Talks

Join Dr. John Henry Rice, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art, for a 3 in 30 program connected to the special exhibition India’s Great Mughals: Art, Power, and Opulence. Objects on view in the permanent galleries will explore the fact that as much as the Mughals might appeal to our curiosity, they were equally fascinated by their adopted Indian home.

IMAGE: Two Holy Men Conversing in a Landscape, 1640–50, Payag (Indian, ca. 1591–ca. 1658) opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 2025.59

Join Dr. John Henry Rice, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art, for a 3 in 30 program connected to the special exhibition India’s Great Mughals: Art, Power, and Opulence. Objects on view in the permanent galleries will explore the fact that as much as the Mughals might appeal to our curiosity, they were equally fascinated by their adopted Indian home.

IMAGE: Two Holy Men Conversing in a Landscape, 1640–50, Payag (Indian, ca. 1591–ca. 1658) opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 2025.59

Explore artworks on view in the largest gallery at VMFA: the museum's open spaces. Join Izzie Fuqua, Interpretation and Digital Project Coordinator, for a discussion of three works of art in the permanent collection that have changed the physical landscape of the museum both inside and out.

IMAGE: Chloe, 2016, Jaume Plensa (Spanish, born 1955), polyester resin, marble dust, and stainless steel. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 2017.1. ©️ Jaume Plensa

To celebrate the Year of the Fire Horse, join Dr. Wai Yee Chiong, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of East Asian Art, in exploring three works in the East Asian galleries with equine themes.

https://www.vmfa.museum/programs/3-in-30 

IMAGE: Chiryū, Early Summer Horse Fair, 1833–34, Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858), woodblock print, ink and color on paper. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, General Endowment Fund, 58.14.40

To celebrate the Year of the Fire Horse, join Dr. Wai Yee Chiong, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of East Asian Art, in exploring three works in the East Asian galleries with equine themes.

https://www.vmfa.museum/programs/3-in-30 

IMAGE: Chiryū, Early Summer Horse Fair, 1833–34, Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858), woodblock print, ink and color on paper. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, General Endowment Fund, 58.14.40

Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award, sponsored by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Library of Virginia, recognizes an outstanding book published in the previous year that is written primarily in response to a work (or works) of art while also showing the highest literary quality as a creative or scholarly work. Author Sue Prideaux will offer a presentation on this year’s winning book, Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin. A book signing and reception will follow the program.

To watch from the comfort of home, visit our livestream page.

Explore the tension between human memory and disaster through three objects from the ancient Roman world that survived through different means. One was preserved by a sudden volcanic eruption, one was buried by earthquake, and one was salvaged from a campaign of political erasure. Together, they help us understand how archaeology pieces together the fragments of the past when human history and nature collide.

https://www.vmfa.museum/programs/3-in-30 

IMAGE: Floor Mosaic with the Four Seasons, AD 250–300, Roman (Antioch), limestone and glass tesserae. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 51.13

Explore the tension between human memory and disaster through three objects from the ancient Roman world that survived through different means. One was preserved by a sudden volcanic eruption, one was buried by earthquake, and one was salvaged from a campaign of political erasure. Together, they help us understand how archaeology pieces together the fragments of the past when human history and nature collide.

https://www.vmfa.museum/programs/3-in-30 

IMAGE: Floor Mosaic with the Four Seasons, AD 250–300, Roman (Antioch), limestone and glass tesserae. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 51.13

As part of Fine Arts & Flowers, reimagine landscape design as living composition in this talk, "Garden as Art" by Stephen Eich. 

Eich considers landscape design as a deliberate act of composition—where space, light, movement, and time shape experience in collaboration with nature. Drawing from contexts that range from private estates to rooftops and cultural spaces, Hollander Design Partner Stephen Eich explores gardens as curated visual experiences, from collaborations with sculptors to the thoughtful process of creating compositions that evoke memory and feeling. Through luminous photography of the firm’s nationally recognized work, Eich reveals how gardens can function not only as places we inhabit, but as works of art in themselves.

Stephen Eich directs the design, development, and construction of city-based projects ranging from residential terraces and corporate headquarters to hospitality and park redevelopment. Since joining the firm in 2010, Stephen has overseen the design and management of some of the firm’s most highly publicized and notable projects in New York City and abroad. Stephen’s hospitality, residential, and office projects have won accolades from the ASLA, AIA, and ICAA, and recognition in publications such as Elle Décor and Architectural Digest. 

Book signing to follow featuring The Landscape of Home.

Design with sumptuous old-world charm reminiscent of classical paintings as part of Fine Arts & Flowers.

Natasja Sadi is a celebrated floral designer, artist, photographer, storyteller, fashion designer, baker, and the author of A Sweet Floral Life. 

Originally born in Suriname, she has been captivated by vivid environments filled with light and color throughout her life, leading her to become one of Amsterdam's most renowned floral creatives. The world around Sadi has always been an endless source of intrigue and creative inspiration. These fascinations fuel her work, from her background in creating bridal couture to composing and photographing fresh flower arrangements and sculpting ethereal sugar flowers in the Dutch still life tradition from her home atelier in Amsterdam. 

Sadi's exquisite, lifelike sugar floral sculptures are part of museum collections in the Netherlands and North America. Her work has been featured in international magazines such as Elle Décor USA, Flower Magazine, Victoria, Town & Country, and The World of Interiors. A highly sought-after teacher and lecturer, Sadi has helped people discover the joy of creating and preserving beauty through teaching floral design and the secrets of sugar flower artistry in Europe, Asia, South Africa, and North America.

Book signing to follow featuring Sadi’s A Sweet Floral Life.

Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon’s signature imprint on interiors is reinvigorated in a new compilation of never-before-seen renderings in The Enchanting Interiors of Bunny Mellon: Paintings by Snowy Campbell. Originally conceived of by Mrs. Mellon herself but never realized in her lifetime, this book brings together Campbell’s paintings for the first time. Three residences—New York City; Washington, DC; and Upperville, Virginia—are featured, with accompanying texts by James Reginato that explore Mrs. Mellon’s decorating style and the ways she and her husband, Paul Mellon, lived within these spaces. Two key contributors to the book, Sir Peter and Elinor Crane of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, will explore select works from the book and reflect on Mrs. Mellon’s enduring influence on interior design, art, and aesthetics. A book signing follows this talk.

This is a free event; tickets required.

Design with a modern take on traditional interiors as part of Fine Arts & Flowers. 

Caroline Gidiere is an internationally acclaimed interior decorator known for using traditional design to create interiors that are both beautiful and relevant for today’s modern world. She received the Institute of Classical Arts and Architecture’s Philip Trammel Shutze Award for Interior Design in 2023. Veranda named her one of six “Next Legends.” Gidiere has twice been a finalist for ADAC Atlanta’s Designer of the Year and was recently included on Traditional Home’s "New Trad List." Her work has been featured in the pages and digital platforms of Veranda, Vogue, AD Spain, the Wall Street Journal, House & Garden, Southern Living, Flower, and many more. You may know her from her Schumacher Home Tour, which has received more than 1.4 million views. 

Signing to follow featuring Caroline’s book Interiors for a Life in Good Taste, which was released in March 2025 and sold more than 10,000 copies in the first six months.

Step back in time and experience Impressionism as the provocative, subversive, and defiant production of a renegade group of contemporary artists. Join Dr. Nicole Myers, Chief Curatorial and Research Officer and The Barbara Thomas Lemmon Senior Curator of European Art at the Dallas Museum of Art and curator of The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse from the Dallas Museum of Art, as she explores the Impressionist revolution that scandalized Paris and set the course for modern art in the 1870s and beyond.

To watch from the comfort of home, visit our livestream page.
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IMAGE Mont Saint-Michel, Setting Sun (detail), 1897, Paul Signac (French, 1863–1935), oil on canvas, 26 x 32 1/8 in. Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., bequest of Mrs. Eugene McDermott in honor of Bill Booziotis, 2019.67.25.McD. ©️ 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image courtesy Dallas Museum of Art