North Carolina Museum of Art

The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is a museum of fine arts located in Raleigh, North Carolina. It opened in 1956 as the country's first major museum collection formed through state legislation and funding.  The Museum has been a model of enlightened public policy since the initial 1947 appropriation that established its collection, with free admission to the permanent collection. Today, it houses a collection of over 5,000 years of artistic work from antiquity to the present, as well as an amphitheater for outdoor performances and a variety of celebrated exhibitions and public programmed. Over 40 galleries and over a dozen major works of art are housed in the nation's largest museum park, which spans 164 acres (0.66 km2). . The NCMA, one of the most important art museums in the American South, recently completed a major expansion that has received international acclaim for innovative approaches to energy-e efficient design.      

History

The North Carolina State Art Society was founded in 1924 to generate interest in establishing a state art museum.   

The society raised funds in 1928, and 75 paintings were first displayed in a series of temporary art exhibition spaces in Raleigh's Agriculture Building in 1929.  NCMA was relocated to the former Supreme Court building in 1939. The North Carolina legislature appropriated $1 million in 1947 to purchase a collection of artworks for the people of the state. The funds were used to buy 139 European and American works. The appropriation was matched by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.                     The state's allocation of funds for an art collection in 1947 was the first in the United States.  Former North Carolina First Lady Alice Wilson Broughton helped secure funding for the collection.

Morgan Street Address

W. R. Valentiner became the museum's first director on April 6, 1956, when it opened in the renovated State Highway Division Building on Morgan Street in downtown Raleigh, the state capital.

 

The museum's first curator was Ben Williams.

The museum was separated from the Art Society by the legislature in 1961, and it became a state agency governed jointly by the state and a board of trustees. Ten years later, NCMA was absorbed into the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Park

Art and nature interact at the broad and diverse Museum Park. Find out how you can improve your outdoor experience here.

You are free to roam. You are free to explore. Every aspect of the People's Collection has been redesigned. Except for the cost. Visit the North Carolina Museum of Art and the 164-acre Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park for free.

West Building, which houses the Museum Store as well as the Sip Coffee Bar and Café

Closed from May 29, 2022 through October 7, 2022

Building East

10 a.m.-5 p.m., Wednesday-Sunday

Café East

10 a.m.-4 p.m., Wednesday-Sunday

Mondays, Tuesdays, and select holidays are closed (see below)

Welcome Center and Museum Park

The park is open from sunrise to dark every day, including holidays.

Restrooms at the Welcome Center are open everyday from dawn to dark; dining and shop hours are seasonal, with current hours being Wednesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Please be aware that construction is taking place in the southeast corner of the Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park as part of the I-440 enhancement project. The whole project is taking place in the right-of-way, not on Museum Park land. The project is scheduled to be finished in the fall of 2022. If you have any questions, please visit the website of the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Holiday Gallery Closures

Thanksgiving is on Thursday, November 24th.

Christmas is on Saturday, December 24th and Sunday, December 25th.

Saturday, January 1, 2023: New Year's Day

Easter is on April 9, 2023.