‘Abby Aldrich Museum’ Celebrates 50th Birthday

Williamsburg, Va.

:When the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum (AARFAM) opened at Colonial Williamsburg in 1957, it was the first museum in the world dedicated solely to American folk art.

With a guide written by Boston collector and amateur scholar Nina Fletcher Little, the 424-piece assemblage gathered by Rockefeller, a founder of New York City's Museum of Modern Art and the wife of John D. Rockefeller Jr, became a touchstone for folk art enthusiasts everywhere. A half century later, the collection has grown nearly tenfold and is rich in objects such as textiles, pottery, painted furniture and toleware that Rockefeller herself, an enthusiast of paintings and sculpture, all but overlooked.

In honor of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum's 50th birthday, its holdings have been moved to new quarters within Colonial Williamsburg, the museum of early American life that John D. Rockefeller Jr helped create in 1926.

Construction of the new museum, located in the former garden of the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, began in late 2004. The facility was designed by Samuel Anderson Architects of New York City and funded in part by a $1 million grant from the Gladys and Franklin W. Clark Foundation.

"Museum visitation had been dropping, partly because of AARFAM's location, which was well off and south of Colonial Williamsburg's historic area. The original museum building, constructed in 1957 and expanded in 1992, was increasingly surrounded by hotel facilities," explains Carolyn J. Weekley, the Juli Grainger director of museums at Colonial Williamsburg.

AARFAM's new location is more efficient for staff operations, provides more flexible gallery space and gives AARFAM access to the Hennage Auditorium and Museum Café at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.

"From a programming standpoint, these are huge benefits," says Weekley.

Featuring 11 new exhibitions, the galleries at the intersection of Francis and South Henry Streets will open to the public this weekend, February 3–4. The debut coincides with the 59th annual Colonial Williamsburg Antiques Forum, February 4–8, this year dedicated to "The Arts of the American South."

Guests enter the museum through the 1773 Public Hospital. Exploring a variety of themes, the new exhibits include beloved favorites as well as recent accessions, among them portraits by Joseph H. Davis of a Dover, N.H., man and his wife, and three watercolors attributed to Charles Burton depicting Richmond, Va., sitters. There are also spaces dedicated to the display of textiles and works on paper.