Collections and Exhibitions

Exhibitions

The Daura Museum of Art presents stimulating, innovative, and inclusive exhibitions and programs that enhance the academic curriculum, emphasize cross-cultural understanding, provide broad academic experiences, and support collaborative and interdisciplinary opportunities to meet the academic needs of the University and enhance visitors’ on-site and on-line experiences, leading to ongoing engagement with the Gallery.

Exhibitions are scheduled in the Daura Museum and Dillard Lobby Gallery for the academic year. Temporary exhibitions may be planned to correspond with University initiatives, special programs, lectures, events, or symposia scheduled by other academic programs

Current Exhibitions

Pierre Daura, Barn of Peace, Rockbridge Baths

Works from the Permanent Collection

Gallery I

Artists and their artworks include Virginia landscape paintings by Pierre Daura, Queena Stovall, and Georgia Morgan; abstract paintings by Umaña, Lauren Collings, and Connie Fox; realism to abstraction by Marie Tiner; outsider artists Howard Finster and James Harold-Jennings; and many more.

Jan. 22 to May 16, 2025

Image from "A Constellation of Blackness" exhibition

Veronica Jackson: A CONSTELLATION OF BLACKNESS: Rendering Invisibility, Hypervisibility, Devaluation, and Triumph

Gallery II

Veronica Jackson's installation "investigates Black women's visibility, value, and devaluation in visual culture, while responding to a gendered and racialized existence in America."

Jan. 23 to March 7, 2025

Celebrating African American Creativity in Central Virginia Through Art

Lobby Gallery

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Legacy Museum of African American History, the Daura Museum of Art and the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College partner to host a joint exhibition celebrating African American creativity in Central Virginia.

Jan. 25 to Feb. 28, 2025

Works from the Permanent Collection

Artists and artwork include Pierre Daura, Queena Stovall, Georgia Morgan, Umaña, Connie Fox, Marie Tiner, Howard Finster, Annie Tolliver, Beth Shively, African masks, and much more.

Image: Louise Blair Daura, Portrait of Pierre Sketching, Etching, Gift of Martha R. Daura

An Imprint on Time: A History of Print

This exhibition explores the unique history of printmaking through various techniques, including woodcut, engraving, lithography, silkscreen, and modern printmaking. It will highlight the impact of the printing press on the evolution of printmaking in Europe, ushering these mediums into a new era. Additionally, the exhibition will provide detailed explanations of the processes involved in creating each technique.

2024 High School Invitational Exhibition

Celebrate with us the artistic accomplishments of regional high school students. This year, the schools represented are Altavista Combined School, Amherst County High School, Campbell County School, E. C. Glass High School, Heritage High School, Jefferson Forest High School, Nelson County High School, New Covenant School, and Liberty High School.

Elena Peteva: Of Ash and Light

Of Ash and Light explores individual, social and global states through allegorical representation. Subject and material become metaphor, creating a net of meaning – a charcoal drawing of hands about to reach into a dark tangle or an installation of a mound of ash. I seek a distilled representation that goes beyond the surface and invites the viewer to slow down, look closer and reflect.

Pierre Daura: Self-Portraits

A lifetime of artistic practice, viewed through the lens of the self-portrait.

Snow on the dell with a chair in black and white

John McCormick: Just a Guy with a Camera

An exhibition of photography by John McCormick celebrating almost 40 years of photojournalism, 13 years of which as a staff photographer at the University of Lynchburg.

Collections

The Daura Museum of Art collects, preserves, studies, exhibits, and interprets works of art benefiting the University of Lynchburg curriculum and enriching the general public. The collection consists of significant works of art by American and international artists, the ethnographic arts, and other works that exemplify methods and use of materials.

The Collection is divided into the following categories:

World Cultures, emphasizing Africa and Asia
American Outsider Art
19th Century through Contemporary American and European Artists

Emphasis is placed on painting, sculpture, fine prints, and photographs. A second focus is placed on art that reflects themes, methods, media, and materials of various times and locations, thus providing additional academic resources.

Search the Collection

Pierre Daura

Donations to the Collection

The Daura Museum of Art actively collects works of intrinsic artistic or historical value, demonstrates high standards of craftsmanship, represents a consistently high quality, and is within the Museum’s ability to properly preserve, exhibit, and store the items. Gifts or bequests to the Museum are essential to developing programs and collections.

Appraisals

Contributions to the Daura Museum, whether works of art or funds, are tax deductible within IRS guidelines. If a donor intends to file an IRS form 8283, Charitable Donation, they must arrange for a certified appraisal. Appraisals are the sole responsibility of the donor. The Museum cannot, by law, give evaluations or appraisals.

Criteria for Accession

Collection objects may be acquired by gift, bequest, purchase, commission, exchange, abandonment, and any other method that transfers custodianship to the Museum. The provenance of the object must be satisfactory and legitimate in accordance with the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. While the Director may collaborate with the Advancement Office or other faculty, staff, alumni, or students to identify and secure works needed to complement the Collection and best support the mission of the Museum, only the Director is authorized to accept loans, donations, or bequests for the permanent collection.

Please keep in mind that any acquisitions to the collection will be in accordance with the Collections Policy and shall be weighed primarily in terms of their artistic merit. An acquisition utility for teaching shall also be considered. The Daura Museum reserves the right to make final decisions regarding acquisitions.

Assurances

All collections in the Gallery’s custody support its mission;
A written Collections Policy exists, and such procedures are followed, including all procedures for the appropriate care, storage, use, acquisition, deaccession, or loan of objects;
Collection objects have appropriate provenance and associated documentation;
Collections are protected, secure, unencumbered, cared for, and preserved according to professional standards;
Collections are accessible for the creation and dissemination of knowledge, without placing the collection at risk;
The Museum is in compliance with and honors NAGPRA (Native America Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, Public Law 101-601); the 1983 UNESCO convention on the import or export of objects of cultural heritage, and the 1954 Hague Convention (Armed Conflict) by refusing to acquire cultural objects removed from occupied countries.

Photography and Rights of Reproduction

Photographs of works of art from the Museum’s collection that are produced after 1962, are subject to current copyright laws and legislation governing internet access, and may not be photographed or reproduced without the permission of the Director. Objects on loan to the Museum may not be photographed for any reason, including publicity and publications, without the written permission of the lender.
Collection objects intended for publication, including all manner of scholarly research, are photographed by permission only. All reproduction costs, including photography and printing, will be the responsibility of the publisher and/or author. All published photographs must credit the Museum (i.e., from the Collection of the Daura Museum of Art), and a copy of the publication provided to the Museum without cost.

Fair Use

Collection objects and works of art on exhibition or in storage may be photographed for personal, non-commercial purposes only. Any photographs must be taken with a hand-held camera. Flash, movie/video cameras, supplemental lights, tripods, or selfie sticks are not permitted.