Start Your Engines!

A crock, a fender and a washing machine walk into a museum…does it sound like the beginning of a really bad curator joke?

The new “This is Richmond, Virginia” exhibition will draw significantly from the exisiting collections of the Valentine. Key objects from our painting, decorative arts, costume & textile, and archival collections will be featured…many of which will be exhibited for the first time!

In this eclectic mix will be objects that have been collected specifically for this exhibition. From an early-20th century washing machine made at Richmond Cedar Works (now the site of Rockett’s Landing) to a mid-19th century crock made by an early Hugenot immigrant to the region, our curators have been working with donors and the collections committe to help bring exciting new objects to the exhibtion that will help us tell new stories.

Expect to see lots of surprises and odd combinations when the exhibit opens in October!

You Can Help!

We can’t tell the story of the Richmond International Raceway and NASCAR without a great object.

As an experiment in new fundraising approaches, you can help us purchase a car fender through a crowdfunding website (I’m not really sure what this means, but it makes us sound cool).

The fender from famous car #2 was dented during an RIR race and is signed by its driver and Winston Cup Champion Randy Wallace.

Just follow this link to the Kickstarter campaign to learn more about the object and help us raise money to add it to the collection.

Bill Martin, Director