Museum Events

Mazes and Brain Games

Maneuver your way through this mind boggling collection of mind-bending adventures, 3-D puzzles and full-body games – an unforgettable adventure that’s sure to challenge, entertain and amaze visitors of all ages.

More Info

Groundhog Day 2023

Join the Museum in celebrating groundhog day with Chesapeake Chuck! Will Chesapeake Chuck see his shadow? Which Superbowl team will he predict?

Bacchus Wine and Food Festival 2023

Bacchus, the god of Nature, Vine, and Wine invites you to the Virginia Living Museum’s 19th Annual Bacchus Wine & Food Festival – a 2018 Best of Hampton Roads event. Enjoy delicious samplings of fine wine, local Hampton Roads restaurant fare, a diverse Silent Auction, and an exciting mix of local, live music and entertainment as you mingle with friends among the beautiful museum galleries and exhibits.

More info and tickets

Stargazing February 2023

Laser Nights

Looking for some Saturday night fun? Start with a planetarium program. Then experience a sensory extravaganza as laser shows provide music to both the eyes and ears every second Saturday of the month. The museum has an incredible laser system that splashes brilliant high-color LED laser light all across the entire surface of the dome. It’s the most amazing light show you’ve ever seen! Plus, there’s music to suit every taste. Different bands are featured every month.

Cost: Members $5, non-members $8 per show.

February 11: Stargazing Night

Naturally Speaking February 2023

The Virginia Living Museum’s Naturally Speaking Lecture Series is a regular virtual and in-person event. Click the link below for a full run down of upcoming lectures.

All Lectures

An invasion is happening on Earth out of sight – and the invaders have not finished conquering. Striking and hypnotic, the invasive lionfish is believed to be one of the most successful invasive species ever, ravaging reef ecosystems all the way from Maine to Brazil. In 2022, Jeff Boedeker wrote and produced the nationally broadcasted PBS NOVA special, Ocean Invaders – a documentary that dives into the epic science of invasions through the extraordinary story of the invasive lionfish. After a screening of the film, join Jeff for a Q&A, to discuss everything from the science of invasions, to submarine dives in the Caribbean and techniques for producing nature documentaries.

Sign up

FrogWatch

Join us for FrogWatch – a community science program to help monitor frog populations! Practice identifying over 20 unique frog calls and learn about frog conservation. After learning the calls, you will be able to help monitor and submit data about local frog populations. Training is 2 parts and you must attend both parts.

Training time: 2pm-4pm

Training #1 dates: January 29, Feb 26, Apr 9.

Training #2 dates: Feb 5, Mar 5, Apr 16.

Minimum age: 11 years old. Children ages 11-14 must have an adult present. Registration is required.

January 29th training

February 26th training

April 9th training

Stargazing March 2023

Laser Nights

Looking for some Saturday night fun? Start with a planetarium program. Then experience a sensory extravaganza as laser shows provide music to both the eyes and ears every second Saturday of the month. The museum has an incredible laser system that splashes brilliant high-color LED laser light all across the entire surface of the dome. It’s the most amazing light show you’ve ever seen! Plus, there’s music to suit every taste. Different bands are featured every month.

Cost: Members $5, non-members $8 per show.

March 11: Stargazing Night

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Release of Dark Side of the Moon

Naturally Speaking March 2023

The Virginia Living Museum’s Naturally Speaking Lecture Series is a regular virtual and in-person event. Click the link below for a full run down of upcoming lectures.

All Lectures

Artificial light at night is essential to our lives, communities, and society. But the routine indiscriminate use of too much badly-designed lighting degrades ecosystems, imperils wildlife, and fails to deliver on promises of improved safety and security while also eroding our own health. What do we lose when we obliterate the stars from the night sky and darkness below it? This presentation will explore the causes and consequences of light pollution, explain the basics of responsible outdoor lighting, deliver good news about nightscape conservation, and equip the audience to bring back the night beginning at home. Because every day needs a night.

Sign up

Reptile and Amphibian Weekend 2023

Experience a close encounter of the reptile kind!  A wide variety of native and exotic reptiles will be on display and in live animal programs.  Enjoy seeing unusual reptiles displayed by guest exhibitors, as well as crafts, activities, and reptile-related planetarium shows throughout the weekend.

Stargazing April 2023

Laser Nights

Looking for some Saturday night fun? Start with a planetarium program. Then experience a sensory extravaganza as laser shows provide music to both the eyes and ears every second Saturday of the month. The museum has an incredible laser system that splashes brilliant high-color LED laser light all across the entire surface of the dome. It’s the most amazing light show you’ve ever seen! Plus, there’s music to suit every taste. Different bands are featured every month.

Cost: Members $5, non-members $8 per show.

April 8: Stargazing Night

Join us for a CNU Science Night!

FrogWatch

Join us for FrogWatch – a community science program to help monitor frog populations! Practice identifying over 20 unique frog calls and learn about frog conservation. After learning the calls, you will be able to help monitor and submit data about local frog populations. Training is 2 parts and you must attend both parts.

Training time: 2pm-4pm

Training #1 dates: January 29, Feb 26, Apr 9.

Training #2 dates: Feb 5, Mar 5, Apr 16.

Minimum age: 11 years old. Children ages 11-14 must have an adult present. Registration is required.

January 29th training

February 26th training

April 9th training

Spring Native Plant Sale 2023 Member Preview

Member Preview Sale: April 20 | 4pm-6pm

Public Sale:  April 22-23, 29-30 | 9am-4:30pm

Choose from an incredible array of beautiful and unusual native plants for a variety of garden sites and styles, from wet ponds to dry rock gardens. Many of these are excellent plants for attracting butterflies, hummingbirds and other wildlife to your yard. The Virginia Living Museum’s horticulture staff holds this annual sale as a fund-raiser, but the real goal is to introduce the gardening public to the incredible variety of native plants that will do well in the landscape, and to educate gardeners about those which are better left in the wild. Native plants are good choices for area gardeners because such plants tolerate the area’s weather and serve as food and shelter for area wildlife, while also providing a good show in the garden.

Click here for full info

Naturally Speaking April 2023

The Virginia Living Museum’s Naturally Speaking Lecture Series is a regular virtual and in-person event. Click the link below for a full run down of upcoming lectures.

All Lectures

Learn about the threats that birds face in Virginia, from window collisions to cats, deer, habitat loss, and invasive species. Discover what you can do to alleviate some of these in your own yard.

Sign up

Spring Native Plant Sale 2023

Member Preview Sale: April 20 | 4pm-6pm

Public Sale:  April 22-23, 29-30 | 9am-4:30pm

Choose from an incredible array of beautiful and unusual native plants for a variety of garden sites and styles, from wet ponds to dry rock gardens. Many of these are excellent plants for attracting butterflies, hummingbirds and other wildlife to your yard. The Virginia Living Museum’s horticulture staff holds this annual sale as a fund-raiser, but the real goal is to introduce the gardening public to the incredible variety of native plants that will do well in the landscape, and to educate gardeners about those which are better left in the wild. Native plants are good choices for area gardeners because such plants tolerate the area’s weather and serve as food and shelter for area wildlife, while also providing a good show in the garden.

Click here for full info

Spring Native Plant Sale 2023

Member Preview Sale: April 20 | 4pm-6pm

Public Sale:  April 22-23, 29-30 | 9am-4:30pm

Choose from an incredible array of beautiful and unusual native plants for a variety of garden sites and styles, from wet ponds to dry rock gardens. Many of these are excellent plants for attracting butterflies, hummingbirds and other wildlife to your yard. The Virginia Living Museum’s horticulture staff holds this annual sale as a fund-raiser, but the real goal is to introduce the gardening public to the incredible variety of native plants that will do well in the landscape, and to educate gardeners about those which are better left in the wild. Native plants are good choices for area gardeners because such plants tolerate the area’s weather and serve as food and shelter for area wildlife, while also providing a good show in the garden.

Click here for full info

Naturally Speaking May 2023

The Virginia Living Museum’s Naturally Speaking Lecture Series is a regular virtual and in-person event. Click the link below for a full run down of upcoming lectures.

All Lectures

Virginians are increasingly aware of and concerned with plastic pollution that litters neighborhoods, clogs streams and storm drains, and enters our oceans as harmful marine debris. Katie Register of Clean Virginia Waterways will provide an overview of the sources and impacts of mis-managed waste in Virginia and will focus on solutions to the growing plastic pollution problem — including single-use plastic food and beverage items. She will share solutions to address single-use consumer items (bottles, bags, cigarette butts, food wrappers), microplastics, derelict fishing gear, and abandoned watercraft.

Sign up

Endangered Species Day

Come learn about endangered species, including which ones we host here at the VLM, as well as what can be done to help protect species at risk!

This event will include hands on activities and specialized keeper talks throughout the day and is included in your membership or day pass to the museum.

Turtle Census 2023

The Virginia Living Museum Education and Herpetology staff began a multi-year research project to monitor the population changes of freshwater turtles in a local watershed over time.

Every year in June and July we set out live-capture, baited hoop nets in Deer Park Lake to catch and survey as many turtles as possible. VLM Staff and volunteers gather all of the turtles that are collected in these nets and spend the morning identifying the species and sex of the turtles, cleaning the shell to remove any stuck-on algae, and using a special marking system to determine whether each turtle is new for the year or a recapture from previous years.

Turtle Census 2023

The Virginia Living Museum Education and Herpetology staff began a multi-year research project to monitor the population changes of freshwater turtles in a local watershed over time.

Every year in June and July we set out live-capture, baited hoop nets in Deer Park Lake to catch and survey as many turtles as possible. VLM Staff and volunteers gather all of the turtles that are collected in these nets and spend the morning identifying the species and sex of the turtles, cleaning the shell to remove any stuck-on algae, and using a special marking system to determine whether each turtle is new for the year or a recapture from previous years.

Turtle Census 2023

The Virginia Living Museum Education and Herpetology staff began a multi-year research project to monitor the population changes of freshwater turtles in a local watershed over time.

Every year in June and July we set out live-capture, baited hoop nets in Deer Park Lake to catch and survey as many turtles as possible. VLM Staff and volunteers gather all of the turtles that are collected in these nets and spend the morning identifying the species and sex of the turtles, cleaning the shell to remove any stuck-on algae, and using a special marking system to determine whether each turtle is new for the year or a recapture from previous years.