Join the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month! VMFA proudly serves diverse communities in the greater Richmond area and throughout the Commonwealth. To honor its commitment to inclusion of people of Hispanic heritage and the broader Latinx community, VMFA continuously expands its offerings of educational and cultural experiences to include Spanish-language resources as well as programs that celebrate the artistry and cultures of Latin America.

The following resources reflect the museum’s ongoing efforts to include Spanish-speaking audiences and offer only a glimpse of the ever-growing lineup of content and experiences that VMFA continues to develop.

Beyond the Label

Go “beyond the label” with 13 Spanish-language audio tours of VMFA’s permanent collection.

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Learn Resources

Check out eight Spanish-language resources, including fun and educational activities and guides, in the Learn section of VMFA’s website.

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Family Day | In-person Sep 11 & Virtual through Oct 31

This Latin America–themed Family Day celebrates the art and culture of Puerto Rico with art activities, live performances, and much more. Virtual content will be available from September 11 through the month of October.

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First Friday | Oct 1

VMFA After 5 Fridays presented by Chase celebrates First Friday with the music of Puerto Rican–born orchestra Kadencia.

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Dance After Work | Oct 15

Join us for salsa night when VMFA After 5 Fridays presented by Chase invites you to Dance After Work.

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YouTube Playlist

Visit VMFA’s YouTube channel for this playlist of educational and entertaining videos. Learn about artists, watch an art activity, and enjoy musical and dance performances.

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Man Ray: The Paris Years

After Hispanic Heritage Month ends, return to VMFA to see the exhibition Man Ray: The Paris Years. The exhibition, which opens October 30, will be presented in English and Spanish. VMFA is committed to representing the cultural and linguistic diversity of our community and to creating a more accessible, inclusive, and welcoming experience for all.

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Join acclaimed writer and journalist Arthur Lubow and Dr. Michael Taylor, curator of VMFA’s exhibition, Man Ray: The Paris Years, for a conversation about Man Ray’s life and work in connection with Lubow’s new biography, Man Ray: The Artist and His Shadows (2021, Yale University Press, Jewish Lives series). Following the conversation, Lubow will sign copies of Man Ray: The Artist and His Shadows, which is available for purchase in the VMFA Shop. This program is timed to coincide with the museum’s special exhibition, Man Ray: The Paris Years.

Sponsored by

This lecture focuses on the innovative portrait photographs that Man Ray (the pseudonym of Emmanuel Radnitzky) made in the French capital between 1921 and 1940. In the early decades of the 20th century, Paris became famous as a powerful and evocative symbol of artistic freedom and daring experimentation, drawing a large number of artists, architects, composers, dancers, fashion designers, filmmakers, musicians, and writers. Shortly after his arrival in July 1921, Man Ray embarked on a sustained campaign to document the international avant-garde in Paris in a series of remarkable portraits that established his reputation as one of the leading photographers of his era. Man Ray’s portraits went beyond recording the mere outward appearance of the person depicted and aimed instead to capture the essence of his sitters as creative individuals, as well as the collective character of Les Années folles (the crazy years) of Paris between the two world wars.

Sponsored by

The collection of European paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts given to VMFA by Paul and Rachel Mellon constitute an essential facet of the museum’s identity. The galleries dedicated to this unique constellation of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, sporting art, and Jean Schlumberger jewelry have been completely redesigned and will open to the public this autumn. These gallery spaces will renew the discourse around this wide-ranging collection, incorporating the directives of contemporary museology while remaining respectful to the donors’ vision for their collection. Join Dr. Sylvain Cordier, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art, for a discussion of the specific motivations and principles that guided this ambitious reconceptualization of the Mellon Collection’s display.

If you cannot attend in person, please register for the livestream of this program here! This program is being recorded and will be posted to the VMFA YouTube channel at a later date. Masks are required of all participants, regardless of vaccination status, while in Leslie Cheek Theater. Please read more about our COVID-19 protocols here.

Welcome to VMFA’s
VIRTUAL FAMILY DAY EVENT
Celebrate the Art of Latin America: Puerto Rico

Sep 11, 2021 – Oct 31, 2021

En Español

Exploring Our Virtual Event

Welcome to Celebrate the Art of Latin America: Puerto Rico Family Day!

This year, we are excited to host both our virtual and in-person Family Day event (taking place at VMFA on Sep 11, 2021 from 11 am to 3 pm).

We are delighted that you have joined us online for this VIRTUAL Family Day!

On the event page below, you will find four buttons that will lead you to a variety of activities, performances, and resources. Take your time and check out everything. These activities and presentations will be available to access through October 31, 2021.

Maybe you would like to watch performances and presentations, or create your own work of art? These types of activities, resources, and more are listed below. Have fun, explore, and let your imagination roam!

Performances & Presentations

Art Activities

Virtual Gallery Activities

Explore More

Tell us about your experience!
We would love your feedback on our virtual Family Day event! Click here to fill out the survey after you have explored our event.

★ Performances & Presentations

Sit back and watch incredible performances and demonstrations! Follow the links provided below to view all presentations.

Latin Ballet of Virginia Presents NuYoRican

Founded in 1997 in Richmond, Virginia, under the direction of Ana Ines King, a native of Colombia, the Latin Ballet of Virginia is Central Virginia’s pre-eminent Hispanic dance company that enriches and connects communities through Latin/Hispanic cultural dance experiences with a commitment to education, diversity, and accessibility, providing multicultural dance programs and performing throughout the State and at select venues in North and South America.

Through historical facts “NuYoRican” expresses the deepest love of the Puerto Rican people towards its patria and captures the essence of Puerto Rico’s Spanish and African roots with dances like La Plena y La Bomba, as well as Mambos, Salsa, Latin Jazz, and Reggaeton.

View Part 1

View Part 2

Entre Puerto Rico y Richmond: Women in Resistance Shall Not Be Moved

The dance film “Entre Puerto Rico y Richmond: Women in Resistance Shall Not Be Moved” links interrelated histories of racism and colonial capitalism in Virginia and Puerto Rico. Filmed in a former American Tobacco Company warehouse, the film honors the spirit of resistance and liberation of Black female tobacco stemmers who worked in segregated facilities in Richmond and invokes Puerto Rican tobacco factory readers and radical activists Dominga de La Cruz Becerril (1909-1981) and Luisa Capetillo (1879-1922), as inspiration for the present. The film is bilingual (Spanish and English) with subtitles and combines biography, poetry, and ritual, with the energy of live performance.
“Entre Puerto Rico y Richmond: Women in Resistance Shall Not Be Moved” was directed by Alicia Díaz and co-created with dramaturg Patricia Herrera, dance artists Christine Wyatt and Christina Leoni-Osion, interdisciplinary artist Luis Vasquez La Roche, percussionist Héctor “Coco” Barez, actor/singer Yaraní del Valle, and produced and edited by David Riley. Videography by Departure Point Films. Color and Sound correction by Digital Fruit Snax.

Commissioned for the 2020 exhibit “Commonwealth” at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU (ICA@VCU) in collaboration with Philadelphia Contemporary and Beta Local (Puerto Rico). On view Sep 12-Jan 17, 2020. Curators Stephanie Smith and Noah Simblist. Additional support from The University of Richmond.
Year: 2020
Runtime (min): 17:21
View the Trailer
Learn More

View the Video

Virginia Hispanic Foundation
Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15th through October 15th each year and celebrates the history and contributions of Hispanics and Latinos. At this year’s Family Day, the Virginia Hispanic Foundation joins the VMFA to discover and explore the culture of Puerto Rico in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. Often called an island, Puerto Rico is actually an archipelago, which is a chain of islands. Here are some more fun facts about Puerto Rico you might not have known! Learn more about the Virginia Hispanic Foundation’s Que Pasa Festival here.

Click to learn some fun facts!

★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.

Shape your own Pendant
Create a Taino pendant inspired by Taino rock carvings!

Click to Download Instructions

Create a Bioluminescent Jellyfish
Create a colorful jellyfish inspired by the sea creatures in Puerto Rico’s bioluminescent bay!

Click to Download Instructions

Construct a Guiro
Create a Guiro inspired by music from Latin America!

Click to Download Instructions

Create a Lantern with 1708 Gallery
Using supplies and materials you have at home, follow Kerry Mills at 1708 Gallery to create a bottle lantern. Bring your lantern to InLight 2021!

1708 Gallery is a nonprofit arts organization founded by artists in 1978. Their mission is to present exceptional new art. 1708 Gallery is committed to providing opportunities for artistic innovation for emerging and established artists and to expanding the understanding and appreciation of new art for the public.

What is InLight?

InLight is 1708’s annual public exhibition of contemporary art. InLight takes place at night and each year is in a different location in Richmond. InLight features multimedia, sculpture, installation, performance, community-based works, and virtual projects that utilize light-based platforms (projections, lighting design, and more) to be experienced in the dark. Past sites include Chimborazo Park, the streets, facades and alleyways of the downtown Arts District, and the sculpture garden and grounds of the VMFA.

InLight 2021 will occur November 12 and 13 at Great Shiplock Park, Chapel Island, and nearby sites along the Virginia Capital Trail and Low Line in Richmond. Great Shiplock Park is located at a former shiplock constructed as part of the James River and Kanawha Canal system. Artists are invited to propose projects that engage with and expand upon the multiple themes and histories that can be found at these sites, such as trade and labor of then-enslaved peoples of African and Indigenous descent during and following the industrial revolution, the environmental impact—especially concerning water resources—of commerce and infrastructure, and the cultivation of spaces for alternative forms of historical preservation.

★Virtual Gallery Activities

See works of art from the VMFA’s permanent collection, learn, explore, and participate in activities listed below.

Interactive Exercise: Be the Artist
Artworks can offer an opportunity to consider creativity in places and times that may be different from our own. Spending time to look carefully at the form, imagery, texture, and patterns of a work of art can help students consider and become curious about the materials and techniques, artistic conventions, and cultural contexts of unfamiliar objects. Use this interactive exercise to guide students as they examine an Ancient American work of art, document the ideas it presents to them, and consider how their thoughts connect with what we know about the artist’s own ideas and intentions.

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Writing to Learn: Words in their Mouths and Thoughts in their Heads
Use speech and thought bubble templates to activate critical thinking and inspire learners to creatively consider different points of view.

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Thematic Exploration: Portraits
Explore the different ways artists represent individuals in portraits and see what we can learn about the time period in which they were created, the lives of the subjects, and the thoughts of the artists.

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Writing to Learn: Haiku
Use an artwork as a prompt for a haiku poem. This activity enables students to activate their imaginations, gives them a framework for connecting personally with art, and their critical observation skills.

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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 to look 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.

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Gallery Hunt: Emergence of a Global Age: 1500-1800
Transoceanic voyages during the European Age of Discovery connected the Eastern and Western hemispheres as never before. Changing patterns in long distance trade created the beginnings of an interdependent global economic system. The growth of new trade networks facilitated the movement of goods, people, technologies, and ideas. This cultural exchange will change economic, political, and social systems around the world. Travel through the VMFA galleries to see examples of an increasingly interconnected world!

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Gallery Preview: Ancient American Art
Before your visit to VMFA, introduce your students to the galleries. Let them explore the space and imagine what they can find there!

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Little Eyes Look: Bloodline: The Matriarchs by Holly Wilson
Join a VMFA Early Childhood Educator for a children’s guided contemplation of Lineage: The Matriarchs, by Holly Wilson.

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Little Hands Create: Leaf Prints
Create colorful stamps using leaves and paint.

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★Explore More

Discovering VMFA’s Permanent Collection
Learn about and discover all of the permanent collections VMFA offers.

Make sure to check our our upcoming exhibitions, including:
Ansel Adams: Compositions in Nature – ON VIEW FROM SEPTEMBER 25, 2021–JANUARY 2, 2022
Man Ray: The Paris Years – ON VIEW FROM OCTOBER 30, 2021 – FEBRUARY 21, 2022

See the Collection

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.

To help limit the risks of COVID-19, the Margaret R. and Robert M. Freeman Library space is currently being redesigned to ensure public safety and to maintain physical distancing. The library is open by appointment only. You can explore the library’s digital collections online. For reference assistance, please contact the library at library@vmfa.museum or 804.340.1495

Learn More

See the Library Collections

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.

Explore the Shop

VMFA Learn
Explore resources, watch artist videos, and engage with more art from around the world!

Learn More

Exploring e-Books
Interested in exploring and assessing free e-books through your local library? Check out apps such as Hoopla and The Libby App (OverDrive) that will connect you with e-books for a virtual reading experience. Please note: you need a library card to access e-books and other resources on these apps.

Learn more about Hoopla

Learn more about the Libby App

Conservation at VMFA

Join Painting Conservator Meredith Watson in the VMFA Conservation Department as she discusses the study and treatment of Consume #2, 1969. The painting is a round abstract oil and paper on canvas by Betty Blayton (1937-2016), an African American artist also recognized as an activist and educator in Harlem beginning in the 1960s. The video discusses Blayton’s artistic process, as well as some of the goals and decision-making in the treatment of the painting.

View the Video

Generously Sponsored By

Save the Date!

ChinaFest: Year of the Water Tiger | Feb 5, 2022 | 10 am-4:30 pm

In this multimedia presentation, narration, photographs, visual art, and dynamic performances illustrate the central role Black music has played in American history. Covering the antebellum period to the present, the program demonstrates the power and importance of this musical tradition in shaping American identities and culture.

Presented by

VMFA is hosting a series of talks in conjunction with the special exhibition The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse. These bi-weekly virtual conversations between scholars, curators, and visual and musical artists explore poetry, visual and sonic culture, contemporary southern hip-hop, and legacies of traditional southern aesthetics.

All events will be recorded and posted to the VMFA YouTube channel at a later date.

Southern Hip-Hop and the Academy

Thu, Jun 3, 2021 | 6:30–7:30 pm
with DR. MARK ANTHONY NEAL, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies, Duke University, DR. ANTHONY PINN, Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities, Rice University, DR. ERIK NIELSON, Professor, Liberal Arts, University of Richmond

Watch on YouTube

BIOS

MARK ANTHONY NEAL is James B. Duke Professor of African & African American Studies and Professor of English, and Chair of the Department of African and African American Studies at Duke University. Neal is the author of five books including What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Public Culture, Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic and Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities, and co-editor, with Murray Forman, of That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (now in its 2nd edition).

ANTHONY B. PINN is currently the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and professor of religion at Rice University. He is also Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa. Pinn is the founding director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning, and the inaugural director of the Center for African and African American Studies both at Rice University. In addition, he is Director of Research for the Institute for Humanist Studies—a Washington DC–based think tank. Pinn’s research interests include religion and culture; black religious thought; humanism; and hip-hop culture. He is the author/editor of over 35 books, including Terror and Triumph: The Nature of Black Religion (2003) and the novel The New Disciples (2015).

ERIK NIELSON is Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of Richmond, where he teaches courses on African American literature and hip-hop culture. He lectures widely on these topics and has published articles in a number of peer-reviewed journals, as well as in mainstream outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, and NPR. He routinely serves as an expert witness in cases involving rap music as evidence in criminal trials, and he has authored three amicus briefs for the US Supreme Court, which included support from artists such as Killer Mike, Chance the Rapper, Meek Mill, 21 Savage, T.I., Big Boi, and Luther Campbell. He is co-editor (with Travis Gosa) of The Hip Hop & Obama Reader (Oxford, 2015) and co-author (with Andrea Dennis) of Rap on Trial (New Press, 2019).

Literature and Lyricism in Southern Hip-Hop

Thu, Jun 17, 2021 | 6:30–7:30 pm
with DR. ROGER REEVES, Poet, and CHARLIE BRAXTON, Poet, Playwright, and Journalist

Watch on YouTube

BIOS

ROGER REEVES earned his PhD from the University of Texas, Austin, and is the author of King Me (Copper Canyon Press, 2013), winner of the Larry Levis Reading Prize, the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award, and a John C. Zacharis First Book Award. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award and two Pushcart Prizes, as well as fellowships from Cave Canem, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and Princeton University. His second collection of poetry is forthcoming from W. W. Norton.

CHARLIE R. BRAXTON is a poet, playwright, and cultural critic. He is the co-author of the book Gangster Gumbo, which is a history of southern hip-hop with the late Jean-Pierre. He has published three volumes of poetry, the latest of which is Embers Among the Ashes: Poems in a Haiku Manner (Jawara Press, 2013).

Tales from the Conjure Woman: The Art and Practice of Renée Stout

Thu, Jul 22, 2021 | 6:30–7:30 pm
with RENÉE STOUT and DR. KIRSTEN PAI BUICK, Professor, Art History, University of New Mexico

Watch on YouTube

BIOS

RENÉE STOUT (painter /sculptor) received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1980. She is based in Washington, DC and is the recipient of many awards, including a 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art and most recently, the 2020 Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Award and a Virginia A. Groot Foundation Award.

KIRSTEN PAI BUICK is a professor of art history at the University of New Mexico. She received her PhD in art history from the University of Michigan and was a SAAM Predoctoral Fellow and a Charles Gaius Bolin Fellow at Williams College. Buick is a recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize for African American Art and has published extensively on African American art, including her book Child of the Fire: Mary Edmonia Lewis and the Problem of Art History’s Black and Indian Subject (Duke University Press, 2010). Her second book, In Authenticity: “Kara Walker” and the Eidetics of Racism, is in progress.

SLAB Culture

Thu, Aug 5, 2021 | 6:30–7:30 pm
with RICHARD “FIEND” JONES, A.K.A. INTERNATIONAL JONES, American Rapper and Producer in conversation with DR. LANGSTON COLLIN WILKINS, Director of the Center for Washington Cultural Traditions, Washington State Arts Commission

Watch on YouTube

BIOS

RICHARD JONES, better known by his stage name Fiend or International Jones, is an American rapper and producer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Fiend is currently signed to his own label and Jet Life Recordings and no Limit Records. In early 2021 Jones released his new single, “Survivor’s Anthem” preceding his new album, Thank God Its Fiend (TGIF) set for release this Friday, March 19th.

LANGSTON COLLIN WILKINS, PhD, is a Seattle-based folklorist, ethnomusicologist, and writer. His research interests include urban folklife, hip-hop culture and African American music. Langston has written extensively about SLAB, an urban car culture that is native to Houston, Texas, and closely tied to the Screw, the city’s local brand of hip-hop music. Langston received his PhD in Ethnomusicology from Indiana University in 2016. He also holds a Masters degree in African American and African Diaspora Studies from Indiana University and a Bachelors of Arts in English from the University of Texas at Austin. Langston is currently the Director of the Center for Washington Cultural Traditions, a collaboration between Humanities Washington and the Washington State Arts Commission that seeks to document and preserve the traditional culture of Washington state.

Stifling the Scream: The Dirt in the Dirty South

Thu, Aug 19, 2021 | 6:30–7:30 pm
with VALERIE CASSEL OLIVER, VMFA’s Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Contemporary Art, in conversation with DR. FRED MOTEN, Professor in the Department of Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

Watch on YouTube

BIOS

FRED MOTEN works in the Department of Performance Studies in the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. He is interested in social movement, aesthetic experiment and the poetics of black study. Over the last thirty years, Moten has addressed this concern as part of the Harris Moten Quartet, Moved by the Motion, Le Mardi Gras Listening Collective, the Institute for Physical Sociology, the Center for Convivial Research and Autonomy, and the Exodus Reading Group; and in collaboration with Arika, Renee Gladman, Zun Lee, Jennie C. Jones, Renée Green, George Lewis, Harmony Holiday, and Gerald Cleaver & Brandon Lopez, among many others; and in a number of books, the latest of which, written with his old friend and writing partner, Stefano Harney, is All Incomplete (Minor Compositions/Autonomedia, 2021).

Valerie Cassel Oliver is the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Since joining VMFA in 2017, she has expanded the museum’s holdings of African American art and curated exhibitions such as Howardena Pindell: What Remains To Be Seen, Cosmologies from the Tree of Life: Art from the African American South, and most recently The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse. Prior to VMFA, she spent sixteen years at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas, where she was senior curator. She was director of the Visiting Artist Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a program specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2000, she was one of six curators selected to organize the Biennial for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Presented by

Bring lawn chairs and/or blankets. Notify us of special needs. Bring printed hard copy tickets, not electronic. In case of rain, event will switch to the Cheek Theater indoors.

Inspired by the exhibition The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse

Fri, Jun 18, 2021 | 8:30–10:30 pm
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012; dir Benh Zeitlin; 93 min)

Starring Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly

$8 (VMFA member, $5) Limited Seating

Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink, in the Bathtub, a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink’s tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe; for a time when he’s no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack, temperatures rise, and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink’s health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.

Fri, Jul 23, 2021 | 8:30–10:30 pm
Hale County This Morning This Evening (2018; 76 min) with director RaMell Ross in-person.

Image credit: Cinema Guild

$8 (VMFA member, $5) Limited Seating

Hale County This Morning This Evening (2018; dir RaMell Ross; 76 min) Composed of intimate and unencumbered moments of people in a community, this film is constructed in a form that allows the viewer an emotive impression of the Historic South – trumpeting the beauty of life and consequences of the social construction of race, while simultaneously a testament to dreaming. (Written by IMDB)

Fri, Aug 13, 2021 | 8:30–10:30 pm
Daughters of the Dust (1991, 113 min)

The Afrikana Film Festival Presents Daughters of the Dust (1991) as the third and last movie in the VMFA Outdoor Film Series: Dirty South: A Cinematic Sense of Place and Community.

$8 (VMFA and Afrikana members, $5)

This acclaimed film is the contemplative story of family, tradition, and Black womanhood in 1902. Director Julie Dash’s seminal work follows a multigenerational African American family, as they prepare to leave their home of the Gullah Geechee Islands for the mainland. The Gullah culture of the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia are where African folk-ways were maintained well into the 20th Century and was one of the last bastions of these mores in America. Co-presented by VMFA and Afrikana Independent Film Festival.

In the event of inclement weather, the program will move into the Marble Hall.

Featuring Aliyah the DJ and RVA Life Church’s Zóé
Hosted by Unlocking RVA

Enjoy a relaxing afternoon in the garden listening to the spirit-lifting sounds of gospel music in the Black southern tradition.

Performances by Zóé at 2:30 pm and 3:30 pm.

Bring your lawn chairs or blankets.

Welcome to VMFA’s
VIRTUAL FAMILY DAY EVENT

Celebrate African and African American Art: Music & Tradition
Launches on VMFA.museum on Sun, Aug 1, 2021 at 11 am
Stays live through September 2021
Free. No tickets or reservations required.

Exploring Our Virtual Event

Welcome to “Celebrate African and African American Art: Music & Tradition” Family Day!

This year, we are excited to host both our virtual and in-person Family Day event (taking place at VMFA on Aug 1, 1-4 pm).

We are delighted that you have joined us online for this VIRTUAL Family Day!

On the event page below, you will find four buttons that will lead you to a variety of activities, performances, and resources. Take your time and check out everything. These activities and presentations will be available to access through September 2021.

Maybe you would like to watch performances and presentations, or maybe you would like to create your own work of art? These activities, resources, and more are listed below. Have fun, explore, and let your imagination roam!

Generously sponsored by

Performances & Presentations

Art Activities

Virtual Gallery Activities

Explore More

Come to VMFA to explore our newest special exhibition. The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, investigates the aesthetic impulses of early 20th-century Black culture and their influences on art, music, and other forms of cultural expression in the African American South over the past 100 years. The exhibition features works by an intergenerational group of artists that includes John Biggers, Nick Cave, Mose Tolliver, Nadine Robinson, Radcliffe Bailey, RaMell Ross, Kara Walker, and others.

Check out a preview of the exhibition here

Learn more about the exhibition here

Access The Dirty South Family Visit Guide here

Tell us about your experience!
We would love your feedback on our virtual Family Day event! Click here to fill out the survey after you have explored our event.

★ Performances & Presentations

Sit back and watch incredible performances and demonstrations! Follow the links provided below to view all presentations.

Emerald Holman

Join Emerald Holman as she explores the dances of Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Memphis, and Miami, and showcases South Sounds in Action. These five cities constitute the southern hip-hop network, demonstrating distinct styles of movement that continue to contribute to hip-hop culture today. The dance film culminates highlighting Hampton Roads, VA in a protest for freedom as enslaved Africans were brought to present-day Fort Monroe as early as August 1619. Emerald Holman is accompanied by dancer, Unique Wilson.

Emerald Holman, a Washington, DC, native, grew up training at DC’s Northeast Performing Arts, Jones-Haywood School of Dance and Duke Ellington School of the Arts. She is currently a professional dancer with Step Afrika! In 2012, she was awarded the Legacy Award from the Creativity Foundation while attending Duke Ellington School of the Arts. In 2017, Emerald earned a BFA in Dance and Choreography with honors from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). While at VCU, she studied dance for a semester in Paris, France, by way of the University of South Florida’s Dance in Paris Program. In her senior year, she was awarded the Black History in the Making Award from the Department of Dance and Choreography in partnership with the African American Studies Department at VCU. As a dance artist, Emerald is interested in increasing dance training and performance accessibility in urban communities.

Unique Wilson grew up in Washington, DC, but she did not start dancing until she entered high school. She attended National Collegiate Preparatory Public Charter High School, where she began her dance training as a majorette. By her sophomore year, she became the majorette captain. As the former majorette captain for her high school’s marching band, she became very passionate about dance and decided to pursue this interest in college. As a recipient of the Brittain Scholarship, she continued her studies at Emory University. During her undergraduate career, she explored various performance and choreographic opportunities to hone her craft. In May 2021, she graduated with a B.A. in Dance and Movement Studies. As a dancer/choreographer, Unique hopes to help make the dance industry more inclusive through her work.

See the video

Rob Gibsun

Born in Richmond, Virginia, Rob Gibsun has been in love with the visual and performing arts since his youth. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Communication Arts department, Rob’s art and poetry have been published in Yemassee Journal, The Offing, Kinfolks Quarterly, Minetta Review, and Amendment. As a teaching artist, Gibsun has instructed watercolor painting classes with senior citizens at Pine Camp Art Center and facilitated creative writing and performance workshops with inner city youth through Richmond-area non-profit Art180. Gibsun has shared stages with Sonia Sanchez, Charlie Wilson, Saul Williams and Lianne La Havas. Founder of VCU’s award-winning poetry organization, Good Clear Sound, Rob has extensive knowledge as a poetry slam coach. A TEDxRVA Speaker, Southern Fried Poetry Slam Champion and Verses and Flow Poet, he urges you to keep it real, create fearlessly, and work with what you got to get what you want. Find more of Rob’s art at linktr.ee/robgibsun

See the video

DJ Mikemetic

Mikemetic continues to sharpen the cutting edge of creative audio culture through curated soundscapes that capture both the essence and flow of the African Diaspora. Through live presentation and his Dirty South Soundsystem video mix, he consciously captures the essence of The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse exhibit in sound and images and presents a multimedia piece that is an accessible time capsule of sound for this important movement in American music.

See the video

Girls for a Change

From 2020-2021, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts hosted the first-ever Girls For A Change (GFAC) Girl Action Team in tandem with the The Dirty Southexhibition! Six girls from GFAC, led by Coach Nickey, individually answered the question “What Does the Dirty South Mean to Me?” by diving deep to learn and explore southern African American history and culture from its roots in Africa to how it is reflected in America. There were several artistic multimedia answers to the question—a filmed “interview-esque” response, a video dance montage paying homage to the decades and [CS(1] southern musical artists that individually inspired each student, and even a studio recording session answering the question over a soundtrack in spoken word form.

As you enjoy the video featuring Ahmaria Rufus, Ca’Miyah King, Madison Wright, Noelle Massenburg, Shania Brown, Madison Wright, with a dash of Coach Nickey and Sis Angela Patton, CEO of Girls For A Change tossed in for fun, we invite you to answer the question yourself—What Does the Dirty South (and it’s worldwide cultural impact) Mean to YOU?

See the video

Elegba Folklore Society

Elegba Folklore Society’s interpretive performance is rooted in the music, dance and lifestyle traditions of West Africa’s Manding and Yoruba cosmologies. Let’s explore Black cultural expression that is its own aesthetic. Multi-layered and multi-sensual, Black culture is a strong African Diasporic weave of spirit and sass. Dirty, from its enslavement-bound concentration in the South, it displays itself everywhere without invitation, leaving a red clay printed trail from Afro past to Afro future. Elegba Folklore Society opens this road with music, dance and spoken word. Let’s ride.

See the video

Dirty South Virtual Speaker Series: Southern Hip-Hop and the Academy

Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies, Duke University; Dr. Anthony Pinn, Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities, Rice University; and Dr. Erik Nielson, Professor, Liberal Arts, University of Richmond, discussed Southern Hip-Hop and the Academy on Thursday, June 3, 2021.

See the video

Curator’s Talk: The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse

Valerie Cassel Oliver, the exhibition’s curator and VMFA’s Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, discusses the works in the groundbreaking exhibition The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse and how they reveal the aesthetic traditions of the African American South and their influences on art, music, and other forms of cultural expression over the last 100 years.

See the video

★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 a “how-to” video and an activity resource document with instructions and a list of supplies needed to complete each project.

Create a Guitar
Follow the instructions included below to create your own guitar inspired by southern musicians like B.B. King!

See the instructional video

Download the instructions

Construct a Wind Chime
Follow the instructions provided here to decorate and assemble your own wind chime!

See the instructional video

Download the instructions

Customize your own SLAB Textile
Follow the instructions included below to design your own SLAB (Slow, Loud and Bangin) ride! You can find a PDF template of a SLAB car rendition designed by Alex Teschel of Studio Two Three on the art activity sheet.

A Collaboration with Studio Two Three
Studio Two Three is a community print shop, home to over 100 artists located in Richmond, Virginia. We offer artists 24/7 access to studio space, tools, and materials to make art, and make change. Each fabric square was printed by hand at our shop in Scott’s Addition. The design for the print was created by Alex Teschel, illustrator, designer, and studio member at Studio Two Three.

See the instructional video

Download the instructions

Download the template

Make a Torn Paper Landscape
Follow the instructions provided below to create a torn paper landscape inspired by landscapes, music, and traditions of the South!

See the instructional video

Download the instructions

★Virtual Gallery Activities

See works of art from the VMFA’s permanent collection, learn, explore, and participate in activities listed below.

The Dirty South: Family Visit Guide
Interested in coming to VMFA to explore the special exhibition, Dirty South? Make sure to check out our Family Visit Guide. This guide offers families some helpful tips for visiting “The Dirty South” exhibition.

See the family guide

Gallery Hunt: Style
Style is an expression of identity. In many cases style represents a unique personality, while for others it speaks to an entire culture, belief, or movement. Travel through the VMFA galleries to see how art can express attitude, status, trends, spirit, and thoughts!

Learn more about the Gallery Hunt

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.

Learn more

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.

See the talk

Writing to Learn: Haiku
Use an artwork as a prompt for a haiku poem. This activity enables students to activate their imaginations, gives them a framework for connecting personally with art, and their critical observation skills.

Learn how to write a haiku

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 to look 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.

See the interactive exercise

★Explore More

Special Exhibition – The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse
Come to VMFA to explore our newest special exhibition. “The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse,” organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, investigates the aesthetic impulses of early 20th-century Black culture that have proved ubiquitous to the southern region of the United States and their influences on art, music, and other forms of cultural expression in the African American South over the past 100 years. The exhibition features works by an intergenerational group of artists that includes John Biggers, Nick Cave, Mose Tolliver, Nadine Robinson, Radcliffe Bailey, RaMell Ross, Kara Walker, and others.
Check out a preview of the exhibition here
Learn more about the exhibition here
Access The Dirty South Family Visit Guide here

Discovering VMFA’s Permanent Collection
Learn about and discover all of the permanent collections VMFA offers.
Explore the permanent collection

Reading List
Discover children’s books that focus on music, pattern, culture, and tradition! Check out our recommended book list for exploring more.
See the reading list

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.

To help limit the risks of COVID-19, the Margaret R. and Robert M. Freeman Library space is currently being redesigned to ensure public safety and to maintain physical distancing. The library is open by appointment only. You can explore the library’s digital collections online. For reference assistance, please contact the library at library@vmfa.museum or 804.340.1495
Learn more about the library
Check out the library’s digital collection

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.
Explore VMFA’s Shop

VMFA Learn
Explore resources, watch artist videos, and engage with more art from around the world!
See online learn resources

Exploring e-Books
Interested in exploring and assessing free e-books through your local library? Check out apps such as Hoopla and The Libby App (OverDrive) that will connect you with e-books for a virtual reading experience. Please note: you need a library card to access e-books and other resources on these apps.
Check out The Libby App
Check out Hoopla

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Save the Date!
Celebrate the Art of Latin America: Puerto Rico | Sep 11, 2021 | 11am-3pm