The Blue Ridge Institute and Museum is the largest folklife museum in the Old Dominion. It is the official State Center for Blue Ridge Folklore and a major venue along The Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. Since the early 1970s the Institute has documented and presented the folk heritage of the Blue Ridge Mountains and surrounding regions. The daily-life Read more...

As the official State Center for Blue Ridge Folklore, the Blue Ridge Institute & Museum stocks its museum store with hard-to-find authentic folk crafts including wood-ware, split-oak baskets, handwoven rugs, quilts, wrought iron, folk art, and much more. Explore an array of musical recordings and books that showcase the heritage of Virginia folk culture. Open year-round. For hours and information, Read more...

Experience early rural life at the Blue Ridge Institute’s Blue Ridge Institute & Museum”s Farm, a re-created 19th century Blue Ridge, Virginia-German farmstead. Costumed interpreters prepare meals over the open hearth, drive oxen, blacksmith, and carry out a host of other household and farm chores of the period. In the gardens and around the log farm buildings heirloom vegetables and historic Read more...