Talks

In honor of April's designation as National Gardening Month, join Dr. Christopher C. Oliver, the Bev Perdue Jennings Associate Curator of American Art, to discuss three paintings in the permanent collection. We will explore how each artist deploys themes of gardening and horticulture. Works by Charles Willson Peale, Mary Cassatt, and John Singer Sargent instill meaning into the harvest of fruit as the result of cultivation of the natural world.

IMAGE: Child Picking a Fruit, 1893, Mary Cassatt (American, 1844–1926), oil on canvas. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Ivor and Anne Massey, 75.18

Inspired by Alvin Lester: Portraits of Jackson Ward and Beyond, this program brings together Alvin Lester and several individuals he photographed nearly four decades ago. Their conversation will consider the history, resilience, and continuing evolution of Richmond’s Black business districts. Join us for an evening that reflects on the lasting significance of Jackson Ward and the ways Lester’s portraits continue to illuminate Black enterprise, leadership, and creative community in Richmond.

In the late 1980s, Lester documented community leaders, entrepreneurs, and cultural stewards whose work sustained Jackson Ward and surrounding neighborhoods during periods of economic transition and urban change. Now reunited in conversation, the artist and his sitters will discuss what it meant to be photographed then and what it means to see those images today. 

Lester will be joined by Shakia Gullette Warren, Director of Richmond’s Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia; Janine Bell, Director of the Elegba Folklore Society; Hazel Trice Edney, journalist and founder of the Trice-Edney Newswire; and Neverett Eggleston III, a prominent third-generation business owner.

 To watch from the comfort of home, visit our livestream page.
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IMAGE Hazel Edney, Journalist, Afro American Newspaper (detail), 1989–91, Alvin Lester (American, born 1947), gelatin silver print. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, National Endowment for the Arts Fund, 2025.87. ©️ Alvin Lester

Yorùbá Art Objects in American Museums: Revisiting the Spiritual Presence and Absence Conundrum

Dr. Adéwálé Adénlé, Assistant Professor at the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design at Georgia State University, will discuss the ethical tension surrounding the perceived spirituality in Yorùbá objects housed in American art museums. Does spirituality persist once an object is removed from Yorùbá lands? Or does this displacement leave objects valued primarily for their formal qualities within Western aesthetic frameworks? Using Egúngún regalia and masks as case studies, Adénlé proposes the Indigenous Context Engagement Paradigm (ICEP) to foreground Yorùbá knowledge systems in identifying and interpreting both the discernible and imperceptible dimensions of these objects.

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.

IMAGE: Egungun Mask, 20th century, Unknown Artist, cloth, wood, metal. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Hammer, 92.133

Get your tickets now to hear Emily Hannam, Curator for South Asia at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, deliver the opening talk in celebration of India's Great Mughals: Art, Power, and Opulence. She will explore the artistic production of one of the wealthiest courts in the world, tracing the development of Mughal art over a century, from 1556 to 1658, across the reigns of three remarkable emperors. The image of the Taj Mahal is recognized across the world, yet the extraordinary paintings and artifacts created for its patron, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, and for his two predecessors, Akbar and Jahangir, remain remarkably little known. During this vibrant period, highly skilled artists and craftsmen in the imperial workshops created a radically new and rapidly evolving approach to design, one that reflected the hybridity and cosmopolitan nature of the Mughal court. Join us for an enriching talk that will enhance your exhibition experience.  To watch from the comfort of home, visit our livestream page.

About the Speaker
Emily Hannam is Curator for South Asia at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She previously held curatorial positions at British Museum and the Royal Collection Trust, Windsor Castle, and curated exhibitions of South Asian art at the Queen’s Galleries in London and Edinburgh. She is the author of Eastern Encounters: Four Centuries of Paintings and Manuscripts from the Indian Subcontinent (2018) and is co-author of Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniatures and Britain, 1600 to now (2024).
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IMAGE A Prince, Perhaps Parviz, with a Female Companion and Attendants (detail), ca. 1605–10, attributed to Bishandas (Indian, ca. 1590–ca.1640), opaque watercolor and gold on paper. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 2025.118

Join Mika Natif, Associate Professor of Art History at George Washington University, who will examine how women were depicted in Mughal art. Mughal visual culture of the 16th and 17th centuries produced some of the most compelling and celebrated images of women in the early modern Muslim sphere. From the carefully constructed representations of imperial consorts to general depictions of musicians and entertainers, portrayals of women in Mughal painting imbue complex negotiations of gender, status, and imperial ideology. 

This talk draws on examples from the reigns of Akbar through Shah Jahan, a period that is the focus of the VMFA exhibition India's Great Mughals: Art, Power, and Opulence. Natif will consider the tension between private and more public realms, as well as the role of such paintings in asserting dynastic legitimacy and bonds within the imperial household. By situating these images within the broader contexts of Mughal court culture, Indo-Persian literary tradition, and transcultural artistic exchanges, Natif advances a more nuanced account of female visibility in Mughal visual practice. To watch from the comfort of home, visit our livestream page. 

About the Speaker
Mika Natif is Associate Professor of Art History at The George Washington University, specializing in Islamic art and cultural exchanges between Muslim societies and Europe. Her research focuses on Islamic painting and illustrated manuscripts from Mughal India, Central Asia, and Iran. She authored Mughal Occidentalism (2018) and co-edited Eros and Sexuality in Islamic Art (2013). Her current work explores women’s portraiture, patronage, and artists in Mughal India, including a forthcoming monograph on Hamida Banu Begam, Emperor Akbar's mother. Natif has held fellowships from MIT, Harvard, the Mellon Foundation, Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, and Dumbarton Oaks.
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IMAGE Page from the Nasir al-Din Shah Album: Portrait of a Mughal Woman (detail), 1630–45, Indian (Shah Jahan period), opaque watercolor and ink on paper. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Gift of Paul Mellon

Kudzu Furniture: Growth and Transformation 
with Joyce Lin, Artist and Furniture Maker 

Artist and furniture maker Joyce Lin discusses her recent body of work, the Kudzu series, in which she explores the fast-growing, invasive kudzu vine that has come to define large parts of the American South. Lin transforms this iconic “vine that ate the South” into sculptural furniture forms, examining how a once-introduced outsider becomes interwoven with the landscape and serves as a medium for storytelling within her technically ambitious practice. 

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

IMAGE: Kudzu Chair, 2025, Joyce Lin, pallet wood, oak, kudzu vine, epoxy, cloth, wire, and paint. Photo courtesy of the artist.

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

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

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

Join us for a special evening with painter, activist, and trailblazer Mary Lovelace O'Neal, whose career has spanned more than six decades. Learn about Lovelace O'Neal's artistic practice and the pivotal decade that is the focus of the VMFA exhibition Mary Lovelace O’Neal: Blacker Than a Hundred Midnights Down in a Cypress Swamp. This fascinating conversation will explore the many highlights of her remarkable career, the exhibition's large-scale paintings, and her use of lampblack, a deep rich pigment made from powdered soot created by burning oil.  
 
About the Artist 
A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Mary Lovelace O'Neal earned her BFA in 1964 from Howard University, where she studied under David Driskell and Lois Mailou Jones. During her time in Washington, DC, she was active in the Civil Rights movement, working closely with Stokely Carmichael and many other political and cultural icons. She was a member of Howard's student-led Nonviolent Action Group (NAG) and an active participant in sit-ins organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
 
During an undergrad residency in 1963 at Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting in Maine, she happened upon lampblack pigment. She began to use lampblack in earnest as a graduate student at Columbia University, where she earned an MFA in 1969. While in New York City, she became part of the Black Arts Movement (BAM). Lovelace O'Neal's prolific career as a painter, activist, teacher, and trailblazer has spanned more than six decades. She has lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area and abroad in Morocco and Chile, and she currently resides in Oakland, California, and Mérida, Mexico.

Photo of Mary Lovelace O’Neal. Courtesy the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York and San Francisco.

The Floral Coach teaches artful and inspired floral design. 

Amy Balsters is a classically  trained, award-winning floral  design educator whose career  spans more than two decades at  the heart of the floral industry.  From large-scale special events  to weddings to retail floristry,  her deep experience and passion for flowers bring  mastery and inspiration to all she creates.

Garden Club Presale - April 1-30 only. Must purchase 5 or more tickets for presale rate.

The Garden as Art: Re-imagine landscape design as living composition.

Stephen Eich is a partner at  Hollander Design in New York  City, where he leads the design,  development, and construction  of innovative urban landscapes.  His work ranges from intimate  residential terraces to corporate  headquarters, hospitality spaces, and major parks— each project thoughtfully shaping how people  experience nature in the city.

Garden Club Presale - April 1-30 only. Must purchase 5 or more tickets for presale rate.

Design with sumptuous old-world charm,  reminiscent of classical paintings.  

Natasja Sadi is a renowned  floral artist whose breathtaking  compositions combine fresh  blooms and meticulously  sculpted sugar flowers from her  Amsterdam atelier. She emulates  the Dutch masters with delicate sugar floral works  that blur the line between botany and sculpture,  earning her a place in museums across the world.

Garden Club Presale - April 1-30 only. Must purchase 5 or more tickets for presale rate.

Design with a modern take on traditional interiors.

Caroline Gidiere is an  internationally recognized interior  decorator celebrated for her  refined approach to traditional  design. Her interiors feel timeless  yet fresh, blending classic  elegance with a modern sensibility to create spaces  that are as livable as they are beautiful.

Garden Club Presale - April 1-30 only. Must purchase 5 or more tickets for presale rate.