CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/19024
eyes as they turn a corner and see the splendor of exterior sunlight casting rays through the contemporary work. Museum officials call German Tilman Riemenschnieder’s “Female Saint” the most important sculpture in the museum. While that is arguable, it certainly has ambrosial lighting and boundless spaciousness. Galleries in the museum flow together like an easy-to-assemble puzzle and visitors can easily connect art and historical periods. Unlike some museums, all works at the NCMA are on one floor. Since there is no cost for admission, visitors can wander in and out through several doors. The West Wing, which opened in April, houses the museum’s permanent collection. The East Building was closed early this year, but will reopen this month for special exhibitions, events and conferences. It is also home to a library and the administrative offices. From the outside the 127,000-square-foot building, which cost $72.3 million, looks like a nondescript silver rectangle. Walk closer and the picture comes into focus as you see its 360 skylights and $4.5 million in courtyards and gardens, including three miles of walking trails on a 164-acre complex. The museum has a new restaurant that features breakfast, lunch and dinner menus for adults and children as well as an extensive wine list. For others, a picnic lunch and meandering around the grounds provides an unpretentious family outing. Despite a collection that is smaller than at giants such as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. or The Getty in L.A., the North Carolina Museum of Art is making monumental strides towards becoming a creative force in the museum world.CV UPCOMING EVENTS • “The Art of Norman Rockwell” runs from Nov. 7 through Jan. 30 in the East Building. It features 40 original works and a decade-by-decade look at 323 of his Saturday Evening Post covers. • “Bob Trotman: Inverted Utopias,” which runs from Nov. 7 through Jan. 30 in the East Building, features 20 works from the North Carolina sculptor. • “Fins and Feathers: Original Children’s Book Illustrations from the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art,” which runs Nov. 7 through Jan. 30 in the East Building, features 33 picture book illustrations from the late 1960s to 2000. • “Binh Danh: In the Eclipse of Angkor,” which runs from Nov. 7 through Jan. 30 in the East Building, features Dahn’s recent interpretation of the genocide in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. Sculpture garden | The 72.3 million building sits on a 164-acre complex with courtyards, gardens and walking trails. In rememberence| “Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian” ( top right) pays homage to the Tuskegee Airmen, America’s first black pilots. • John James Audubon’s “The Birds of America,” which opens Nov. 7 in the East Building, features 435 hand-colored prints produced by engraving and aquatint. Each volume is 40-inches tall. CityViewNC.com | 65