The main and permanent exhibition of the museum, called "Forks in the Road: Food, Wine and the American Table", had displays explaining the origins of cooking through to modern advances, and included a significant portion about the history of American winemaking. The museum's opening art exhibition was called "Active Ingredients", and had new works related to food by eight notable artists. Copia also had an annual exhibit and event called "Canstruction", which began in 2005. The event involved teams of architects, students, and designers creating sculptures from cans of food, which would later be donated to the Napa Valley Food Bank. The first year's donation consisted of 42,000 pounds of canned food.