Exhibitions

Liquid Commonwealth: The Art and Life of Water in Virginia is the culmination of a juried competition co-sponsored by the Muscarelle Museum of Art and the Department of Art & Art History at William & Mary.  Through a blind juried method, art history students enrolled in the required practicum course The Curatorial Project selected works from nearly 800 submissions.  Under the direction of Alan C. Braddock, Ralph H. Wark Professor of Art History, American Studies and Environmental Humanities, student curators brought their chosen works together into a cohesive and meaningful exhibition.  Featuring the work of more than 50 Virginia artists, Liquid Commonwealth: The Art and Life of Water in Virginia explores the essential importance, richness and beauty of water as a defining element of the Commonwealth.    The exhibition is funded, in part, by the Department of Art & Art History, the Tack Fund for the Visual Arts, the Arts & Sciences Annual Fund, and the Ralph and Doris Piper Lamberson Memorial Endowment Fund. 

Losing Todd: A Mother’s Journey is an exhibition of twenty-one paintings capturing the journey of Jeanne Harris Weaver HON ’17 coping with the loss of her son, 1LT Todd Weaver ‘08. Todd was killed in action on September 9, 2010, while deployed in Afghanistan. Jeanne, a lifelong artist, found herself unable to paint until January 2011, when she decided to pick up her brushes in honor of Todd. View this memorial exhibition at the Muscarelle Museum of Art Annex at the William & Mary Sadler Center. Opening during W&M Homecoming 2025, the exhibition will remain on view through Veterans’ Day 2025 into 2026, the year of the nation’s 250th anniversary of the Second Continental Congress and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

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.

A selection of these works is on view at the Muscarelle in Gallery 12, with the rest of the exhibition displayed in Andrews Gallery, next door to the museum. Andrews Gallery is open 10 AM – 5 PM, Monday through Saturday.

This exhibition will feature fifteen original silkscreens by one of America’s leading figurative twentieth-century artists, Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000). This series of prints on The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture provides a visual narrative of one the most consequential events in modern history.

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.

Drawn from the renowned Christian Levett Collection and the FAMM (Female Artists of the Mougins Museum), France, Abstract Expressionists: The Women will spotlight nearly fifty paintings created by thirty-two important women artists between 1936 and 1977. It underscores the critical contributions these artists made to the growth of Abstract Expressionism worldwide by studying the stylistic crosscurrents between women working not only in New York but also in California and Paris during the movement’s inception, peak years, and beyond.

Abstract Expressionists: The Women is organized by the American Federation of Arts from the Christian Levett Collection and FAMM (Female Artists of the Mougins Museum), France. Curated by Dr. Ellen G. Landau, the exhibition is generously supported by Berry Campbell Gallery, Betsy Shack Barbanell, Monique Schoen Warshaw, and Clare McKeon and the Clare McKeon Charitable Trust with additional support provided by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Every Page Foundation.

The installation at the Muscarelle is generously supported by:

Supporting Sponsors
Mrs. Pamela Goodrich Palmore & Mr. Fred W. Palmore III
James D. Penny, Esq. & Mrs. Pamela Jordan Penny
Mrs. Judith Starkey & Mr. James H. Starkey III
Mr. Christian Vinyard

Contributing Sponsors
Dr. Dawn Edmiston & Dr. Christopher P. Strasser
Mrs. Penelope Harper Meredith & Mr. Peter Marshall Meredith, Jr.
Mrs. Tina Estes Novogratz

Exhibition Friends
Mr. Daniel Dutcher & Mr. William Ross Schermerhorn
Mr. Alan D. Hilliker & Ms. Vivien W. Liu
Nepenthe Gallery
Helen and Taylor Reveley
Mrs. Brittney Hewitt Van Deusen & Mark C. Van Deusen, Esq.

Artwork Featured: Emiko Nakano, Composition in Yellow, 1957. Oil on canvas, 34 x 46 in. Courtesy of the Levett Collection and FAMM. Photo: Fraser Marr.

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30-minute docent-led tours of Abstract Expressionists: The Women:
Tuesdays – Saturdays at 11am, 1pm & 3pm
Sundays at 1pm & 3pm