About

Our Mission

The Art Museum and Galleries at W&L advance learning through direct engagement with the collections and facilitate an interdisciplinary appreciation of art, history, and culture.

The Museums at W&L are comprised of two distinct entities: the Art Museum and Galleries and the Institutional History Museum and Galleries. Together, they manage two primary collections: the Art and History collections. Guided by a mission to advance learning through direct engagement with these collections, the Museums facilitate an interdisciplinary appreciation of art, history, and culture.

The Art Museum and Galleries encompass three locations: the Reeves Museum of Ceramics, Watson Galleries, and the McCarthy Gallery.

The Art Collection originated in 1875 with a bequest of six portraits and comprises approximately 15,000 objects. Over the last 150 years, it has expanded to include 16th to 21st-century European and American paintings. The collection houses a significant array of early American portraits related to the Washington, Custis, and Lee families of Virginia, works on paper from the 18th to 21st centuries, and a small collection of American photographs and sculptures. Notably, it encompasses a substantial number of 19th and 20th-century East Asian prints, scrolls, paintings, and decorative arts, alongside contemporary works by traditionally underrepresented artists. Featured artists include Elizabeth Catlett, Fernando Botero, William Christenberry, Sam Gilliam, George Inness, Sally Mann, Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, Rufino Tamayo, and Andy Warhol. The collection also includes works by American artist Louise Herreshoff Eaton, a classically trained painter inspired by French and American Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Fauvism.

In 1967, Louise Herreshoff Eaton Reeves and her second husband, Euchlin Reeves, W&L Law Class of 1927, generously gifted the University 2,000 ceramics, including 200 paintings by Herreshoff. This collection, known as the Reeves Collection, has grown significantly through subsequent gifts, bequests, and purchases. Spanning from 4,000-year-old Chinese pots to contemporary bowls for the Japanese tea ceremony, the Reeves Collection comprises 6,000 objects, including earthenware, stonewares, and porcelain. The collection is renowned for its Chinese Export porcelain and features British, Continental European, American, and Japanese Export ceramics created between 1500 and 1900. The collection is evolving to include contemporary ceramics, including Roberto Lugo, Sharon Norwood, Beth Lo, Tanaka Yu, and Kathleen Wall.