Music & Performing Arts

Join us every Wednesday for in-person performances by some of the area’s best jazz musicians.

As we get ready for the holiday season, Jazz Café offers “Soul Thanksgiving” featuring songwriter, producer, and soulful singer Rodney Stith, whose powerful, urban, Southern sound brings back the vibes of classic rhythm and blues. With a persona that's authentic, Stith's delivery is straight from the heart, and his music has been called “a bridge between the all-time greats and a new generation of soul singers”.  R-E-S-P-E-C-T! In the words of Betty Carter: "Jazz ain't nothing but soul."

Know Before You Go

• Seating is limited and provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Early arrival is strongly recommended.
• Saving seats for others is discouraged.
• Seats can no longer be saved once the performance begins.
• Please do not move the chairs and tables.
• No outside chairs or gallery stools are permitted.
• No outside alcohol is permitted.
• Harassing, discriminatory, or threatening behavior is strictly prohibited.

Maintaining a free, safe, and accessible experience for all is our priority. Come and enjoy the music!

Dominion Energy Jazz Café is presented in partnership with the Richmond Jazz Society.  

This event is part of our Dominion Energy Jazz Café program series.

After 5 Fridays is the perfect way to kick off the weekend. Relax with a beverage, visit the galleries for an art escape, and take part in the evening’s featured attraction.  

In connection with the Giants exhibition, this First Friday program features the return of the esteemed Reveille Ringers UMC and Virginia Commonwealth University's Black Awakening Choir's VMFA debut! The Reveille Ringers Handbell Choir will perform at 6 and 7 pm. The Black Awakening Choir will perform at 7:30 pm.   

  
This event is part of our After 5 Fridays program series. 

This musical concert will feature Ellen Fullman performing on her iconic Long String Instrument. She will be accompanied by the New York–based JACK Quartet. As the closing program for the exhibition Robert Rauschenberg: Cardbirds, Fullman’s performance will debut a VMFA-commissioned composition celebrating Rauschenberg’s practice as a groundbreaking artist who experimented with movement and material.

This event, as part of the REWIND<<Fast/Forward series, is free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations required. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

This composition and the exhibition, on the advent of Rauschenberg's centennial celebration, are supported by a grant from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

Experience a time-based media installation by renowned artist Arthur Jafa. Drawn from vintage broadcasts and recordings, the featured work, akingdoncomethas (2018), is a 40-minute visual tapestry of ecstatic prose found in footage of Black church services, revivals, musical concerts, and sermons that features prominent icons such as Bishop T.D. Jakes, Rev. Al Green, and Le’Andria Johnson. The installation takes its title after the Christian expression for the end of time and a world after rapture—“a kingdom cometh,” as seen in the passage of Revelation 11:15.

Formally trained in cinematography and architecture, Arthur Jafa, is a well-versed contemporary filmmaker who meditates on unnamed characteristics that define Blackness and the outward expressions that have come to delineate Black American culture. His monumental Big Wheel I is on view in the Cochrane Atrium as part of the special exhibition Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.

After 5 Fridays is the perfect way to kick off the weekend. Relax with a beverage, visit the galleries for an art escape, and take part in the evening’s featured attraction.  

New year, new moves! Join us in the Cochrane Atrium and get your hip-hop line dancing on with Kemel Patton—a perfect vibe for the Giants exhibition. 

This event is part of our After 5 Fridays program series.

This event is part of our After 5 Fridays program series.