Page content
Resize textResize textResize text largerEmail pagePrint pageShare this page

Current Exhibits
at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum

Conserving the Carolina Room

This exhibition highlights the current research and conservation on a nineteenth-century painted room acquired by the museum in the 1950s. Each board, wainscoat and door have been investigated and treated to bring them closer to their original appearance. Ongoing exhibit.

Cross Rhythms: Folk Musical Instruments

This exhibition features banjos, fiddles, and dulcimers from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Highlights include a piano built into a chest of drawers and a record-playing hippocerous. Ongoing exhibit.

Down on the Farm

This exhibition follows the story of Prince, a carved wooden dog, as he explores the country side. This family-friendly exhibition features animals in paintings, sculpture and toys. Visitors read rhyming text that tells the adventures of Prince as he meets up with weathervane roosters, carved ducks, and wooden horses. Ongoing exhibit.

Exciting Expressions: Painted Furniture

This exhibition displays case pieces, chairs and boxes that have been embellished with decorative treatments. Plain wooden pieces were made more lively and interesting with color, pattern and designs. Ongoing exhibit.

In Memoriam: Mourning Art in Early America

This exhibition explores the fascination with honoring deceased loved ones and heroes. Paintings, medals and quilts were created to honor the country’s first president and national hero George Washington after his death in 1799. Schoolgirls in the beginning decades of the nineteenth century created needlework pictures that memorialized a loved one. Jewelry was created specifically for those in mourning. Through January 4, 2009.

Inspiration and Ingenuity: American Stoneware

This exhibition features stoneware pieces from the nineteenth-century through the present day. The exhibition explores the tradition of decorating utilitarian stoneware and its evolution to an art form. Ongoing exhibit.

Introduction to American Folk Art

This exhibit introduces visitors to the museum and to the collector Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Mrs. Rockefeller admired the artful expressions of non-academic artists from the past and present. She set out to acquire pieces that reflected the best of the American people. When she died in 1948, she left her extensive collection of folk art to Colonial Williamsburg. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in honor of his wife, built the museum in 1957 to display the collection. Ongoing exhibit.

Scenes of Everyday Life: The Drawings of Lewis Miller

This exhibition features the work of 19th-century artist Lewis Miller. His fine, detailed drawings echo his observations of the places he visited and the people he encountered. Through December 2009.

Seeing Stars in American Bedcovers

This exhibition features 19th and 20th-century bed coverings that incorporate stars as a design element. The stunning objects range from a bold, oversized star that visually dominates the quilt to a subtle star motif stitched into the center of a quilt. Through November 8, 2009.

We See America

This exhbition takes visitors on a journey to the sites of nineteenth century America. Travel and tourism grew as the country expanded. People traveled to visit friends and relatives, to rest and relax, to regain health and to see the wonders of the new nation. Niagara Falls, Natural Bridge and the Hudson River were popular destinations. Cities and small towns had their share of travelers as well. Landscape paintings from the Folk Art collection illustrate America from the nineteenth through the early twentieth century. Through October 19, 2008.

We the People: Three Centuries of American Folk Portraits

This exhibition showcases the museums extensive collection of paintings depicting people of the past. The exhibition will take a look at the motivation for creating the pieces and how portraiture changed over time. Ongoing exhibit.