New Exhibitions

Archiving Ava: An Intimate Look at Ava Gardner

What can we learn about Ava through the things she kept? Like many of us, Ava Gardner kept letters, photographs, gifts, and other sentimental mementos. Ava’s informal archive of her own life and career included her library, record collection, wardrobe, letters, scrapbooks, photographs, and much more. Conserving and sharing artifacts from both sides of Ava's life, the private and the public, enable us to present a more complete story of who she really was. While all of the artifacts in the Museum’s collection are handled, stored, and exhibited with the utmost care, those that once belonged to Ava herself are especially unique in their ability to offer a more intimate look at her world. By exploring how and what Ava Gardner personally preserved during her own lifetime, Archiving Ava provides a rare glimpse inside Ava’s own private world.

What personal items share your story?

Permanent Exhibitions

Ava in Costumes: Dressing the Part

This exhibition features costumes from Ava Gardner’s long career in films. The exhibit traces Ava’s career through a selection of costumes she wore in various film roles. The exhibit uses the costumes to summarize the trajectory of Ava Gardner’s acting career, from her early film appearances to the height of her popularity and through her later career, while also spotlighting the work of costume designers. The exhibit was originally opened in 2021 and was updated with an additional costume and other artifacts on loan to the Museum in 2022. The exhibit features seven unique costumes from Ava Gardner’s film career, highlighting the variety in her roles and how her career evolved over the years. Other artifacts related to the films are also included.

Love and Marriage: Ava's Husbands

This exhibition shares artifacts from each of Ava's three marriages or items related to her husbands. While so much has been written about her marriages from an outside perspective, the artifacts in this exhibit offer a more intimate glimpse inside Ava’s relationships and the meaningful connections she shared with each of her husbands: Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra. Many of the items included belonged to Ava herself and were items she kept from her marriages. 

Ava: My Real Story

This interactive display aims to separate fact from fiction by highlighting Ava Gardner’s North Carolina roots, lasting friendships, charitable work, and mixed feelings about the media. The exhibit includes an interactive kiosk which visitors can use to browse images of Ava Gardner that give insight into her personality and private life away from Hollywood.

The Art of Ava

This exhibit includes Ava-inspired artwork created for movie posters and film promotions as well as original fine artwork from Dutch artist, Bert Pfeiffer. This gallery showcases the inspiration that Ava Gardner posed in artists globally through multidisciplinary art forms.