North Carolina Museum of Art

08/31/2026

It's Meet the Museum Monday! This week, we're featuring Brye Shepard, Manager of Park and Mindful Museum Programs.

You'll learn which country she's heading back to for the first time in 20 years, hear about all the animals she has at home, and find out her favorite camping spot, which she calls a "hidden gem."

Check it out!

08/30/2026

Meet a work of art, enjoy movement and play, and get your creative juices flowing with our "What's in the Box?" sessions for 3- to 5-year-olds and their caregivers.

Adults and children visit the Museum galleries and create unique works of art in our studios as we make connections through stories, art-making, movement activities, and gallery play. This session, we'll be making miniature loom weavings!

08/29/2026

We invite you to join us for an evening of classical music in the Museum Park on Saturday, September 12.

Throughout the evening, small ensembles and solo musicians will perform at multiple outdoor stations. Featured music spans the Renaissance, Baroque, classical, Romantic, and contemporary eras.

Visitors are encouraged to move freely about to create their own musical experience, choosing which performances to attend and when.

Join us for an evening of classical music in the Museum Park. Throughout the evening small ensembles and solo musicians perform at multiple outdoor performance stations. Featured music spans the Renaissance, baroque, classical, Romantic, and contemporary eras. Audiences are invited to move freely ab...

08/28/2026

🍿NCMA Movies at Moore Square update🍿

Tonight's rescheduled screening of Godzilla vs. Mothra has been postponed until Friday, May 14, 2027.

Last week's postponed screening of Wicked: For Good has been rescheduled for Saturday, November 14 at 3 pm.

Presenting Partner: Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department and Downtown Raleigh Alliance
Cc: NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources

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Image: Courtesy of Toho and Universal Pictures

08/28/2026

Oh, hi! We're your art museum, and what makes the NCMA so unique is how we bring together art, nature, and people. The Museum Park is where those connections are clearest, and one spot that really encapsulates our ethos is the interactive artwork, Musical Swings.

These aren't your average swings. This outdoor work celebrates the art of play with an all-ages, interactive musical swing set. We recommend grabbing a couple of friends and seeing if you can sync your swings to create a multi-instrumental melody!

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Pictured: Musical Swings, Daily tous les jours, 2023, Aluminum structure, swings: aluminum frame and stainless steel chain with polyurethane covers, LED lights, speakers, computer, custom electronics and technology, 11 ft. x 68 ft. x 16 ft., Gift of Pat and Tom Gipson

08/27/2026

During a more than six-decade career, some of Yayoi Kusama’s best-known works are her “infinity rooms,” mirror-lined kaleidoscopic artworks that create illusions of infinite space.

A visitor favorite in the People’s Collection, Kusama’s LIGHT OF LIFE joined the NCMA's permanent collection in 2018 following its inclusion in “You Are Here,” an immersive exhibition of sound, light, and materials. We are grateful to share this work - and the joyful experience it brings - with our visitors.

Describing LIGHT OF LIFE in the NCMA collection, Kusama noted, “Thousands of illuminated colors blinking at the speed of light -- Isn't this the very illusion of Life in our transient world?”

LIGHT OF LIFE is currently on view in East Building on A level.
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Pictured: Yayoi Kusama, LIGHT OF LIFE, 2018, Mirrored box and LED lighting system, 86 5/8 x 84 1/4 x 72 7/8 in., Purchased with funds from the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest) and the bequest of Carlyle Adams, with additional funding from James Keith Brown and Eric Diefenbach, and Dr. W. Kent Davis and Dr. Carlos Garcia-Velez

08/27/2026

Last month, 26 North Carolina K-12 teachers visited the NCMA for our 5th annual Summer Institute for Educators.

In this year's two-day workshop, teachers worked with NCMA educators and guest speakers to explore two questions: How have artists shaped and told America's story? What can we learn about the many groups of people who make the United States unique by looking at their material culture and art?

They considered multiple perspectives on history and thought critically about works of art as primary sources in visits to the galleries and special exhibitions.

Teachers left the workshop with new ideas for teaching with art across the curriculum, and now that the new school year is underway, they can apply these ideas in their classrooms!

Thank you to the Coastal Credit Union Foundation for supporting this program.

08/26/2026

Our monthly free Craft Night at the NCMA program is back on Thursday night!

This month's theme is embroidery. We provide all the supplies - you only need to bring yourself and your creativity.

If you've got an embroidery project in the works or some clothing you'd like to embroider, bring it along. And don't worry, you're not limited to embroidery. If you're creating another type of DIY craft, come work on it at the Museum!

Join us from 5:30 pm-8 pm to grab refreshments, kick back, and meet fellow crafters.

08/26/2026

Today is National Dog Day - big or small, fluffy or sleek, puppy or senior - today is for celebrating our canine companions.

Thanks to an exhaustive search by our Associate Registrar for Collections, we have determined that the NCMA has at least 55 works featuring dogs! Here are just a few...
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Image 1: Erwin Olaf, Rain: The Ice Cream Parlor, 2004, Chromogenic print on paper mounted to Plexiglas, 30 x 30 in., Gift of Allen G. Thomas Jr. in memory of Mary Louise Barnes Smith

Image 2: Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Swan Attacked by a Dog, 1745, Oil on canvas, 70 x 82 in., Purchased with funds from the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest)

Image 3: Alexander Phimister Proctor, Dog with Bone, Bronze sculpture, modeled 1893; cast 1893, 7 1/2 x 5 1/8 x 8 1/4 in., Gift of Mrs. Arthur W. Levy

Image 4: Jan Wyck, Deer Hunt, circa 1696, Oil on canvas, 45 × 43 in., Purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina and the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest)

08/25/2026

One of the NCMA's newest acquisitions is now on view in East Building’s Education Lobby: a Vollis Simpson whirligig with a story as colorful as the piece itself.

In 2006, Johnston County art teacher Sue Avera and her elective class set out to critique and collect art. Their class project was to buy a piece by a living artist for their school gallery, so they raised money and purchased this whirligig directly from Simpson’s Wilson County workshop.

In 2011, the artwork was transferred to the local public library. Because of its size, it remained in storage until Johnston County Public Schools gifted it to the Museum in June.

Twenty years after its purchase, the whirligig has a new home where it will inspire student visitors and prove that art collecting is accessible at any age.

If you were one of the students who helped acquire this artwork, send us a DM - we'd love to talk to you!
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Photo 1: Courtesy of Sue Avera