Poised on the border between downtown and the Ghent district of Norfolk, the Chrysler Museum of Art opens its doors to you. Begun in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, the institution took on a new name and stature after a transformative gift in 1971: automotive heir Walter P. Chrysler Jr. donated most of his extensive collection. His wife, Jean Outland Chrysler, was a native of Norfolk, and that single gift expanded the museum’s holdings into one of the major art museums in the Southeastern United States.
Today the museum cares for more than 35,000 objects, including one of the largest glass collections in America, with works spanning paintings, sculpture, photography and decorative arts. The campus itself is lively and practical: you’ll find the Perry Glass Studio, the Kaufman Theater, the Goode Works on Paper Center, a full-service restaurant and a gift shop, and the museum also oversees the historic Myers House. The main building you face was expanded and renovated, reopening on May 10, 2014, a new chapter in a long story of collecting and display.
Your eye can travel from the façade across the campus to the studios, theater, restaurant and the Myers House nearby.