There is much to see and do at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. During your visit, explore permanent collections that span the globe and the history of creative achievement and special exhibitions, dine in one of the museum’s two restaurants and visit the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Shop.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Collection
Explore the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts permanent collection of 33,000 works of art from almost every world culture. Highlights of the museum’s holdings include its collections of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Modern and Contemporary American art donated by Sydney and Frances Lewis. French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art and British sporting art given to the museum by Mr. and Mrs Paul Mellon is also of great importance. Other notable works belonging to the museum include American art the museum acquired through the J. Hardwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund, The Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection by Peter Carl Fabergé and The Jerome and Rita Gans Collection of English Silver. The Virginia Museum of Fine Art also holds one of the finest collections of South Asian, Himalayan and African art in the United States.
Exhibitions
Race, Place and Identity
Race, Place and Identity is an exhibition that facilitates conversation about civil rights and social justice. Made possible by the efforts of eight Richmond-based arts and cultural organizations partnering together, highlights of Race, Place, and Identity explore topics from photographs of the culture of resistance during the 1960s to how African and African American beauty has been represented in historical and contemporary contexts.
Early 20th Century European Art
Early 20th Century European Art brings together works from the collections of Ludwig and Rosy Fischer and T. Catesby Jones for the first time. In the T. Catesby Jones Collection, greatly representing leading figures in French art, you can delight in works by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. In the Fischer Collection, one of the last great refugee collections to enter a museum in America, are outstanding examples of German Expressionism including works by Ernst Ludwig and Otto Müller.
Native American Art: The Robert and Nancy Nooter Collection
Artifacts in the museum’s Native American Art exhibition come from Robert and Nancy Nooter’s private collection. See a intricately carved Tlingit raven rattle, a beautifully decorated River Crow war shirt, ceramic vessels from the Acoma and Hopi Pueblos, baskets woven by Pomo and Apache artists and brilliantly bright Navajo textiles.
Visions from the Congo: Ancestral Contact
Visions from the Congo: Ancestral Contact captures the vitality of Congolese art from the past and demonstrates the inspiration it provides to artists in the present. This two-part installation includes four sculptures by artists from the Pende culture, of the Congo’s Kwilu and Kasai regions in its first section and life-size sculptures by contemporary African American artists Renée Stout and Alison Saar in its second section.
Restaurants at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Enjoy a snack or lunch at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ Amuse Restaurant or Best Café. Named “Restaurant of the Year” by Style Magazine in 2011 and “2011 Best New Restaurant” by Richmond Magazine, Amuse Restaurant offers a seasonal menu with a focus on local ingredients. For more casual fare visit Best Café serving sandwiches, salads, soups and speciality pizzas.
Shopping in Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Shop
Visit the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Shop and browse through 3,500 square feet of merchandise. A diverse selection of unique jewelry, home décor, toys, stationery and books support the museum’s collections and exhibitions as well as educational items and works of art made by local artists is available to purchase.
- In addition to its ongoing exhibitions, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art presents special exhibitions.
- Cameras and videos are permitted in the museum’s permanent collection galleries only. The use of tripods, flash and artificial light is not allowed.