Our Next Speaker

Alex Nyerges, Director and CEO, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; "VMFA's Expansion and Renovation Projects"

Alex Nyerges  serves as the Director and Chief Executive Officer of the VMFA.  Serving as director since 2006, he has spearheaded major strategic initiatives to make the museum more accessible, diverse, and inclusive.  

He oversaw a massive 165,000-square-foot expansion completed in 2010 and is currently leading a new $190 million campus expansion featuring the upcoming McGlothlin Wing II. He has curated and hosted historic, high-profile exhibitions, including a landmark 2010 Picasso showcase that broke all museum attendance records and the 2025 exhibition on American photographers born in Hungary, including Robert Capa and Andre Kertes.

Currently the chair of the Program Committee of the Association of Art Museum Directors, he has nearly 40 years of experience as an art museum director.  Nyerges came to VMFA from the Dayton Art Institute.  Before his assignment in Ohio, Nyerges held positions as executive director for the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson and at the De Land Museum of Art in Florida. He is an award-winning photographer, photo historian, and author whose work has been exhibited globally.

A native of Rochester, New York, Alex graduated from George Washington University in Washington, DC with a master's degree in museum studies. His wife Kathryn Gray is a former musician and performing arts manager and artist who maintains a studio at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. They have a son, Robert Nyerges, who is a filmmaker in Los Angeles.