Word comes from a Richmond newspaper that the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has decided to alter its arrangement with a chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans concerning the management of the Confederate War Memorial Chapel on the grounds of the VMFA. The SCV chapter will no longer lease the chapel: instead, it agreed to a “use agreement,” terms of which were not specified in the newspaper report.
I guess that answers this question.
The VMFA will take over interpretation of the chapel, and operate it during VMFA hours (securing increased availability for visitors).
No word yet on whether the once-vocal chief of heritage operations, Ben Jones, will respond to this news. We have pondered his silence concerning the VMFA and the chapel before. Maybe he doesn’t think it’s very important.
Otherwise, one suspects, all will remain as before. Clearly efforts to return the flags to the exterior of the chapel have encountered another roadblock. Indeed, if hearts and minds have been changed, it seems that the hearts and minds of people at the VMFA have become even more determined to pursue the course marked out in 2010.
Crossroads 