Check out VMFA’s 2024 Black History Month programs in the schedule below. The museum offers year-round experiences with an extraordinary ever-expanding collection of African American art. Celebrate Black History Month with us and explore the depth and breadth of the museum’s collections, exhibitions, and events for all ages.
On View
EXHIBITION | Dawoud Bey: Elegy
Nov 18, 2023 – Feb 25, 2024
Mesmerizing and evocative, these 42 photographs and two film installations by contemporary American artist Dawoud Bey contemplate the harrowing journeys and human realities of the Virginia slave trail, Louisiana plantations, and Ohio’s Underground Railroad.
EXHIBITION | Theaster Gates: Wonder Working Power
Jan 27– Jun 30, 2024
This exhibition features ceramic works by Theaster Gates, a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist and professor dedicated to community transformation. He has called pottery “the magic of taking the lowliest material on earth— mud—and turning it into something beautiful and useful.
PERMANENT COLLECTION | African American Art
Discover VMFA’s growing collection of works by African American artists. The collection features masterpieces from early American to modern and contemporary artists.
INSTALLATION | RVA Community Makers
Celebrating its sixth year, RVA Community Makers is an annual community-activated art project presented by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and led by artist Hamilton Glass. The yearly project honors African American leaders from a variety of fields.
Events & Programs
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After 5 Fridays | Dance After Work: Taiko
Fri, May 17, 2024 | 6–8 pm
Robins Sculpture garden
Experience the spectacular Japanese tradition of taiko drumming, which dates back to the 6th century, with the River City Taiko Drummers. The performance starts at 6 pm.
Free; no tickets required.
More to Explore
VMFA Strategic Plan 2021–25
VMFA is always setting its sights higher and, guided by its latest Strategic Plan, striving to become a more vibrant, inclusive cultural leader.
Untitled (James River) (detail), 2023, Dawoud Bey (American, born 1953), gelatin silver print, 48 x 59 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Mrs. Alfred duPont, by exchange, 2020.168.9. Image © Dawoud Bey
Photo: Lyndon French. @ Lyndon French
The Former and the Ladder or Ascension and a Cinchin’ (detail), 2012, Trenton Doyle Hancock (American, born 1974), acrylic and mixed media on canvas. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Sydney and Frances Lewis Endowment Fund and Pamela K. and William A. Royall Jr. Fund for 21st-Century Art with funds contributed by Mary and Don Shockey Jr. and Marion Boulton Stroud, 2013.3 © Trenton Doyle Hancock