HOURS: Tuesday – Saturday 12-5pm, Thursday 12-8pm (closed Mondays)

Upcoming Events at the Wilson Museum
Lenny Lyons Bruno

Plan Your Visit

The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University features the work of renowned, emerging, and regional artists. The museum presents exhibitions in a wide variety of media and genres, including selected exhibitions from the permanent collection. With programming such as artist talks, workshops, and tours, the museum provides a forum for art through viewing, dialogue, and an understanding of the creative process. The museum also offers student internships, volunteer opportunities, and an undergraduate course on museum curatorial practices offered every other year.

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Collections

Betty Branch

The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum houses a diverse collection of artwork by well-known artists working in a variety of media. Paintings, photographs, and works on paper acquired by generations of Hollins University art professors and alumnae form the basis of our collection. Now, the museum actively collects work by internationally recognized artists working today. With more than 1500 art objects and a growing archive, the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum’s collection is an important cultural and educational resource for the university and the greater southwestern Virginia community.

Thanks to the Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence program, the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum also has a growing collection of works documenting participating residency artists, which provides an important cross section of contemporary art being made in the last years of the twentieth century and into the early decades of the twenty-first. This program, which started in 1997, brings a nationally recognized artist to campus each spring. The artist creates work, teaches a seminar open to all students, delivers a public lecture in conjunction with their solo exhibition, and donates an artwork to the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum. A selection of these works are available for viewing online.

To schedule an appointment to view work from the collection for scholarly research, please email Laura Jane Ramsburg at lramsburg@hollins.edu.

Museum Staff

museum staff 2023

Jenine Culligan, Museum Director culliganje@hollins.edu

Laura Carden, Visitor Services and Programs Coordinator cardenla1@hollins.edu

Janet Carty, Preparator jcarty@hollins.edu

Laura Jane Ramsburg, Assistant Director lramsburg@hollins.edu

Our Founder

Eleanor D. Wilson

Eleanor Delaney “Siddy” Wilson graduated from Hollins with a degree in chemistry. She went on to become an accomplished actress on Broadway and to receive a Tony nomination. She directed plays, performed with the USO, and worked in television and movies. She pursued her interest in art by studying with Margaret Stark and Rafael Soyer in New York City. Siddy’s desire was that her beloved Hollins have a world-class art museum. This museum, named in her honor, is the culmination of her philanthropic generosity and benefits both the Hollins and greater Roanoke communities.

In 2008, Tanya Bickley and Sheri Dean, executors of her estate, gave the museum an extensive archive of documents, including photographs, journals, writings, and artwork by Siddy, to be used as an educational resource.