Exhibitions

Spanning from 1870 to 2022, photographs on view represent a wide range of techniques and subjects, highlighting masterworks from the permanent collection. Built through generous donations from alumni and individual supporters, the photography collection continues to expand through the Muscarelle’s active and ongoing collecting initiatives.

Works by pioneering photographers Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Curtis, Carleton Watkins, Bernice Abbott, Imogen Cunningham, Margaret Bourke-White and Roy DeCarava are presented alongside contemporary innovators including Markus Brunetti, Cara Romero, Adrián Fernández, Daisuke Yokota and Alison Rossiter among others.

Demonstrating mastery of composition and technique, renowned Native American artists invite us to explore and reflect upon Indigeneity through the lens of time, place and lived experiences. By intertwining tradition and creativity on canvas, paper, wood, and glass, each artist offers viewers moments of cultural resilience and beauty.

Works by George Morrison, Emmi Whitehorse, Kay WalkingStick, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Peter Jemison, and others are presented here.

Following its debut during the grand quilt reveal in Colonial Williamsburg’s Merchants Square, the Great American Birthday Quilt — created by Visit Williamsburg in partnership with the Muscarelle Museum of Art — is now on display at the Muscarelle, where monumental sections will remain on view throughout 2026.

We invite you to experience this meaningful work up close, as it unites quilt squares contributed by individuals from across the country, in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.

A selection of works from the Museum’s permanent collection that present a range of eras and styles vital to the story of American Art are currently on view.

Notable artists represented include Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, Rembrandt Peale, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Childe Hassam and Grandma Moses.

Where Late the Sweet Birds represents selected works from Morgan Bulkeley’s expansive creative output across five decades.  Bulkeley’s eclectic realm of symbolism is concerned with the ecological crisis of our time, which has remained at the center of his practice since the early 1970s.  Where Late the Sweet Birds arrives at William & Mary during the Year of the Environment, a year-long celebration of our shared commitment to protecting our planet and the communities that depend on its health and resilience.

This exhibition is curated by Patrick Harkin, Director of the Andrews Gallery, and is presented jointly by the Department of Art & Art History and the Muscarelle Museum of Art at William & Mary.

The opening of the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the Martha Wren Briggs Center for the Visual Arts coincided with the 332nd anniversary of the issuing of the Royal Charter to establish a “perpetual college of learning in Virginia,” making us the second oldest university in the United States. The history of this institution is deep and dynamic, and parallels the founding of our nation with both struggles and successes.

William & Mary educated four U.S. presidents, judges, statesmen and women, signers of the Declaration of Independence, teachers, legislators, lawyers, doctors, astronauts, scientists, veterans and exemplary citizens of this nation and the world. For this we are aptly known as “the Alma Mater of the Nation.”

In this exhibition we return to our unique origin story with a look at our Royal Charter and the individuals who were essential in the founding of the “College of William and Mary” with selections from the permanent collection and loans from the Special Collections Research Center at Swem Library.

This exhibition celebrates the life and career of Lewis Cohen (1936-2025), an artist, educator and gifted sculptor whose practice spanned more than six decades. Through sculpture, drawing and printmaking, Cohen pursued a lifelong process of experimentation and discovery, continually revisiting enduring themes. From his early training and international recognition as a Prix de Rome recipient to his influential years teaching at William & Mary, Cohen remained committed to the interconnected pursuits of making and teaching art. Across all media, he returned to questions of human experience, form and expression.