North Carolina Museums and Culture

The natural wonders of North America and North Carolina coupled with the rich history of the region are all reflected in The Schiele's exceptional exhibitions and diverse programming. Whether you're indoors or out, with the kids or your colleagues, by bringing you a lot closer to nature, The Schiele will bring you a little closer to yourself.

The Children’s Museum of Wilmington stimulates children’s imagination, curiosity and love of learning.
The Children’s Museum of Wilmington celebrates the joys of childhood by providing magical and playful experiences for children of all ages. The Museum serves children ages 1-8 and their adult company. Learn amazing things about themselves and the world where we live, through informal, playful hands-on and child-directed experiences. In our warm and inviting environment, children and the adults who bring them find ample opportunities to explore and better understand the arts, sciences, culture and more, through engaging exhibits and programs.

Come experience the thrill of riding the rails - see, hear, and feel a part of railroad history. The New Hope Valley Railway at the North Carolina Railroad Museum has operating days in season from May to December, with activities, themes, and events for visitors of all ages to enjoy. Purchase train ride tickets for our scheduled operating days or you can charter group train rides, schedule operate-a-loco, or have a birthday party in a historic caboose.

Displaying more than 30 authentic Winston Cup race cars, the Winston Cup Museum chronicles RJ Reynolds Tobacco's 33-year sponsorship of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. The museum also displays a extensive variety of racing artifacts.

Explore exhibits of antique locomotives, rail cars, automobiles and more. Take a train ride around the N.C. Transportation Museum's historic 57-acre site, enjoy the many family-friendly special events, and learn about how transportation progress helped build North Carolina.

Featurings an extensive collection and living interpretations of History.

A hands-on, interactive, and educational play place for children ages 0-10 years and their families. Visitors learn while they play, touch, explore and discover in a variety of “Our Town” exhibits that have been created to stimulate children's imagination and to provide rich play experiences.

The original impetus for the formation of the present Greenville Museum of Art was the first Women's Club Arts Festival in 1935. The enthusiastic community support of this venture inspired the festival leaders to develop an initial momentum that resulted in the formation of a permanent art facility in 1939. Rachel Maxwell Moore contacted the Federal Art Project in Raleigh, which authorized the establishment of a Federal Art Project's Gallery in Greenville.
Presently the Museum exists as a local attraction to the citizens of Greenville and Pitt County, although visitors from across the state visit the Museum regularly. Gallery talks and openings, tours, art classes and its numerous outreach programs generate a continued interest in the Museum. Participants and visitors range in age from young to old. Annually over 3,000 children participate in programs offered by the Museum and over 12,000 people visit the Museum.

The Raleigh City Museum is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting the history of Raleigh, North Carolina's capital city.

The North Carolina Aviation Museum is well into its second decade as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the history, as well as honoring the heritage of the wonderfully wide, wide world of flight!

The museum's collection features the works of various African-American artists from both the 19th and 20th centuries as well as a selection of objects from the African continent. NCCU Art Museum has been called "the most important publicly assembled collection of African-American art in North Carolina" and boasts the works of artists such as Henry O. Tanner, Jacob Lawrence, and Minnie Evans.

The African American Heritage Preservation Cultural Complex (AACC) originated in 1984,as a hobby, by Dr. and Mrs. E.B. Palmer, then opened in 1989 as the Black Heritage Park. The Palmers’ and George Barner incorporated AACC in 1994. The Palmers’ entered into a Lease Agreement in 1991 for $1.00 per year. The park occupies approximately 3 acres of the wooded land to the rear of the Palmer House at 119 Sunnybrook Road. The AACC was chartered and granted 501 (c)(3) tax status in October 1994. The AACC currently has 3Exhibit Houses located along a natural trail beside a creek, a Mini-Amphitheater, a Bird Sanctuary, Nature Preserve and a Picnic Area and Botanical Gardens. There is no admission fee, however, visitors and friends have donated small sums of money. Friends and organizations have also donated labor and artifacts.

The North Carolina Museum of Art's collection spans more than 5,000 years, from ancient Egypt to the present. The ancient collection includes Egyptian funerary art and important examples of sculpture and vase painting from the Greek and Roman worlds. The collection of European paintings and sculpture from the Renaissance through impressionism is internationally celebrated with important works by Giotto, Sandro Botticelli, Raphael, Anthony van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens, Antonio Canova and Claude Monet. American art of the 18th and 19th centuries features paintings by John Singleton Copley, Thomas Cole, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins and William Merritt Chase. Modern art includes major works by such American artists as Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe, Franz Kline, Frank Stella, Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Murray and Joel Shapiro. Modern European masters include Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Delvaux, Henry Moore, Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter. Galleries are also devoted to African, Ancient American and Oceanic Art, as well as Jewish ceremonial art.

The Carolinas Historic Aviation Commission was founded in 1992 with the purpose of preserving the aviation heritage of North and South Carolina. The Commission operates the Carolinas Aviation Museum , the Carolinas Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Dolph Overton Aviation Library as part of it mission.
The Museum and the Library are located at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Mint Museum engages audiences at many learning levels, always striving to enhance the learner’s appreciation and understanding of the visual arts. Lectures and demonstrations provide a window into the themes, cultural history and techniques of art. Classes sharpen minds as well as skills in art and craft media. The Mint Museum welcomes families, children, adults and seniors, offering gallery guides, touchable objects, hands-on workshops and Family Days that enable participants to connect to art and to each other.

With 65,000 square feet of indoor space and 13 acres of outside exhibits, you’ll discover something new and exciting with each visit to the Museum of Life and Science!
The Museum’s 70+ acre campus is home to hundreds of interactive exhibits, including one of the East Coast’s largest butterfly conservatories; a nature park with bears, wolves and lemurs; a giant radio-controlled sailboat pond; and a railroad – just to name a few.

The Museum is located on Bicentennial Plaza in downtown Raleigh between the Capitol and the Legislature Building, at the corner of Jones and Salisbury streets.

The North Carolina Museum of History is alive with the past—your past. It is as full of life and personalities as it is people who care for the collection, people who interpret the collection, and people who visit the collection. It is also alive with the contributions of all the people involved in its creation, development, and growth.

Levine Museum of the New South is an interactive museum housing the nation's most comprehensive interpretation of post-Civil War Southern history.

Cape Fear Museum of History and Science is the oldest history museum in North Carolina. Since its founding in 1898, the Museum has grown and changed. It began collecting confederate relics, and now collects images and artifacts that help us understand the history, science and cultures of the region. The Museum began in one room, staffed only by volunteers. It has grown into a professionally run, American Association of Museums accredited institution, housing more than 50,000 objects.

The Bellamy Mansion is one of North Carolina's most spectacular examples of antebellum architecture built on the eve of the Civil War by free and enslaved black artisans, for John Dillard Bellamy (1817-1896) physician, planter and business leader; and his wife, Eliza McIlhenny Harriss (1821-1907) and their nine children. After the fall of Fort Fisher in 1865, Federal troops commandeered the house as their headquarters during the occupation of Wilmington. Now the house is a museum that focuses on history and the design arts and offers tours, changing exhibitions and an informative look at historic preservation in action.