Enjoy changing exhibitions of American folk art, the colonial and contemporary artists and craftspeople who work outside the mainstream of academic art to record aspects of everyday life. Attend lectures and musical performances in the Hennage Auditorium. Visit the Museum Store and the Museum Café.

View Current Exhibits

See an extensive collection of American and British antiques. See furniture, metals, ceramics, glass, paintings, prints, firearms, and textiles from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries and the Public Hospital of 1773. Attend lectures and musical performances in the Hennage Auditorium. Visit the Museum Store and the Museum Café.

View Current Exhibits

The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum gratefully acknowledges support for programs from The DeWitt Wallace Endowment Fund.

Designed to help guests plan their visit. Our volunteers and costumed staff lead the 30-minute walks and provide guests with the latest information on programming, dining, and shopping options. Guests also get an overview of the 18th-century community and learn about the restoration of Williamsburg.

Included in all Historic Area or Museum admission passes. Thirty-minute tours depart at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m., and 3 p.m.

Guided tours by knowledgeable museum volunteers introduce you to some of the masterworks on exhibit, such as paintings, ceramics, textiles, furniture, and silver.

Included in all Historic Area or museum admission tickets.

The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum gratefully acknowledges support for programs from The DeWitt Wallace Endowment Fund.

Guided tours by knowledgeable museum volunteers introduce you to the whimsical and fascinating paintings, sculpture, textiles, and more from Mrs. Rockefeller's original collection, for which the museum was founded.

Thirty-minute tours begin at noon and 2 p.m. Included in all Historic Area or museum admission tickets.

The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum gratefully acknowledges support for programs from The DeWitt Wallace Endowment Fund.

The world is familiar with the accomplishments of America’s historical giants, men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. The efforts of these great men were essential to the overthrow of tyranny and the establishment of the United States as a self governing republic. But their contributions were made possible only by the often overlooked people of history on whose shoulders these first line patriots stood.

These people, preachers and house servants, enslaved and free, who lived their lives, some heroically and some humbly, were nation builders no less than the Washingtons, Jeffersons and Henrys of history. Have a conversation with Nation Builders as they discuss the "Revolutionary" events that helped to inspire and influence the ideas of their American dream.

Guests may enter and exit any time during the program.

Guided tours by knowledgeable museum volunteers introduce you to some of the masterworks on exhibit, such as paintings, ceramics, textiles, furniture, and silver.

Included in all Historic Area or museum admission tickets.

The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum gratefully acknowledges support for programs from The DeWitt Wallace Endowment Fund.

Guided tours by knowledgeable museum volunteers introduce you to the whimsical and fascinating paintings, sculpture, textiles, and more from Mrs. Rockefeller's original collection, for which the museum was founded.

Thirty-minute tours begin at noon and 2 p.m. Included in all Historic Area or museum admission tickets.

The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum gratefully acknowledges support for programs from The DeWitt Wallace Endowment Fund.

Join a volunteer in the Ceramic Study Room to learn more about rare ceramic forms from Europe, America, and the Orient.

Included in all Historic Area or museum admission tickets.

The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum gratefully acknowledges support for programs from The DeWitt Wallace Endowment Fund.

Ticketed event.

Not rated.

Award-winning filmmaker Steve James delivers another powerful look at life in urban America with this documentary. As gang violence became more common (and deadly) in the city of Chicago, social workers, activists, and educators founded a group called CeaseFire in 2000 to help curb the tide of aggression. CeaseFire counselors work with at-risk youth in communities heavily impacted by violence to teach them that there are better ways to resolve personal conflicts than with guns, believing that the biggest problem isn’t gangs but the notion of violent retribution so deeply ingrained in their culture. James spends a year following a handful of CeaseFire activists as they try to educate teenagers about the true consequences of gun violence one person at a time.

Grand Jury Prize winner at the 2011 Miami Film Festival.

Jan. 26-Feb. 1 screening room. 125 mins.

Reservations or additional tickets required. Call 1-800-HISTORY for prices and reservations.

Ticketed event.

Not rated.

With her love of adventure and fearlessness, Ruth Gruber defied tradition from the moment she became the world’s youngest PhD at the age of 20 in 1931. Ahead of Time tells the remarkable journey of 96-year-old Gruber and is the directorial debut of noted cinematographer Bob Richman (The September Issue, My Architect, and An Inconvenient Truth). Gruber continued to make history throughout her trail-blazing career by becoming the first journalist to enter the Soviet Arctic in 1935 and escorting 1,000 Holocaust refugees from Naples to New York in a secret war-time mission in 1944. She covered the heart-wrenching ordeal of the refugees aboard the ship Exodus in 1947 with photographs that helped change the world. The film interweaves verite scenes with never-before-seen archival footage. Ruth is an inspiration not only for her groundbreaking career, but for her vitality and humor.

English and Hebrew with subtitles. 73 mins.

This film is part of the Virginia Peninsula Jewish Film Festival on Merchants Square.

Reservations or additional tickets required. Call 1-800-HISTORY for prices and reservations.

Ticketed event.

Not rated.

With her love of adventure and fearlessness, Ruth Gruber defied tradition from the moment she became the world’s youngest PhD at the age of 20 in 1931. Ahead of Time tells the remarkable journey of 96-year-old Gruber and is the directorial debut of noted cinematographer Bob Richman (The September Issue, My Architect, and An Inconvenient Truth). Gruber continued to make history throughout her trail-blazing career by becoming the first journalist to enter the Soviet Arctic in 1935 and escorting 1,000 Holocaust refugees from Naples to New York in a secret war-time mission in 1944. She covered the heart-wrenching ordeal of the refugees aboard the ship Exodus in 1947 with photographs that helped change the world. The film interweaves verite scenes with never-before-seen archival footage. Ruth is an inspiration not only for her groundbreaking career, but for her vitality and humor.

English and Hebrew with subtitles. 73 mins.

This film is part of the Virginia Peninsula Jewish Film Festival on Merchants Square.

Reservations or additional tickets required. Call 1-800-HISTORY for prices and reservations.

Ticketed event.

Not rated.

Award-winning filmmaker Steve James delivers another powerful look at life in urban America with this documentary. As gang violence became more common (and deadly) in the city of Chicago, social workers, activists, and educators founded a group called CeaseFire in 2000 to help curb the tide of aggression. CeaseFire counselors work with at-risk youth in communities heavily impacted by violence to teach them that there are better ways to resolve personal conflicts than with guns, believing that the biggest problem isn’t gangs but the notion of violent retribution so deeply ingrained in their culture. James spends a year following a handful of CeaseFire activists as they try to educate teenagers about the true consequences of gun violence one person at a time.

Grand Jury Prize winner at the 2011 Miami Film Festival.

Jan. 26-Feb. 1 screening room. 125 mins.

Reservations or additional tickets required. Call 1-800-HISTORY for prices and reservations.