Welcome to VMFA’s VIRTUAL Celebration
Celebrate African and African American Art: Art + Community Family Day
Jun 17–Jul 31, 2023.
Explore Our Virtual Celebration
While we are hosting our full Family Day event in person, we are also excited to share a virtual celebration online as well.
On the page below, you will find four buttons that will lead you to a variety of activities and resources. Have fun, explore, and let your imagination roam!
Interested in a Membership to VMFA?
Become a member and enjoy VMFA with your family 365 days a year! Join today with promo code FAMILY to receive two additional months of membership, plus a free gift.* Additional discounts are available for qualifying individuals. For more information visit VMFA.museum/membership or call 804.340.1520.
*Offer valid through 6/25/2023. Terms and conditions apply.
★ Presentations
Watch videos of artist demonstrations and presentations using the links below.
Benjamin Wigfall and Communications Village explores the founding of a community art space in Kingston, New York, in the 1970s where art-making and youth mentorship took place in an inclusive, vibrant setting. Watch
In Memory of Benjamin Wigfall
Watch
The Life and Work of Benjamin Wigfall
One-hour video from a 2017 Fireside Chat (from the Modern and Contemporary Art Series) with Linda J. Holmes, independent scholar and curator, and Dr. Sarah Eckhardt, VMFA’s Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.
Museum Leaders in Training: Conversation with Douglas Wilder
The 2017-18 Museum Leaders in Training (M.LiT) program focused on museum archival collections and documentation. Twenty-seven teens attended weekly sessions throughout the fall semester, which ranged from lectures that explored the various approaches to archiving across museum departments to hands-on workshops that illustrated the strategies professionals use when documenting and storing art and other media for preservation in a collection. Using interviews, scholarly research, online data, and other sources, teens worked together to document the life of Richmond African American artist Benjamin Wigfall and his experiences as a young artist living in the historic neighborhood of Church Hill.
Watch the full interview here to hear former Governor Wilder as he recalls his boyhood friendship with his Church Hill neighbor Benjamin Wigfall.
Explore this project and resources here!
Watch
Whitfield Lovell Artist Interview
In this video from The Phillips Collection, watch as Whitfield Lovell discusses becoming an artist at a young age.
Whitfield Lovell: Poetry
In this video from The Phillips Collection, watch as Whitfield Lovell his love of poetry.
Whitfield Lovell: Portraiture
In this video from The Phillips Collection, watch as Whitfield Lovell discusses his relationship with portraiture.
Explore More on VMFA Learn
Watch artist videos and engage with more art from around the world!
★ Art Activities
It’s time to make art! Check out the art activities listed below. Under each art activity title and description, you will find an activity resource document with instructions and a list of supplies needed to complete each project.
Learn more about Benjamin Wigfall and the Communications Village and then create your own community!
Be inspired by artist Whitfield Lovell and create your own portrait.
★ Virtual Gallery Activities
See works of art from the VMFA’s permanent collection, learn, explore, and participate in activities listed below.
At Home Activity: Shape Your City
Get inspired by artist Benjamin Wigfall and how he used simple shapes and colors to create abstract art.
Gallery Preview: Africa
VMFA’s collection of African art is one of the most comprehensive in the United States and features figures, masks, textiles, regalia, and ritual objects from more than 100 cultures throughout the continent. Click on the image in the link below for a virtual view of VMFA’s Arts of Africa Galleries.
Gallery Preview: Mid to Late 20th Century
VMFA’s Sydney and Frances Lewis Galleries showcase art made from the 1940s through the 2000s and feature paintings, sculpture, video art, prints, drawings, photographs, and collage. Like other galleries at the museum, objects on view change from time to time as curators rotate objects in and out of storage. This way, more of the collection can be shared with visitors, and new and interesting connections can be made between objects. Click on the link below to get a virtual view of the Mid to Late 20th-Century galleries.
Gallery Preview: 21st Century
These galleries contain works made by living artists who are exploring ideas about the world we share. Artworks from around the nation and globe feature a wide variety of materials, techniques, and ideas. Together, they provide a broad view of our contemporary world. Like other galleries at the museum, objects change from time to time as curators rotate them in and out of storage. This way more of this large collection can be shared with visitors, and new and interesting connections can be made between objects. Click on the link below to get a virtual view of the 21st-Century galleries.
I Am: Identity in African Art
What can the visual arts tell us about an individual or a community? This resource explores the concept of identity in traditional African art and culture by focusing on twelve objects that speak to various roles within a society. These objects represent cultural groups from different parts of the continent, reminding us of the diversity that exists across Africa.
Gaye Adegbalola “Front Porch Blues”
Virginia musician Gaye Todd Adegbalola was inspired by Romare Bearden’s collage “Three Folk Musicians” to create a musical composition. Here she talks about her process and the blues genre of music.
Interactive Exercise: Question into Monologue
Artworks can offer an opportunity to consider different perspectives. Artists are intentional about how they depict people alone or in groups. Spending time looking carefully at expressions, body language, and contextual clues in figural artwork can help students consider ideas about identity, community, and belonging. Use this interactive exercise to guide students as they explore a work by Kehinde Wiley, creatively document the ideas it presents to them, and consider how their thoughts connect with the artist’s own ideas and intentions.
VMFA Learn
Explore resources, watch artist videos, and engage with more art from around the world!
★ Explore More
VMFA Exhibitions
Learn more about our current and upcoming special exhibitions here!
Discovering VMFA’s Permanent Collection
Continue learning about and discovering all of the permanent collections VMFA offers.
Accessing VMFA’s Library
The Margaret R. and Robert M. Freeman Library of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is the oldest and one of the most extensive art resources in Virginia, with visual arts reference material that addresses virtually all the humanities. In addition to serving museum staff, it also acts as a non-circulating library for scholars, students, researchers, writers, and the general public. The library is open by appointment only. You can explore the library’s digital collections online.
Shop VMFA
The VMFA Shop searches the world to provide a diverse selection of unique jewelry, home accessories, toys, stationery, and books, focusing on merchandise related to the museum’s collections and exhibitions as well as educational items and works by Virginia artists.
Generously sponsored by
Celebrate the Art of Latin America: Colombia | Sep 9, 2023 | 11 am-3 pm