There are three museums affiliated with the University of Richmond: the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, the Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center, and the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature.  The first two are located in the same building in the Modlin Center for the Arts, and are devoted to the collection and study of visual art, with a particular emphasis on works on paper.  The Lora Robins Gallery is across the campus in the Boatwright Memorial Library, and is the University’s museum for the natural sciences and decorative arts.

The Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, formerly the Marsh Gallery, moved into its current space in 1996.  It began acquiring new works for the collection after the donation of the I. Webb Surratt Jr. Print Collection, and in 2005 was renamed after Joel and Lila Harnett, the namesakes of the adjacent Print Study Center.  The Museum regularly offers lectures, gallery talks, workshops and concerts, and its 4000 sq. ft. facility hosts about 12 rotating exhibitions annually.

The Print Study Center (founded in 2001) house the university’s collection of prints, drawings and photographs, and is the facility for the University’s art history and studio art courses.  The Center contains unique examples of works on paper by important artists in history (including Albrecht Durer, Pablo Picasso, and Auguste Rodin), which allow a unique perspective of these important artists, their processes, and techniques used. Though the Center includes an exhibition space, the focus is largely on the study of its collection; areas of the Center allow visitors to view the works as they are under research by university students and faculty.

The oldest of the University of Richmond’s Museums is the Lora Robbins Gallery of Design from Nature.  Begun in 1977, the Gallery expanded and moved in 1989 to its current location in the Boatwright Memorial Library.  The Gallery’s collection contains a wide diversity of items, from natural artifacts (prehistoric fossils and shells, rare minerals, and fluorescent rocks), to works of historical art (Pre-Columbian vessels, ancient coins, Hindu and Oceanic art), to pieces of contemporary art.