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Welcome to the Virginia Living Museum
Virginia’s Animal Attraction & Dino Destination
The Virginia Living Museum is a successful public-private partnership, since 1966, between the City of Newport News and the Virginia Living Museum, a public non-profit 501(c)(3) organization (54-6055922). Together we connect people to nature through educational experiences that promote conservation.
BUILT by the Community, BELOVED by the Community and SUSTAINED by the Community, the Museum depends on private donations to succeed. We appreciate your financial contribution to support engaging education, animal welfare and conservation experiences for you and your family. Please consider a gift to our Annual Fund or a planned gift to our Endowment for future sustainability.
What You’ll See
Animals in Action
The Virginia Living Museum is home to more than 250 species of animals found in Virginia including reptiles, mammals, birds and fish. We provide a sanctuary for orphaned, non-releasable or injured animals.
Plants in Action
The Virginia Living Museum has one of the largest displays of native plants in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Geology in Action
The Virginia Living Museum’s Underground Gallery is a journey back through Virginia’s ancient past, a past that has created a rich and colorful present.
Planetarium in Action
Travel the universe in the digital state-of-the-art Abbitt Planetarium Theater. The 71-seat planetarium theater, renovated and upgraded in 2008, offers a fully digital simulation of the sky.
Conservation in Action
The Virginia Living Museum is a certified Virginia Green attraction committed to minimizing its environmental impacts by preventing pollution wherever feasible in its operations.
Happening Today
Animal Feedings
Museum Public Events
Happening Now on Social Media
Now is a great time invite birds into your garden. Planting a variety of native shrubs, grasses, and flowering perennials is the best way to attract the most birds. And, you're helping support the native ecosystem, since birds spread pollen and seeds. If you're not sure what to plant, our horticulture team can help! Visit the native plant sale this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, 9:00-4:40) to get expert advice and pick up bird-friendly plants!
Follow the link for more: thevlm.org/events/native-plant-sale/
Explore the Virginia Living Museum's non-living collections and uncover Virginia's natural history! Prepare and identify all types of fossils found in Virginia! Search through materials to find marine animals that existed here millions of years ago. Keep an eye out for Virginia's very own state fossil, Chesapecten jeffersonius! Fossils play an important role in understanding our past. When we identify animals that existed millions of years ago, we see how they evolved into the animals we know and love today!
Cost: Free with museum admission
Fossils speak through the centuries!
