Featured Events

Hollar turned to the natural world for inspiration, finding beauty in creepy, crawly bugs! All supplies will be provided for this pop-up art activity where you will make your own bug.

Dressing Zulu celebrates the installation of elaborate beaded outfits for a Zulu man and woman in the museum’s African art gallery. This panel discussion explores the collaborative processes of acquiring, conserving, and exhibiting beaded attire. Hlengiwe Dube, noted Zulu beadwork artist and historian from Durban, South Africa, will offer an insider’s view and interpretation of…

Book Signing | 7:45 – 8:30pm Conference Center Suites | Free, no tickets required The newly renovated Robinson House has a multilayered story that resonates with the history of Virginia. This talk explores its land inhabitants, including native peoples, English colonists, an antebellum family, and the enslaved individuals who labored for them; as well as…

Co-curators, Dr. Jeff Durham, Associate Curator of Himalayan Art, Asian Art Museum, and Dr. John Henry Rice, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art of the special exhibition will discuss highlights of its Tibetan Buddhist art and the collaborative journey they undertook in creating the story it tells.

Join Mary Holland, the Thomas C. Gordon, Jr. Director of the Studio School for an exploration of three masks in the permanent collection. This program is inspired by the special exhibition, Congo Masks: Masterpieces from Central Africa.

Dr. Manuel Jordán, a specialist on the Chokwe-Lunda cluster of peoples, will discuss masking traditions from the Democratic Republic of Congo. This lecture is inspired by the special exhibition Congo Masks: Masterpieces from Central Africa.

In 1914, famed photographer Edward S. Curtis recorded the traditional way of life and ceremonies of the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, by making one of the first feature-length motion pictures. In the Land of the Headhunters is a story of love and revenge that showcases magnificent war canoes, totem poles, rituals, costumes,…

In the vast and culturally diverse Congolese region of Central Africa, masks function as performance objects in rituals, ceremonies, worship, and entertainment. Masks represent the artisans and performers who brought them to life, as well as varied communities, belief systems, and natural resources. Be inspired and create a mask that reminds you of your community…

The American Civil War was precipitated by the issue of slavery, and the industrial-level slaughter made it the bloodiest war ever fought by the United States. Why, then, was there so little painting during the Civil War depicting race, slavery, and the battlefield? Taking Johnson’s painting in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine…

Join us for a talk that explores the importance of initiation rites and masks for the Southern Kuba from three perspectives: the significance of the forest as the place where male initiation rites take place; the importance of male authority; and the acquisition of secret knowledge, including mask making.