Chrysler Museum of Art

Address:245 W Olney Rd.
Norfolk, Virginia
Tel: (757) 664-6200

Visit one of Virginia's finest art museums! Spend the afternoon with Monet and Matisse and enjoy the diverse genres of paintings, photos and sculptures that span the ages!

The Chrysler Museum of Art was originally founded in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. However in 1971, automotive heir, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. donated most of his extensive collection to the museum, a gift which significantly expanded the museum's collection, making it one of the major art museums in the Southeastern United States.

The Chrysler Museum of Art combines one of America's great fine arts museums and two significant historic houses. The collection spans from ancient Egypt to the present and includes one of the finest and most comprehensive glass collections in the world. Visitors can enjoy an outstanding collection of Art Nouveau furniture, ancient Indian, Islamic, Asian, African, and pre-Columbian art, as well as Italian baroque and French, painting and sculpture by Monet, Renoir, Matisse, Braque, Bernini, and Rouault. The Chrysler Museum of Art also houses American art holdings by Charles Willson Peale, Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, and Thomas Cole, as well as 20th-century works by Thomas Hart Benton, Calder, Kline, Warhol, Rauschenberg, and Rosenquist and a permanent gallery devoted solely to photography. If you like, pick up a free audio tour at the information desk, which will explain some of the key items as you view them. Allow at least 2 hours to enjoy everything there is to see.

If you're looking for a bite to eat, stop in at the museum's new dining facility for gourmet sandwiches, homemade soups and pastas, entree specials and delicious desserts.

To get to the Chrysler Museum of Art from I-64 East or West into Downtown Norfolk: Take I-64 to 264 West into Downtown Norfolk. Exit at 11-B / Brambleton Avenue, and continue on Brambleton Avenue for 1.5 miles to Duke Street. Turn right onto Duke Street and the museum will be just ahead on your left.

Housed in an Italianate-style structure facing the picturesque Hague Inlet of the Elizabeth River, the Chrysler Museum of Art is home to an encyclopedic collection of 30,000 objects spanning nearly 5,000 years of history. Highlights include an impressive and comprehensive survey of European and American painting and sculpture, a world-renowned glass collection, a rich photography program, Art Nouveau furniture, as well as African, Asian, Egyptian, Pre-Columbian and Islamic art. In the words of New York Times art critic John Russell, the Chrysler boasts objects "...any museum in the world would kill for."