Member Events
Members of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts are invited to enhance their experience through a variety of events including exhibition preview days, exclusive opportunities that highlight the permanent collection, and special programs that are tailored to specific membership levels and philanthropic interests. Click here to learn more or contact Sarah Burgess at 804.204.2676 or sarah.burgess@vmfa.museum.
All Members
Member Appreciation Events and Programs
These opportunities to engage with VMFA are open to all current museum members.
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Member Appreciation Nights | Frida: Beyond the Myth
Wednesdays | 5–9 pm
Apr 9–Sep 24, 2025
Free; tickets required
Join us Wednesday nights when VMFA members and their guests can enjoy special access to Frida: Beyond the Myth. Single-cardholder members may reserve one free guest ticket each week and dual-cardholder members may reserve two tickets.
Admission to the exhibition during Member Appreciation Nights is free for VMFA Members and guests only. The opportunity for exclusive priority booking for VMFA members begins Jan 1, 2025. Advance reservations strongly recommended.
Free for Member
Free for Member Child (under 18)
Free for Member Guest (max 2 tickets)
Friends Circle
VMFA Circle Lectures
Open to members at the Friends Circle level, the VMFA Circle Lecture Series features speakers sharing their expertise on a variety of topics in the art world as they relate to VMFA’s permanent collection and special exhibitions.
VMFA Circle Lecture Series | Dr. Adriano Aymonino
Thu, May 29, 6 pm | Leslie Cheek Theater
Taste and the Antique: An Art History Classic Forty Years On
with Dr. Adriano Aymonino, Director of the MA in Art Market, Provenance, and the History of Collecting at the University of Buckingham, and Dr. Sylvain Cordier, VMFA’s Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art
Originally published in 1981, Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny’s Taste and the
Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500–1900 offered the first accessible
introduction to the enormous impact of ancient sculpture on Western visual arts
and culture. Join Dr. Adriano Aymonino and Dr. Sylvain Cordier for a presentation
and discussion of Dr. Aymonino’s revised and expanded edition of this art history
classic, published in three volumes in December 2024 with support from VMFA
and the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation. Following the program, join Dr. Aymonino for an exclusive book signing of Taste and the Antique.
The VMFA Circle Lecture Series is open to all members beginning at the Friends Circle level. This program will be offered in person and virtually, via Zoom. Click here to register for the livestream.
VMFA Circle Lecture Series | Meike Hoffmann
Thu, Jun 12, 6 pm | Leslie Cheek Theater
Tracing the Ludwig and Rosy Fischer Collection
with Dr. Meike Hoffmann, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany
Dr. Meike Hoffmann has written widely on the fate of modern art under the National Socialist regime, including Hitler’s Art Dealer: Hildebrand Gurlitt. At Freie Universität, she leads a provenance research program that engages students in ambitious projects such as contributing to an extensive database of art confiscated from German museums in the 1930s as part of the “Degenerate Art” campaign. Hoffmann recently collaborated with VMFA’s Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Dr. Sarah Eckhardt, to teach a seminar focused on finding lost works from the original Ludwig and Rosy Fischer collection of German Expressionist art, of which VMFA’s extraordinary portion of 200+ works comprises less than half.
The VMFA Circle Lecture Series is open to all members beginning at the Friends Circle level. This program will be offered in person and virtually, via Zoom. Click here to register for the livestream.
Cocktails with a Curator
This virtual program series is a special offering for VMFA members beginning at the Friends Circle level. We hope you will join us for a virtual cocktail and live Q&A with a museum curator.
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Supporters Circle
Curator’s Choice
Curator’s Choice programs are a benefit for members beginning at the Supporters Circle level. We invite you to engage with the museum’s encyclopedic permanent collection and nourish your passion for art through exciting programs designed by the museum’s curatorial staff. These unique opportunities promise to provide the latest information about curatorial collecting strategies, care of the collections, and more!
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Partners Circle
In addition to the option to bring four guests per visit to special ticketed exhibitions, at no charge, members beginning at the Partners Circle may elect to join Canvas.
Canvas Programs
In addition to all the benefits of their chosen level of membership, Canvas members receive invitations to two exclusive Canvas events per year, a quarterly online Canvas newsletter, and the opportunity to learn about and lend support to the museum’s newest initiatives and most urgent needs.
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Patrons Society
Leadership Programs
Leadership Giving Society members provide vital ongoing philanthropic support to advance the museum’s mission. The following opportunities, including opening-night preview events, are available to all Leadership Giving Society members, beginning at the Patrons Society level.
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Fellows Society+
Fellows Programs
VMFA is delighted to offer Fellows Programs as a benefit for members beginning at the Fellows Society level. This special series of programs will provide high-level, exclusive access to the work of VMFA curators, thought leaders, and museum-field experts.
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VMFA Fellows Program: “Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Thursday, May 22, 2025
6–8pm
Join Dr. Sarah Kennel, Aaron Siskind Curator of Photography and Director of the Raysor Center, for a talk on VMFA’s next photography installation, Nothing Gold Can Stay. Drawn from a recent gift of 175 photographs from collector Joe Baio, Nothing Gold Can Stay explores the complex territory of childhood and adolescence as seen through the lens of more than fifteen photographers. Images by Diane Arbus, Dawoud Bey, Helen Levitt, William Klein, Frederick Sommer, and Issei Suda, among others, invite viewers to reflect on the beauty, fragility, and impermanence of youth, capturing moments that are as fleeting as they are profound. Following her remarks, Kennel will be joined by Baio to discuss the collection’s development.
Nothing Gold Can Stay will be on view at VMFA beginning May 2, 2025.
Fellows Programs are a benefit for members beginning at the Fellows Society level. To reserve a seat or learn more, please call 804.340.1499 or email rsvp@VMFA.museum.
IMAGE Livia, 1948, Frederick Sommer (American, born Italy, 1905–1999), gelatin silver print. Gift of Joseph Baio, 2023.1700
Leadership Programs
Leadership Giving Society members provide vital ongoing philanthropic support to advance the museum’s mission. The following opportunities, including opening-night preview events, are available to all Leadership Giving Society members, beginning at the Patrons Society level.
Check back soon for events in this category
In addition to the member events outlined above, a number of highly customized events and programs are planned throughout the year that are tailored to specific membership levels and philanthropic interests. Leadership level members are invited to opening receptions for major exhibitions, members of Glasgow Society who have made planned gifts in support of VMFA’s mission are invited to learn about the impact of their giving, art donors are brought together to celebrate the growth of VMFA’s permanent collection each year as part of the John Barton Payne Society. These are just a few examples of the many wonderful opportunities to engage with VMFA and its mission that are provided each year. Click here to learn more or contact Caitlin Green, Annual Giving Officer, at 804.340.1427 or caitlin.green@vmfa.museum.