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University of Virginia Arts Milestones

  • 1919 The McIntire School of Fine Arts opens. Paul Goodloe McIntire, a former U.Va. student, donates $155,000 to found the school.
  • 1919 Professor Fiske Kimball becomes chairman of the newly established McIntire School of Fine Arts.
  • 1921 The McIntire Theater opens, built with a $120,000 donation from Paul G. McIntire.
  • 1924 The Virginia Players, a repertory theater group, including students and members of the University community, is formed.
  • 1933 Groundbreaking is held for the Thomas H. Bayly Art Museum, named for a University alumnus. It is built with a gift of $100,000 from Mrs. Louis May McLane Tiffany and a $38,000 federal grant.
  • 1938 Fayerweather Hall, formerly a gymnasium, is renovated and becomes the home of the School of Art and Architecture.
  • 1950 The McIntire School of Architecture splits from the College of Arts & Sciences. Thomas K. Fitz Patrick is named head of the school.
  • 1967 Frederick Hartt is appointed chair of the art department. One of the world’s foremost art historians, Professor Hartt had assisted in organizing the restoration of artwork in Florence after a devastating flood in 1966.
  • 1970 The Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library opens.
  • 1973 The Drama Building opens. Performers now have their own space on Grounds. Previous productions have been staged in Cabell Hall, Minor Hall, and the Rotunda.
  • 1974 The Heritage Repertory Theatre is formed as the Department of Drama’s and the University’s professional repertory theatre.
  • 1976 The American Institute of Architects Journal, the AIA, calls the Rotunda and Monticello “the proudest achievement of American architecture in the past 200 years” in its United States Bicentennial issue.
  • 1988 The Virginia Film Festival is founded with a gift from John and Patricia Kluge. Its mission is to promote filmmaking in Virginia.
  • 1990 The President’s Council for the Arts is created with Mortimer Caplin (College ’37, Law ’40) as its chair to assist in planning for an arts complex that would be financed by Commonwealth of Virginia funds. The state’s funding of universities drops sharply in the early 1990s, and this plan for the arts complex is set aside.
  • 1992 The President’s Council for the Arts assists drama department chair Bob Chapel in creating the Arts Dollars program for students.
  • 1996 The Virginia Film Festival moves under the umbrella of the College of Arts & Sciences.
  • 1999 The Timothy B. and Lisa Nelson Robertson Media Center opens in Clemons Library.
  • 1999 The first annual fund grant is made by the Arts Council to the University for a studio art building plan. This begins as an informal process of contributions from the Arts Council to advance areas of the arts at U.Va. The formal annual fund granting process is launched in 2003.
  • 2000 At the conclusion of the last capital campaign (1993–2000), $45.5 million was raised for the arts, triple the $15 million goal.
  • 2000 The Virginia 2020 Arts Planning Commission report recommends expansion and improvement of arts facilities and funds to attract new arts faculty and students as one of four major areas of future focus.
  • 2000 The Peter B. and Adeline W. Ruffin Foundation commits $5 million to a new studio art building.
  • 2000 Mary-Scott B. Birdsall (Curry ’66) and John H. Birdsall III (College ’66) commit $2 million to support graduate students in the arts.
  • 2000 Sandy Miller (College ’71) and Dorothy Batten (Darden ’90) become co-chairs of the Arts Council.
  • 2000 The media studies program is created.
  • 2002 The University receives a $5 million challenge gift from an anonymous donor to encourage support for the Arts Grounds, a complex of new and expanded facilities for the University’s arts programs.
  • 2003 The Arts Council makes its first formal annual fund grant awards.
  • 2004 Martha S. Lindner and Carl H. Lindner III make a $2.8 million gift to support the art history program. In recognition of the gift, the Carl H. and Martha S. Lindner Center for Art History at Fayerweather Hall is created.
  • 2005 The graduate program in the history of art and architecture replaces the separate Ph.D. programs in art history and architectural history at the University.
  • 2006 Ruth and Mortimer Caplin (College ’37, Law ’40) give $4 million to fund construction of a 300-seat thrust-stage theater as part of the renovation and expansion of the Drama Building.
  • 2006 Ground is broken for Ruffin Hall to house studio art.
  • 2006 The Fayerweather Hall renovation is completed. The building now houses the art history department and the Lindner Center for Art History.
  • 2006 Construction begins on Campbell Hall additions.
  • 2007 Media studies becomes a full-fledged department.
  • 2007 A new minor in dance is created in the drama department.
  • 2008 The Culbreth Road Garage opens.
  • 2008 Thanks to a $1.28 million gift from the Hunter Smith Family Foundation, the Marching Highland Cavaliers at the University of Virginia's College at Wise will soon have new uniforms, instruments, and an endowment for annual operations.
  • 2008 Longtime University of Virginia donor John Kluge and his wife, Tussi, donate sixteen Aboriginal paintings from their private collection to the University's Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection.
  • 2008 Ruffin Hall opens as the new home for the Studio Art program.
  • 2008 The Campbell Hall expansion for the School of Architecture is completed.
  • 2009 Bruce Boucher is named director of the University Art Museum.