Just on the outskirts of the state capital Raleigh, the museum was founded in 1965, so it’s mostly a contemporary and modern art museum. The East Building has mostly black art and the West Building has everything. There was an interesting exhibit on Afrofuturism in fashion design, especially when represented in movies like Coming to America.
Most of the museum is arranged on a single floor, which makes it easy to navigate. However, I found the wide assortment of exhibits in the West Building confusing, there didn’t seem to be a particular theme like in the East Building. For example, the African exhibits in the West Building didn’t inform specifically how traditional clothing styles may have impacted the development of African American fashion.
The interpretation signs go a little bit into how many African exhibits are dehumanized by having “unknown” artists and the museum tries to find where things came from. But there’s also the issue of how things became an exhibit that hasn’t been addressed, was it stolen, bought, or traded? I think the museum could find itself a nice niche by being reflective of the colonial implications of museum artifacts.
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