Montgomery Museum of Art and History preps for soft re-opening at new location

MONTGOMERY Co., Va. (WDBJ) - The Montgomery Museum of Art and History has officially moved into its new home.

The facility is now at 4 Main Street in downtown Christiansburg.

Volunteers have been adding finishing touches to the new 15,000-square-foot facility. The museum first opened in 1989 and it closed its Pepper St. location earlier this year.

Casey Jenkins, the executive director of the museum, says they’re excited about this new chapter.

“This is a space that we can be a premiere culture institution for Montgomery County and the New River Valley to a large extent. And we want to offer this as the communal living room to everybody that’s coming in. We want everyone to see themselves in what we’re doing in the fabric of this museum and offer up a service and accommodations to everybody, everybody that’s in our community,” said Jenkins.

The museum’s soft opening will be held June 22.

The day will begin with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting by the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce at 9 a.m. with brief remarks by the Chamber President, Mayor of Christiansburg, and Museum Director. Pastries and coffee will be served until 10:30 a.m.

During the event, a children’s bouncy house will be in the back parking lot, Wonder Universe: A Children’s Museum will be on-site with coloring books, and Story Time with Joelle will take place inside.

The fun continues through the afternoon to give way to a “bonus” happy hour at 4 p.m., which will signal the official opening of a free art show featuring 26 regional artists across the NRV. The meet-the-artist reception will cap off the day and run through 7 p.m.

Free wine and cheese will be available.

The show will be on display through the Summer, ending August 31. New history exhibits to be revealed include “Image of the Past,” “Time Travels,” and “Documenting History.” For more information on the artists, visit montgomerymuseum.org.

Throughout the day, the museum will collect donations for Give Local NRV. This year, donations will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $17,700. Donations can be made online at givelocalnrv.org/organization/Mmah.

Admission is free and parking is available behind the museum.