investments to strengthen and expand the programs, staff, facilities and technological innovation necessary to advance the public's understanding of American history and the principles on which American citizenship is based.