Virginia Association of Museums’ Innovation Award.

The Montgomery Museum of Art and History is the 2023 recipient of the Virginia Association of Museums‘ Innovation Award. This prestigious award is given to one museum across the Commonwealth who demonstrates innovative and creative programming that brings impactful change to its community. The new program series, “The Art of Happiness” was selected for this award.

The “Art of Happiness” is a new, innovative art therapy program series designed to utilize museum spaces, exhibits, and materials as tools for experiential self-help and coping strategies. With generous support from the LewisGale Regional Health System (LewisGale Hospital Montgomery), this new series flourished as we saw high demand for this free community programming, which engaged individuals of all ages in the same space. The program offers avenues of art such as painting, sculpting, poetry, and more to raise awareness and enhance access to mental health resources through positive psychology. For more information on this program, please visit https://montgomerymuseum.org/arttherapy/

Thanks to the generous support from LewisGale Regional Health System (LewisGale Hospital Montgomery), the museum was able to expand its programming by offering additional sessions due to high demand.

A brief award ceremony and press conference will be held at the LewisGale Hospital Montgomery on Wednesday, March 22, at 9:30 a.m., located at 3700 S. Main St. Blacksburg, VA 24060. ALL are welcome to attend!

LewisGale Hospital Montgomery is proud to support this important work in a non-traditional space such as a museum. Thank you!