Virginia as America: Navigating 'Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness'

This free special exhibition will bring works drawn from the museum's permanent collection to within an hour's drive of all Virginians. The exhibition offers opportunities for kindergarten through 12th-grade students to connect to Virginia Standards of Learning content in person and through available resources. Since the founding of the country in 1776, Americans have aspired to create a nation based on the democratic ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That ambition has informed both the promise that all Americans might live, think, worship and labor freely within the confines of the law and the consequences arising from historical inequities. Still, 250 years on, the ideals that inspired the American Revolution remain fundamentally relevant, uniting an otherwise diverse and often divided population towards the realization of a 'more perfect union.'