Virginia Living Museum

Connecting people to nature through educational experiences that promote conservation.

The purpose of the Virginia Living Museum shall be to stimulate knowledge, awareness and appreciation of the biological and physical world, and to develop an understanding of its relationship to the environment of the planet and the universe beyond. This shall be accomplished by providing a variety of living interpretive exhibits and education programs for the public, students and educators that encourage a commitment to protection and conservation of our natural world and its delicately balanced components.

The Commonwealth of Virginia is blessed with an “uncommon-wealth” of natural wonders, among the most diverse in the country. At the Virginia Living Museum in Newport News, Virginia, this natural heritage comes alive.

Opened in 1966 as the Junior Nature Museum and Planetarium through the combined efforts of the Junior League of Hampton Roads and the Warwick Rotary Club, the facility expanded and was renamed the Peninsula Nature and Science Center in 1976.

In 1987, the facility again expanded and was renamed the Virginia Living Museum, becoming the first living museum east of the Mississippi, combining the elements of a native wildlife park, science museum, aquarium, botanical preserve and planetarium.

Today, the Virginia Living Museum continues to be a museum leader in its use of native wildlife to present its message – stimulating knowledge, awareness and appreciation of the living world.

Visitors to the Living Museum encounter more habitats, wildlife and plant species than would be encountered in a lifetime of outdoor adventures in Virginia. The exhibits showcase all of the state’s regions from the upland coves of the Appalachian Mountains to the salty offshore waters of the Atlantic Ocean and feature more than 245 different animal species.

The Museum’s unique exhibits are also a vital component in its extensive education programming. The Museum believes in hands-on education; that by experiencing science it will become memorable.

More than two million students have visited the Museum since 1987. All of the Museum’s classes are correlated to Virginia’s Standards of Learning and targeted to specific grade levels.

For Museum members and visitors, there are special programs and weekend safaris to the caves, swamps and fossil banks of Virginia, helping to bring science and nature up close and personal to young and old alike.

With more than 500 active volunteers, the Virginia Living Museum is testimony to the appreciation and overwhelming support it receives from the local community.