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Girls For A Change 2022 Black Girl Showcase

Sat, May 14 | noon–3:30 pm

Leslie Cheek Theater

Girls For A Change presents the 2022 annual showcase which celebrates and presents projects developed by this year’s Girl Action Teams with a focus on bringing the community together to learn about social justice issues and how to solve them with a little Black Girl Magic. This program is sponsored by Chase and in partnership…

The Former and the Ladder or Ascension and a Cinchin’, 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

A Closer Look Opening Event

Sun, May 1, 2022 | Noon–3 pm

Art Education Center

Be the first to experience VMFA’s newest interactive gallery exhibition, A Closer Look. Join us for the opening event, taking place in conjunction with Open Studio Sunday. A Closer Look goes beyond the surface of six works of art from VMFA’s collection to investigate how art can be an expression of personal, cultural, or a…

Young Girl at a Window, ca. 1883-85, Mary Cassatt (American, 1844–1926), oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, 2014.79.9

Curator’s Opening Talk: A Belle Époque? American Women Artists and France, 1871–1914

with Dr. Susie Rawles, Elizabeth Locke Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts

Thu, Apr 14, 2022 | 6:30–7:30 pm

Leslie Cheek Theater

The end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 ushered in La Belle Époque, decades of peace in an era of dramatic social and political change. Thousands of artists flocked to Paris to take advantage of its famous École des Beaux-Arts and indulge in its café society. Among them were women artists. The experience of American…

Visitors lean in to get a closer look at Tsherin Sherpa's Wish-Fulfilling Tree during a Member Preview event.

Wish-Fulfilling Tree Observation

Thu, Sep 15, 2022 | 3 pm

Tsherin Sherpa: Spirits Exhibition, Evans Court Gallery

Observe VMFA art handlers insert visitors’ wishes into the mandala’s tiers of Tsherin Sherpa’s piece, Wish-Fulfilling Tree. VMFA educators will share background about the piece, and lead visitors in a discussion of the work and the significance of the wishes as they relate to Sherpa’s practice.

Promotional graphic for Above and Below: The Life of Artist Tsherin Sherpa

Above and Below: The Life of Artist Tsherin Sherpa

Fri, May 20 | 6:30–8:30 pm

Leslie Cheek Theater

This 30-minute documentary film explores the life and work of Tsherin Sherpa. A devoted Tibetan Buddhist artist, trained by his father in the art of traditional Tibetan Buddhist thangka painting, Sherpa moved to San Francisco from Kathmandu and reinvented himself to fit his surroundings, finding new meaning for an ancient art form and launching the…

From the film Sisters Rising, 2020, screening at this year’s festival.

5th Annual Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival

Fri–Sun, Nov 19–21, 2021

VMFA'S LESLIE CHEEK THEATER

The East Coast’s Premier Native American Film Festival Co-presented at VMFA Representation matters. Storytelling and filmmaking have suffered from a dearth of representation of important groups that influenced American democracy, notably Native Americans. Native culture is rich, steeped in history, and multifaceted, yet mainstream films do not often capture this nuance. This festival offers a…

Lee Miller, 1929, Man Ray (American, 1890–1976), gelatin silver print. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment, 2021.72. ⓒ Man Ray 2015 Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/ADAGP, Paris 2021

Creating Identity: The Legacy of the Modern Woman

with Facilitated by Crystal Mason, current co-founder Queering Dreams, former Queer Rebels Productions; Dr. Carmen D. Higginbotham, Dean, VCUarts; Emily Smith, Director, 1708 Gallery; and Dr. Sarah Kennel, Aaron Siskind Curator of Photography and Director of the Raysor Center at VMFA

Wed, Dec 8, 2021 | 6:30–7:30 pm

VMFA'S LESLIE CHEEK THEATER

Inspired by the 1920s photographs of Berenice Abbott, Lee Miller, and other modern women in VMFA’s Man Ray: The Paris Years exhibition, this conversation will offer perspectives on today’s modern woman and gender equity in the arts.

Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958, printed 1973–75, Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984), gelatin silver print. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund

Ansel Adams: America – Opening Talk and Performance

with Dr. Christopher C. Oliver, the Bev Perdue Jennings Assistant Curator of American Art, VMFA, and Michael Jefry Stevens

Fri, Sep 24, 2021 | 6–7:30 PM

VMFA'S LESLIE CHEEK THEATER

Celebrate the opening of the special exhibition Ansel Adams: Compositions in Nature with excerpts of “Ansel Adams: America,” composed by Chris and Dave Brubeck and performed by pianist/composer Michael Jefry Stevens, as a tribute to one of America’s most celebrated photographers. Dr. Oliver, the exhibition curator, will introduce the concert with an exploration of Adams’s…

Mount Williamson, Sierra Nevada, from Manzanar, California, 1944, printed 1973-1975, Ansel Adams (American, 1902-1984), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 75.29.2, © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

Talk and Book Signing: Ansel Adams and the Natural Scene

with Dr. Rebecca Senf, Chief Curator, Center for Creative Photography

Fri, Dec 10, 2021 | 6:30–8:30 pm

Talk: 6:30 pm | Leslie Cheek Theater

Book Signing (Free, no tickets required): 7:30 pm | Conference Center Suites

Ansel Adams scholar Rebecca Senf recently published Making a Photographer: The Early Work of Ansel Adams, a new book on the acclaimed photographer that looks at the source of his lifelong investments in landscape and environmentalism. She will discuss how his early experiences connected him to the wilderness and how his decades of thinking about…