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Photo: Rachel Hughes, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art is a contemporary art museum in Virginia Beach, Virginia that presents changing exhibitions rather than maintaining a permanent collection. It organizes the annual Boardwalk Art Show, founded in 1956, an outdoor exhibition whose participating artists are selected by a jury. The museum opened its current building on the Virginia Wesleyan University campus in April 2026; the university was renamed Batten University that July.
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The resort city is becoming a year-round meeting destination. Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) manages the Convention Center, which hosts regional and national trade shows, conventions, sports tournaments and special events, and sponsors some of the city's major festivals and special events.
Virginia Beach Surf and Rescue Museum
Housed in a 1903 former U.S. Life Saving Station, this quaint, oceanfront museum is chock-full of rescue equipment used by turn-of-the-century surf men to save shipwrecked crews from a watery grave. Learn about shipwrecks that occurred just off the Virginia Beach coast and the history of life-saving service from World War II to the present day.
Located in the historically registered DeWitt cottage built in 1895, the Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum displays art and artifacts documenting migratory wildfowl that pass through Eastern Virginia. Exhibits of wildfowl and shorebird carvings trace the evolution of this unique American art form. Enjoy on-site wood-carving demonstrations, interactive computer programs, decoys dating from historic times to present day and a collection of exhibits covering the history of Virginia Beach.
POW/MIA Flame of Hope Memorial Park
The designated location to watch fighter jets taking off and landing at Naval Air Station Oceana
The Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center is the state’s largest and one of the most-visited aquariums in the nation. It is an authority on the state’s various aquatic and marine environments and features more than 700,000 gallons of aquariums and live animal habitats, more than 300 hands-on exhibits and the IMAX 3D Theater. A one-third mile-long nature trail connects the two Pavilions that make up this “must sea” museum, and an outdoor aviary offers an up-close glimpse of the marsh birds seen along Virginia Beach’s shore.
Inside the park, visitors will find brilliant, colorful water slides and tubes for all-day excitement, featuring a million-gallon Runaway Bay wave pool and 13 water slides. Shoot the rushing Rocky River Rapids on an inner tube or soar down the Maui-Wowie speed slide.