North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

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Description

North Carolina Museum of Art is a treat to visit, with an excellent permanent collection plus world-class temporary exhibits. Its building is chic and appealing on the outside, and airy and modern inside, letting in lots of light. The sculpture garden beside the main museum building has a pool with lily pads. In front of the museum is a silver tree sculpture, just gorgeous. There is a waiter-service restaurant and gift shop.
Best of all, NCMA has amazing landscaped grounds with long wispy grasses, hills to run up and down, and large modern sculptures. You can walk for miles on the different trails with open vistas. The Blue Loop is my favorite, which takes you past huge colorful sculptures and open hills, and then into a shady forest section with hilly, winding path. It starts at the back of the amphitheater. Here you will find a super fun installation: a rainbow-colored house which consists of just the roof, which kids can climb onto. Kids love this! They can also go inside and climb out the two windows! This little house is on a cute hill. Just a sweet spot!
The summer concerts are magical in the huge outdoor amphitheater. Everyone sits on the lawn on blankets or chairs, under huge globe lanterns. There's popcorn or ice cream to buy. Before the concerts, kids have a blast climbing over dozens of boulders behind the stage.
While in the area, check out the beautiful JC Raulston Arboretum, not to be missed!
Also, try some delicious Venezuelan food at the easy counter-service cafe called Guasaca Arepa and Salsa Grill, a seven minute drive away. They have a nice, modern interior, plus beautiful outdoor seating.

Photo Gallery

Landscaped grounds with wispy grasses and little hills to run on.	Walking from the parking to the museum.	Large outdoor sculptures and interesting grass.
Silver tree and stormy sky.	Front courtyard with trees and fountains.	Globe lanterns at a summer concert.
The stage.	Ice cream stand at a summer concert.	Chatting on the lawn at a summer concert.
Seating area at the amphitheater.	Kids love to climb these boulders behind the stage.	Open space galore!
Boulders and grassy hills to explore.	Rocket ship on the grounds.	Dozens of boulders!
View from behind the stage.	Paperhand Puppet Intervention, performing summer 2018.	Amazing puppet!
The stage and forest behind.	Trees lit up in the courtyard at night.	Statue near the parking lot, lit at night.
Rodin statue near the entrance.	Trees, paths, and long wavy grasses.	Long wavy grasses and silver tree.
Path down to the museum.	Amazing wavy grass.	Like a melon slice...
Sideways statue.	Look into a hole at mirrors and lights.	Gallery.
New Orleans: Ragging Home, by Romare Bearden.	Parisian Madonna and Child, from the late 1200s.	Italian painted tray from mid-1400s.
Adoring Angel, German/Bavarian.	American Landscape with Revolutionary Heroes, by Roger Brown.	Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave who led three hundred slaves to freedom.
Dock Builders, by George Wesley Bellows.	Diana and Actaeon, by Paul Howard, who made the golden sculpture at Rockefeller Center Ice Rink.	Danaid, By Auguste Rodin. She was doomed to pour water for eternity into a leaking vessel.
Venus Italica, by the Workshop of Antonio Canova.	The Cliff, Etretat, Sunset, by Claude Monet. Quite an amazing painting to have in your art museum!	Isles of Shoals, Appledore, By Frederick Childe Hassam.These islands are off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine.
The Virgin in Prayer, by Sassoferrato.	Madonna and Child, by Guido Reni.	The sculpture garden.
Pool with water lilies in the sculpture garden.	Path and open landscape.	Outdoor seating at Guasaca Arepa and Salsa Grill, a seven minute drive away.
Building that lets in lovely light.	Wavy grass in winter.	Winter trees.
Wintertime at the art museum.	Bubbling fountains and mural.	Giant photograph by Candida Hofer, in special exhibit.
Dandelion with pink petals.	A couple takes a Sunday stroll.	African blanket sculpture.
Huge red rings.	The red rings lined up.	Biking down the hill to the house installation.
Flowers on a hill.	Climbing on the roof of the house installation.	Rainbow house.
Inside the rainbow house.	The roof is fun to run up.	Kids climbing out the window of the rainbow house.
Space ship slide.	Blanket sculpture and open spaces.	Transparent pavilion.
Cartoon quotes sculpture.	View over the pond.	The rainbow house in the distance.
Bike riding past the boulders behind the stage.	A little girl enters the rainbow house.	A family runs toward the space ship slide.
Boys play in the fountains outside the museum.	Egyptian door made of limestone.	Roman relief with theater masks.

Directions

North Carolina Museum of Art is located at 2110 Blue Ridge Rd, Raleigh, NC 27607. Entrance to the museum is free! There is also plenty of free parking in the many large lots.
Open Tues-Sun 10-5. Closed Mondays. Open late until 9pm on Fridays.

This is an interactive map, you can zoom and move it.

Overall Visitor Rating: Unrated.