Friday Family Art Nights: From Petals to Paper

Fri, Apr 24, 5 – 7 pm

Art Education Center

Using pulp made from the instructor’s plants and flowers, families make their own natural, handmade paper and learn the history of this intriguing art form.

3 in 30: Photo Portraits: In the Studio, On Location and the Snapshot

with Frank Saunders, Photographer and VMFA Studio School Administrative Assistant

Tue, Jan 6, 11 – 11:30 am

Thu, Jan 8, 6:30 – 7 pm

Meet at Visitor Services Desk

Through three works in the special exhibition Artists as Art: Photographic Portraits, Frank Saunders, Photographer and VMFA Studio School Administrative Assistant, explores how photographic technology and changing aesthetics influenced the evolution of photographic portraiture in the 20th century. The talk moves from the formal studio portrait, to on-location, and finally to the more casual snapshot.…

Teen Drawing Club: Break it Down

with Cheryl Dillard

Fri, Mar 13, 5 – 6:30 pm

Art Education Center

Explore the galleries and boost drawing skills associated with different art movements, styles, and cultures. Designed for teenagers in middle or high school, monthly sessions include demos, art talks, and independent instruction to accommodate both beginning and accomplished artists. Focus: Composition, color, and form in the style of Cubism

Teen Drawing Club: Pen & Ink

with Cheryl Dillard

Fri, Jan 9, 5 – 6:30 pm

Art Education Center

Explore the galleries and boost drawing skills associated with different art movements, styles, and cultures. Designed for teenagers in middle or high school, monthly sessions include demos, art talks, and independent instruction to accommodate both beginning and accomplished artists. Focus: Atmospheric perspective and contrast in Chinese landscapes 

Saturdays in the Studio: Intro to Botanical Illustration

with Celeste Johnson

Sat, May 16, 1 – 4 pm

Art Education Center

Led by a certified botanical artist, discover how the masters used botanicals in their own work. Learn fundamental techniques for this formal style of art to illustrate plants and flowers of your own.

Evenings in the Studio: Painting in Paris

with Kendra Wadsworth

Wednesdays, Apr 15, 22, 29, 4:30 – 6:30 pm (3 sessions)

Pauley Center

Get a feel for what it was like to paint in nineteenth-century France through the brushstrokes of artists like Van Gogh, Manet, and Matisse. Use similar styles, methods, and painting media to complete your own original still life.

Teen Drawing Club: Life in Paris

with Cheryl Dillard

Fri, May 8, 5 – 6:30 pm

Art Education Center

Explore the galleries and boost drawing skills associated with different art movements, styles, and cultures. Designed for teenagers in middle or high school, monthly sessions include demos, art talks, and independent instruction to accommodate both beginning and accomplished artists. Focus: Still life objects inspired by special exhibition Van Gogh, Manet, & Matisse: The Art of…

Teacher Workshop: Workin’ the Flowers: Van Gogh, Cezanne, Matisse, and Modern Visions

Thu, Apr 23, 4:30 – 7 pm

Conference Room 1 & Galleries

How did impressionist and post-impressionist painters radically transform the traditional French still life genre? How were their experimentations with paint application, composition, and color combinations connected with changes in science, commerce, and technology? Discover how their reinvention of artistic representation can inspire and challenge your students’ understanding of art-making in this workshop that combines gallery…

Gabriel Ofiesh: Virginia Jewelry Artist Trunk Show

Sat – Sun, Dec 13 – 14, 11 am – 4 pm

VMFA Shop

Designing jewelry for 40 years, this graduate of the University of Virginia and resident of Charlottesville uses 18k gold, sterling silver, and precious and semi-precious stones in nontraditional ways, resulting in very intriguing contemporary designs and a national following. In addition to his signature “orbit” and “square” rings, Gabriel Ofiesh’s collection includes necklaces, bracelets, and…

Tradition and Innovation: The Contemporary Native American Arts

with Dr. F. Johanna Minich, Adjunct Professor of Art History, University of Mary Washington

Wednesdays, Jan 7 – 28, 1 – 2 pm

Conference Suite & Galleries

Beginning with a discussion of the impact of European culture on indigenous art forms—and how museums, critics, and art historians respond to this “non-Western” tradition, this course goes on to examine some of the major Native North American artists — Norval Morrisseau, Maria Martinez, Bill Reid, Preston Singletary — and movements in the twentieth and…