Each week on Art Expeditions we’ll take a virtual tour of an art museum. When I created this site, I wanted to have a place where art lovers can come together to learn about art and provide a compendium of US Musuems by state and major museums in the world.

I’ve been blessed to have visited many wonderful art museums from The Met in NYC to The Uffizi in Florence, Italy. What I’ve found is each art museum from the smallest to the largest offers an amazing opportunity to engage and have a conversation with art.

On Art Expeditions we’ll explore a variety of museums across the US and abroad.

You can access our guide to US Art Museums here. I tired to include as many art museums and galleries as possible, but if I missed one let me know and I’ll add it.

This list is helpful as you plan trips and are interested in learning about art museums in different areas – or if you simply wanted to discover a gallery in your backyard.

I’d love to see your pics and hear your feedback from the museums you visit! You can email me here.

I’m kicking off our ‘Museum of the Week,’ at one of my favorite haunts – The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh NC. I am a Raleigh native and can often be found wandering the galleries and scuplture park at The NCMA.

The NCMA is one of the best art collections in the United States featuring over 5000 years of art history from antiquity to modern times. The 4200 piece collection is mighty, featuring treasures from Greece and Egyptian to Masters of the Renaissance like Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Paolo Uccello, Raphael and Titian…The Northern European collection boasts works by Anthony van Dyck, Rubens and Rembrandt…if you like Impressionism – Monet and friends are here.

Let’s start with a little museum history…

The NCMA traces its roots back to 1924 with the NC Art Society acquired seventy-five paintings. They did not have a permanent location to show the art, but did use space at The NC Legislature and other buildings. By 1947, The NC Art Society with the help of Alice Willson Broughton (former First Lady of North Carolina) lobbied the state legislature for a permanent building to house the collection. The idea was innovative – a public state art museum – ‘a people’s collection – that was for the people of North Carolina.’

In a landmark move, The state legislature appropriated $1 million to purchase collection of artworks FOR THE PEOPLE of North Carolina. The NCMA became the first state funded art museum in the US.

The funds were used to purchase 139 European and American works. The Samuel H. Kress Foundation matched the appropriationg with a gift of 71 works, including masterpieces from the Italian Renaissance.

• Samuel H. Kress was a businessman who created an empire of five and dime stores. He collected huge amounts of art and his bequests can be found divided among many museums from Denver to NC to South Carolina and The National Gallery in DC. You can learn about the Samuel H. Kress Foundation here.

The initial NCMA building was in the heart of downtown Raleigh on Morgan Street. My grandmother worked and volunteered there (she was also a member of the Fine Arts Society), which definitely influenced my passion for art.

The NCMA moved to its present day location on Blue Ridge Road near the NC Fairgrounds in 1983 – at the time this was a bit controversial as the other state museums remained downtown. The NCMA however had a vision to not just have an art museum, but to be a gathering place for education and culture.

They created a stunning 164-acre sculpture park, which connects to the Raleigh greenway.

They also have an amphitheater that hosts summer concerts by the likes of Bruce Hornsby to Herbie Hancock

When I was growing up and spending weekends studying the Monet(s) and exploring The Egyptian Wing like Indiana Jones…there was only one building…at the time it sufficed, but as the collection continued to grow the NCMA needed more space.

In 2010 they opened an additional building (West Building). The West Building is eco-friendly and modern – it houses most of the permanent collection.

The original (East) building is used for special exhibits and classes/events. It also has a cafe with scenic views of the sculpture park.

Admission is FREE, except for certain special exhibits.

Let’s start our Highlights Tour:

Upon entering The West Building grab a map and plan your journey.

Many choose to move through the museum in chronological order (Egyptian/Greco-Roman to modern art), but you can also focus on certain periods or artists of history.

In 2022, The NCMA remodeled The West Building and while most of the art is still grouped by region and dates, some pieces are intermixed in The People’s Collection. The idea is that two completely different styles of art are seen side by side; ex: Baroque and Contemporary Abstract. I enjoy that concept, but also find sometimes it can be distracting because it feels like a clash when something is so modern against a 17th-century landscape. If nothing else it makes you pause and dig deeper into the art.

One thing I like about grouping different art periods/styles together it challenges you to think about art outside of its set parameters and find common themes. An example of his is the museums recent exhibit showing a modern interpretation of Judith and Holofernes vs the traditional painting from the 17th-century. Click here about that exhibit from 2022

For the sake of our virtual tour, I’ll go through a few of my favorite highlights from various periods.

Egyptian Art:

As a child I was always fascinated by The Egyptians and the art. The NCMA has a strong Egyptian collection including mummies and artifacts. The collection has 38 artifacts from the Predynastic (Nagada I, 4000-3500 BCE) ot the Roman era of Egypt (30-642 CE). The oldest Egyptian artifact is a black-topped red cermaic jar that was handmade over 6000 years ago. Just to see items that are that old is astounding. It puts things in perspective and is a reminder of how we are wired for art throughout human cultures.

The mummy coffins of Djed Mut and Amunred (servant statues) that are painted for servants chores in the afterlife give a window into Egyptian beliefs at the time.

I love the painted Model of a Boat, learn more at the NCMA learning portal

Greco-Roman Era

Covers more than 3000 years of Classical art from the Mediterranean and Roman Empire. See busts and ceramic tiles from Greece: Cycladi, Mycenaean, Geometric and Classical…as well as works from the anciet cultures of the Villanovans and Etruscans.

The Grecian Urns perfectly preserved are my favorite

Click here to learn more

The Renaissance Collection

Hands down one of my favorite spots in the museum. I love to meditate on the spiritual stories in the icons and triptych that used to be in private chapels. It is humbling to think that possibly hundreds or thousands of faithful prayed before the Italian Renaissance works of art.

The Renaissance included two central themes: religious art and a renewed interested in Classicism – mythology and historical paintings. while much of the collection focuses on Biblical themes like Madonna and Child.

*I hope to do a lecture specifically on Renaissance art at The NCMA soon. Remember to subscribe for updates.

The NCMA honestly has one of the best Renaissance collections in a US Art Museum of its size. Masters of the Renaissance that many travel to Florence to see are right here in Raleigh!

The museum has a wonderful Botticelli that is just as beautiful as many I saw in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence

You can also find early works by Raphael and Titian, as well as Venetian great Veronese.

Perhaps the highlight is a work by Giotto, who was a master of the early/pre-Renaissance…From Florence, Giotto was an artist and an architect. He worked all over Italy on commissions including Florence’s Bell Tower (Campanile), The Ognissiti Madonna (Uffizi-Florence) and the Scovengio Chapel in Padua.

We discussed how Brunelleschi and Masacchio helped used in perspective, but before their time Giotto already began to make strides and is consider the founder of modern painting – which led to The Renaissance. I always classify him in The Renaissance, but some historians place Giotto (and Duccio – another similar artist) in the pre-Renaissance/late Medieval period.

At the NCMA you can see Giotto’s masterpiece, The Peruzzi Altarpiece, which was once in Florence in the Church of Santa Croce. Learn more here.

Northern European Collection:

Includes a strong mix of art from The Netherlands and Germany including works by Anthony van Dyck, Rembrant and Jordaens. We’ll be learning more about these artists in future ‘Meet the Artist’ features.

European (French-Spanish-English) Art:

You’ll see a mix of top artwork in this collection from a variety of periods. The British collection features famed portrait painters like Romney. You’ll also discover an AMAZING collection of European Impressionism and post-Impressionism paintings and sculpture.

The NCMA has three Monet works in its permanent collection as well as a Pissarro.

The Rodin collection is easily one of the best on the east coast (outside of Philadelphia). The museum is home to thirty Rodin scupltures.

Here are a few of my favorite pieces:

American Collection

The American Wing includes masterpieces by early-American painters Copley, Peale and Audubon…American Impressionists F. Frieske and Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent’s study of Israel of the Law for Boston Public Library, as well as O’Keeffe and Andrew Wyeth.

My favorite is Frieske’s Woman with a Parasol (image at the top of article). The colors and vivid scene are full of life and you can imagine yourself on a hot summer day under that parasol (at least as a kid at the museum I did)

Jewish Art

The NCMA is one of only two art museums in the US that has a permanent Jewish art collection and it is FABULOUS. No matter your faith being able to learn about the culture and history of The Jewish people and see Torah Scrolls and personal worship items used in celebrations like Passover is moving. Learn more here.

African Art

The Museum includes a strong mix of traditional African art as well as contemporary art by African artists. You can learn more about the highlights of the collection here.

Ancient Americas

This collection spans 2000 years and seven countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru

Learn more here

The Sculpture Park

One of the most popular walking trails in Raleigh – The Sculpture Trail is part nature center with a lake and native plants as well as containing over a dozen works of sculpture. You feel like you are in another world here, outside of the city traffic, with hills and vistas. This is a perfect spot to catch a sunset after an afternoon picnic on the grass.

We’ll visit The NCMA again (since I live so close and it has so much to explore)…next week check back as we tour another amazing art museum.

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