The North Carolina Museum of Art houses the art collections of the State of North Carolina. These collections had their beginnings in 1947 when the North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $1 million in state funds for the purchase of works of art, making North Carolina the first state in the nation to use public funds to buy a collection of art.

The state"s art collection spans more than 5,000 years, from ancient Egypt to the present making it one of the premier art museums in the region. The ancient collection includes Egyptian funerary art and important examples of sculpture and vase painting from the Greek and Roman worlds. The collection of European paintings and sculpture from the Renaissance through Impressionism is internationally celebrated with important works by Giotto, Sandro Botticelli, Raphael, Anthony van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens, Antonio Canova, and Claude Monet. American art of the 18th and 19th centuries features paintings by John Singleton Copley, Thomas Cole, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, and William Merritt Chase. Modern art includes major works by such American artists as Marsden Hartley, Georgia O"Keeffe, Franz Kline, Frank Stella, Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Murray, and Joel Shapiro. Modern European masters include Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Delvaux, Henry Moore, Anselm Kiefer, and Gerhard Richter. Galleries are also devoted to African, Ancient American, and Oceanic Art, as well as Jewish ceremonial art. In 2005 the Museum received a gift of 22 sculptures by Auguste Rodin from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.  With this gift, the Museum becomes the only Rodin repository in the South. Exhibitions: Four changing galleries house several special exhibitions throughout the season.

Tours: Free guided tour Tuesday through Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Guided tours for youth and adult groups are provided free; to schedule, call the Museum at (919) 664-6748, at least four weeks in advance.

Hours of Operation: Tuesday–Thursday and Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Friday 9 a.m.–9 p.m.

Sunday 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Closed Mondays

The Museum Park is free and open daily, including holidays, from dawn to dusk.

The Museum will be closed in 2009 for these holidays:

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Friday, July 3, 2009

The Museum will be temporarily closed Monday, September 7, 2009 through Saturday, April 24, 2010 as preparations are made for opening the new gallery building. The Museum Park and Amphitheater will remain open through this time.

Fees: No entry fees for this park
Metro Region: Triangle, NC
Park Management: State

Printed Materials
NC Museum of Art Trail Map