N.C. Museum of Art

With a permanent collection that spans more than 5,000 years of culture, a 164-acre museum park and an outdoor amphitheater, the North Carolina Museum of Art draws nearly 300,000 visitors per year and is one of the premier art museums in the country. It’s easy to see why Cary Magazine readers love it so.

Free
The bargain price for admission to the museum and the museum park. Some special exhibitions have fees.

15 minutes
Approximate drive time from Downtown Cary

Left: 1 hour
Approximate time for a guided tour. Or go at your own pace, but don’t miss the temporary exhibit Porsche by Design: Seducing Speed, which runs through Jan. 20.

Bottom right: 1 of 2
American art museums with a gallery devoted to Judaic art.

9 temporary exhibitions
displayed during 2013 including Object of Devotion: Medieval English Alabaster Sculpture; Brian Ulrich Copia —Retail, Thrift, and Dark Stores, 2001-2011; and Porsche by Design: Seducing Speed.

30 sculptures
by Auguste Rodin make up the largest repository by that artist in the American South.