During the 18th century, Virginia was home to a large population of people of African descent. Enslaved people were considered chattel property, while free blacks were disenfranchised from the political process. Throughout the month, special programs will be offered in the Historic Area and the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum that explore various stories of the people and culture.

Colonial Black Virginians struggled to become recognized as Americans, but their active efforts in seeking freedom and equality serve as a model of citizenship. Join us on this journey to explore the story of a people who challenged the political and societal norms to affect a better future for themselves and the next generation.

Program details will be added to the calendar as they become available.

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 9:30, 10, 10:30, 11, 11:30, noon, 1:30, 2, 2:30, and 3.

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.

How does the colonial performing artist develop his art? How are costumes, sets, play scripts, and music brought to life for a colonial audience? Drop in and chat with our Performing Arts staff about the craft of theater and performance in colonial America.

Stay for as little or as long as you wish, but this is the chance to ask the questions you’ve always wanted to ask.

Included in all Historic Area admission passes.

Guests may enter and exit any time during the program.

Come and participate in a local court session where lives, liberties, and property come into contest. Our guests may take on roles as justices, attorneys, litigants, petitioners, or defendants. See how the rights of Virginians were maintained in open court.

Offered Tuesday through Saturday mornings at 10:30 a.m. Program is approximately 30 minutes long.

Included in all Historic Area admission tickets.

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.

Nothing can transport us back in time as completely as music. Come enjoy music played by members of The Governor's Musick and learn how 21st century musicians bring 18th cnetury music to life using period and reproduction instruments, facsimile scores and journals, letters and colonial newspapers. Seating is limited.

Twenty-five minute program. Included in all Historic Area admission passes.

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.

Join a museum volunteer in the textile gallery to learn about the latest textile exhibitions on view, and to examine fashion accessories, costumes, and needlework in the textile study drawers.

Included in all Historic Area or museum admission passes.

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

Guests may enter and exit any time during the program.

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.

Let us introduce you to an evening at the theater. A favorite pastime of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, 18th-century theater reflects the popular culture of the day. From marriage, fortune, and title, to master-servant relationships, no topic escapes the 18th-century stage.

Included in all Historic Area admission passes.

Museum volunteers guide this in-depth tour of rare and important 17th- and 18th-century American maps.

Included in all Historic Area or museum admission passes.

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

Under the guidance of an experienced volunteer interpreter, guests explore The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's educational outreach, library, and object conservation facilities. They have a chance to speak with the experts about the work that is involved in accurately recreating this colonial city and caring for its collections.

Start the tour in the Bruton Heights School Lobby at 2:30 pm.

Available to Annual Pass, Good Neighbor, and Hotel Guest Pass holders only. Free reservation required.

A walk and talk with the staff who research and care for antiques in the museums.

Meet your tour guide at the base of the staircase in the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.

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.

Drop by to enjoy music played by a member (or two) of Colonial Williamsburg’s resident performing ensemble, The Governor’s Musick. This informal program showcases music for a “chamber” or parlor where good conversation and music were often enjoyed. The program is ongoing. Seating is limited.

Included in all Historic Area admission passes.

Guests may enter and exit any time during the program.

Poetry, political pieces, and songs with partisan themes were important propaganda tools before and during the Revolutionary War. Hear the words and melodies that both inspired and influenced a generation of men and women torn between ties of loyalty and the emerging spirt of independence.

Included in all Historic Area admission passes.

Museum volunteers guide this in-depth tour of rare and important 17th- and 18th-century American maps.

Included in all Historic Area or museum admission passes.

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

Ticketed event.

Rated: R

Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After 12 years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed three more things: no scruples, an accomplice, and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia (Marisa Paredes), the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig …

Director Pedro Almodovar was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

Spanish with subtitles. Feb. 6-7, 9-11, 13 screening room. 117 mins.

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

Ticketed event.

Rated: R

Haunted by painful memories and suffering from increasing anxiety, Martha escapes an abusive cult and returns home to live with her older sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), and Lucy’s husband, Ted. With no other family to lean on, Martha tries desperately to assimilate into Ted and Lucy’s upper-middle-class lifestyle. But nightmares of the cult that brainwashed her into living as Marcy May prevent her from connecting with the only people who may be able to save her. As Martha’s isolation grows, her severe paranoia escalates. Ultimately, she descends into a dizzying state of panic as the growing fear that she is being hunted grips her every move.

Giving a breakout performance as Martha (Marcy May), Elizabeth Olsen subtly commands the screen in this stunning follow-up to writer/director Sean Durkin’s 2010 Cannes award-winning short, Mary Last Seen.

Feb. 2-5, 8 screening room. 102 mins.

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

Wednesday nights, 6:30 p.m., Jan. 18—Feb. 15.

The Williamsburg Library Theater, 515 Scotland St. This film series is part of a 1-credit W&M Film Studies course designed in conjunction with the festival. Screenings are free and open to the public. Please come join us!

No tickets required. The series will feature "city" films about Japan, Germany, Brazil, and other nations, and each will be introduced with a brief presentation by a W&M faculty member. Visit filmfestival.wm.edu for complete schedule.

Ticketed event.

Rated: R

Haunted by painful memories and suffering from increasing anxiety, Martha escapes an abusive cult and returns home to live with her older sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), and Lucy’s husband, Ted. With no other family to lean on, Martha tries desperately to assimilate into Ted and Lucy’s upper-middle-class lifestyle. But nightmares of the cult that brainwashed her into living as Marcy May prevent her from connecting with the only people who may be able to save her. As Martha’s isolation grows, her severe paranoia escalates. Ultimately, she descends into a dizzying state of panic as the growing fear that she is being hunted grips her every move.

Giving a breakout performance as Martha (Marcy May), Elizabeth Olsen subtly commands the screen in this stunning follow-up to writer/director Sean Durkin’s 2010 Cannes award-winning short, Mary Last Seen.

Feb. 2-5, 8 screening room. 102 mins.

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