Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum

I was very excited to learn that there would be a quilt exhibition while we were in Williamsburg. What luck!
If you buy the admission ticket to Historical Williamsburg, it also includes admission to this museum. I urge you to go!
I love folk art in general so I enjoyed the entire museum. And I loved the quilt exhibit.
And it’s in an old hospital building and there are other cool parts and exhibits as well.
However, to leave you have to go down and then go up. They force you to go by the gift shop twice.
I resisted both times!

We spent four days in Colonial Williamsburg in November and during that time enjoyed two tours of this museum — one in folk art textiles and the other in the folk art collection. Both tours were fascinating with highly informed guides pointing out the significance of the collections. These tours were among the highlights of our visit. While at the museum, we ate a quick lunch downstairs and both times enjoyed a bowl of sourthern chili. Just the thing for rainy fall days. It is a strangely laid out museum with a very confusing entrance that does not reveal any of the museum. We understand there are plans to build a new museum that will allow more of the collections to be on display and be more «visitor» friendly.

If folk art is your thing, this has a pretty big collection. It also had some vintage furniture, weaponry, and instruments. You may not find a famous painter, but it was worth a walk through. I also ate at the café which was fine but I was just happy it was indoors air conditioned and decent prices. There was plenty of seating. The building is also attached to the hospital museum, so if you have a pass, it may not be the first thing you should visit, but if you have a few days, it’s worth a stop. I did a tour with a volunteer docent and they also had some interesting talks I didn’t have time to go on. This place is underrated!

A great place to stop when visiting Colonial Williamsburg in August — AIR CONDITIONING! And they have a Café. $ 8 half sandwiches are a bit over the top, but it’s for a good cause so no complaints about the cost.

The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum occupies a portion of the old Publick Hospital (aka the first mental institution in the US and part of Colonial Williamsburg) along with the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. It is well worth the detour a bit off DOG Street in order to check it out. Your Colonial Williamsburg pass gains you entry.
Abby Rockefeller was the wife of John D. Rockefeller, who was single-​handedly responsible for resurrecting Colonial Williamsburg from the brink of decay and provided the funding to open and maintain it as it is today (thank you, thank you, John D. Rockefeller). Abby was always interested in art — and probably best known for establishing MoMA in NYC — and was one of the first to recognize folk art as a viable art form, unique to the US, to be collected and admired. She began collecting Colonial folk art during the Rockefellers’ involvement in rehabbing CW, and her collection is now part of the wonderful little Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum.
The museum — along with the DeWitt — is small enough to be managed in one afternoon… or morning… or few hour period. And the folk art is bright, whimsical, ironic, and fun enough that kids will really enjoy the exhibits, too. There’s a roomful of those iconic, flat portraits that so typify American folk art; husband and I had a great time giggling over the big-​eyed cats included in family portraits, and the large-​headed children in nightgowns.
Other exhibit rooms include one that children will absolutely adore — a full mock-​up of a farm, with the walls painted Prussian blue with clouds, and the floor painted bright green with barns and those white split-​log fences. The room houses «animals throughout folk art» and includes duck decoys, weather vanes, and other animal sculptures. A storybook dog accompanies you through the exhibit.
My favorite room was the «unintentional» folk art: objects like drug store Indians, weather vanes, old-​timey storefront signs, and carousel animals. And while we were visiting, there was a special quilting exhibit full of beautifully crafted quilts from Colonial to modern.
The AARFAM is certainly worth a visit while in Colonial Williamsburg. It’s something the whole family can enjoy, and you won’t find a collection of folk art like this just anywhere.