Review of North Carolina Museum of Art: A must visit attraction in Raleig

 

North Carolina Museum of Art 

Towards the end of October (2022), my wife and I headed to Raleigh from our parent’s place in New York City, to stay with our brother-in-law and his family.  There were two reasons for this:  1) our Chevy SUV was coming off of a lease, and 2) we were planning to do a cross country trip from North Carolina to California towards the end of November, once the car situation was taken care of.

It made sense to buy the replacement vehicle in the same state we were domiciled in, namely North Carolina, and it also made sense to leave from North Carolina, as we were planning on visiting many cities, attractions, and national parks in the south, the southwest, and finally Southern California.  

We were lucky in accomplishing our first reason for going down to North Carolina in that we managed to buy a new Mazda SUV in just one day, despite all the talk about lack of cars for sale, thanks to supply chain disruptions.  The car gods were definitely helping us that particular day!

It did take an excruciatingly long day(!) going around different dealerships, negotiating, then waiting to pick up our new car, but we consider ourselves lucky.  After that was done, we had some free time prior to leaving on our road trip, so we finally set out to explore the greater Raleigh area.  It was on one of those exploratory trips that we decided to visit the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Located on Blue Ridge Road in Raleigh, the museum consists of two separate buildings (West and East) and the 164 acre Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park.  One of the best things about the museum is the free admission policy, which we gladly took advantage of!

I don’t mind paying something to help out a museum, but if it’s free, why fight it???

We arrived at the museum on a chilly November morning and found plenty of parking spaces.  We were bit lost as it was our first trip, so we asked someone at the welcome center as to the direction of the museum.  

We had parked on the opposite side of the museum entrance, but we decided that was not a bad thing, as we absolutely loved the outdoor space of the museum park.  We decided to walk over about 2-3 block distance to the museum, admiring the beautiful landscaping and walking paths.

Welcome center

One of many walking paths

Near the parking lot/Welcome Center

Along the way, we saw people exercising, walking, and biking.  The day was cloudy, but who cares, when you’re retired and have all the time in the world to just enjoy the day, rain, cloudy, or sunshine…

We went inside to the west building first, and immediately noticed school age kids following their teachers, all intently watching the many impressive art works!  They were all well behaved, with no one screaming inside the museum, or running around.

We were impressed with the beautiful modern architecture of the west building.  It reminded us of a shipping container that was elongated to fit all those works of art.  The place was airy, bright, and arranged beautifully by different eras, going from antiquity, all the way to modern art.

North Carolina Museum of Art, West Building 

Modern art section

Near the entrance and lockers

We started from the antiquity section, perusing Jewish art, Roman/Greco art, then ended up in my favorite section, the Impressionists!  Lately, I’ve gotten into Monet’s works in particular.  I don’t know what it is about Monet, but the way he expresses nature just speaks to me.  I feel good just seeing his works…

Here are Monet’s works below.

I sat down on a bench just admiring the paintings for a good few minutes, then decided to join my wife who had headed over to the extensive Rodin section.  I saw my wife sketching one of Rodin’s works alongside several college students who were doing the same.  

Photo of Rodin’s studio

One of Rodin’s works

It felt good seeing college students as it brought us back in time to when we were in college, going to different museums and doing student things!  We are now old enough to be those students’ parents, but  that’s just the way life is I guess.  We all grow up and grow old…

Once my wife had finished her sketching, we went over to the modern art section, then finally to the Egyptian section.  We were really impressed with the museum’s collection and had a good time studying them.

By then, the museum had gotten busy with more of the little ones on field trips!  We were glad we got to enjoy those works of art in relative quietness.

We headed over to the east building, and got to see more works by contemporary artists.  We both thought the west building was the more impressive of the two, probably because we both enjoy European works of art, especially the Impressionists, more so then others.  

In any case, we were already an hour or so into our museum journey, and we needed some fresh air.  We went outside, and decided to head back home.  We were happy to get some fresh air on a chilly November day.  

On our journey home, we both decided to walk the beautiful trails at the museum park on our future trip.  We kept our promise, as we went back about two weeks later.

The weather was even colder that particular day but we were savoring the day.  We came prepared, bundled up with layered clothing.  We parked at the same parking lot, then started our walk towards the right.

We loved the fresh air and seeing various sculptures displayed throughout the museum park.  The trails were beautiful!

We walked a good mile or so, stopping along several places to take a breather, like these below.

After our looping walk at the museum park, we went back into the west building of the museum to view our favorite works of art again.  We felt like museum members who paid for annual memberships, free to visit as many times as we want to.  It felt great…

In conclusion:

North Carolina Museum of Art is a beautiful art museum, a beautiful sculpture garden, and a beautiful park all rolled into one.  We visited the place twice just within a two week period, and we surely could’ve done more, as there is so much to see and do.

We really appreciated that the admission is free, which is icing on the cake!  If you’re ever visiting the Raleigh area, please put this museum at the top of your list of destinations to visit.  We highly recommend it!

Thank you all for reading and happy trails!

Jake

Wandering Money Pig 

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