Talks

Join Dr. Theresa A. Cunningham, Assistant Curator of European Art and the Mellon Collections, for a look at three generations of the Walpole family as seen through portraits on view in the museum’s galleries. 

Dr. Cunningham will discuss the Walpole family and examine the different strategies of portraiture employed in each picture. She will also touch on how each of these works came to be part of the VMFA collection.

IMAGE: Portrait of Maria Walpole, Duchess of Gloucester, ca. 1766–69, Nathaniel Dance-Holland (English, 1735–1811), oil on canvas. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund, 60.36

Join Dr. Theresa A. Cunningham, Assistant Curator of European Art and the Mellon Collections, for a look at three generations of the Walpole family as seen through portraits on view in the museum’s galleries. 

Dr. Cunningham will discuss the Walpole family and examine the different strategies of portraiture employed in each picture. She will also touch on how each of these works came to be part of the VMFA collection.

IMAGE: Portrait of Maria Walpole, Duchess of Gloucester, ca. 1766–69, Nathaniel Dance-Holland (English, 1735–1811), oil on canvas. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund, 60.36

Frida Kahlo, Reconsidered
with Dr. Salomon Grimberg, Biographer

Join Dr. Salomon Grimberg, an acclaimed author and leading expert on the life of Frida Kahlo, for a lecture on Kahlo’s use of imagery to illustrate her struggles and sense of identity beginning before her birth. Grimberg will explore the events that affected Kahlo’s development as an artist. His talk will highlight how the artist references religious sources — Christian, pre-Hispanic, and Buddhist — to explain her life as well as her physical challenges.

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.

Naming Black Presence: Reckoning with the Gaps of History
with Dr. Jennifer Van Horn, Professor of Art History and History at the University of Delaware

Dr. Jennifer Van Horn's talk will focus on amazing survivals: portraits of enslaved persons of African descent from the 19th-century United States. But made by whom, of whom, and for what purposes? Placing these images within early Black Americans’ personal and familial identities and acts of resistance, Van Horn will explore why these sitters’ names were often forgotten and how recovering their stories offers a means of telling fuller histories of American art.

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.

The Art of Science: Anna Atkins and the First Photographically Illustrated Book
with Corey Keller, Author and Former Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

In 1843, Anna Atkins used a brand new technology, photography, to illustrate her book on British seaweed. Corey Keller, author of the recent biography Anna Atkins: Photographer, Naturalist, Innovator, will discuss the ways Atkins worked within and against the gender conventions of her day to break new ground in botanical illustration. Following the program, join Keller for an exclusive book signing.

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.

with Ndubuisi Ezeluomba, Curator of African Art, and Siera Hyte, Schiller Family Curator of Indigenous American Art at VMFA

As the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts prepares for a transformative expansion and renovation, the African Art and Indigenous American Art Galleries are temporarily closed. While awaiting their return to new gallery spaces, a selection of these treasured works will be on view in a special installation, Community and Continuity: African and Indigenous American Art. Opening September 27, this gallery will allow visitors to enjoy these beloved works of art and provide students and educators with Virginia Standards of Learning content.

Join Ndubuisi Ezeluomba and Siera Hyte for a discussion about the new gallery and how shared stories, worldviews, and artmaking techniques articulate and preserve cultural heritage and ways of knowing and being.

Curator’s Choice programs are a benefit for members beginning at the Supporters Circle level. This program will be offered in person and virtually, via Zoom. Click here to register for the livestream.

This year's recipient of the Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award is Deborah Parker, author of Becoming Belle da Costa Greene: A Visionary Librarian Through Her Letters. Join us for a program, book signing, and reception. The Mary Lynn Award recognizes a book written primarily in response to a work (or works) of art and one that shows the highest literary quality as a creative or scholarly work. This event is sponsored by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Library of Virginia.

Join us for VMFA's Annual Paul Mellon Lecture. Hélène Delalex, Senior Curator at the Palace of Versailles, will present a fascinating journey through the art of the horse in court culture of the Ancien régime.

The equestrian traditions that developed within princely courts of early modern Europe demonstrated a remarkable symbiosis among art, power, and equine passion. They shaped court etiquette, structured aristocratic social life, and defined the language of prestige and power.

Equestrian art reached unparalleled heights in royal riding schools, particularly at Versailles. There, scholars codified the principles of horsemanship, turning it into an art form. The elegance of movement and the reach of perfect harmony between rider and mount reflected the aristocratic ideal of mastery and distinction.

Established in memory of Paul Mellon—the museum’s longest serving trustee and one of its most generous benefactors—the Paul Mellon Lecture is presented annually by a distinguished scholar to foster the study and appreciation of the arts and is supported by the Paul Mellon Endowment.

If you cannot attend in person, enjoy our livestream from the comfort of home.