Fine Art & Flowers—Day Trip to the VMFA

Fine Art & Flowers—Day Trip to the VMFA

Date: Thursday, October 8, 2026

Time: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Location: Departing from and returning to The Art League, Alexandria, VA

Tickets: $85 (includes charter bus transportation, ticketed exhibit admission, and access to the full museum)

Every two years, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts hands its galleries over to flower arrangers, and the results are worth the drive. Designers from the Garden Club of Virginia, the Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs, and Ikebana of Richmond each choose a work from the museum’s permanent collection and build an arrangement to stand beside it: a Monet answered in dahlias, a bronze answered in branches. Fine Arts & Flowers has run every other year since 1987, and it takes over the whole museum.

We’re going on opening day, when every stem is at its freshest. Flowers, unlike paintings, have firm opinions about how long they’ll cooperate, so the first day is the day.

The shape of the day

• 8:00 AM — The front door of the Torpedo Factory will open at 8 am. Meet at The Art League gallery, first floor, studio 21. Coffee and pastries, then we board.
• 8:20 AM — Board the bus.
• 8:30 AM — Departure on the charter bus to Richmond. Doze, catch up with studio friends, or watch I-95 go by while someone else drives.
• 10:45 AM (ish) — Arrival and group check-in. The museum is yours. Visit the gift shop, and wander the permanent collection.
• NOON —12:30 PM— Have lunch on your own and/or continue to explore.
• 1:30 PM— Private Tour with our museum guide through the 70+ flower arrangements with artwork.
• 3:20 AM — Board the bus.
• 3:30 PM — Departure on the charter bus to Alexandria.
• 5:30 PM (ish) — Back at The Art League.

Your $85 covers the pre-boarding coffee and pastries, the round-trip charter bus, and exhibit admission and private tour with a museum guide. Lunch is on your own; the museum has both a casual café and a lovely sit-down restaurant, so you’ll eat well.

Fine Arts & Flowers is presented by The Council of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and proceeds from its sponsorships and special events go toward the largest expansion and renovation in the museum’s 90-year history, so the trip is also a small brick in something much bigger. The exhibition anchors a full calendar of talks, luncheons, guided tours, floral workshops, children’s activities, and a fashion show of designs by VCUarts fashion students, with a preview gala the night before we arrive. We’re there for the main event: the flowers, on their best day.

Seats are limited to what one charter bus holds, and these trips fill. If you’ve been meaning to see this exhibition, this is the easy way to do it.