Museums & Galleries in Garner

In 1947, the North Carolina Museum of Art made its initial acquisition, hauling in 139 works of European and American art purchased with state funds. In the 65 years since, the museum’s collection has continued to balloon, and today features pieces that range from Egyptian funerary art to sculpture and vase paintings from Greece and Rome. The 164-acre campus surrounds visitors with creativity around every corner, including across the museum park, where more than a dozen works showcase inspirations that were culled from the natural world or extracted from the brains of scarecrows who donated their bodies to science.

During summer months, the Arts in the Museum Park festival series organizes week after week of music and film events. On the weekends, rather than sewing their socks together, siblings can get closer with Family Fun Saturdays. Free guided tours weave guests through the museum’s halls daily. Visits can be capped off with a stop at the museum gift shop or at the elegant Iris restaurant, which dishes out contemporary American cuisine with regional and international twists.

As a young girl, Boni Arendt was rarely found not fiddling with pencils, paintbrushes, and canvases. Her enthusiasm for creating inimitable works of art was brought into focus when she began honing her skills with formal education in the ‘80s, focusing her studies on painting and drawing techniques before earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from East Carolina University. Arendt’s journey to find her artistic voice led her to the U.K., where she tried her hand at interdisciplinary design, photography, and faking an English accent. Since then, she’s showcased her works at numerous exhibitions around the globe and opened Red Rooster Gallery in 2007.

At her homey studio and gift shop, Arendt shares the knowledge she gained throughout her many travels with aspiring artists of all ages during her private painting and drawing lessons. She also curates a selection of decorative items and art supplies for sale and produces highly realistic pencil drawings for commission.:m]]

When a new exhibit comes to Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, it transforms the entire space. In warehouse-style rooms, pieces spill out of the traditional boundaries of the wall like marshmallow cereals spill out of rainbows, sprawling over the floor or engulfing visitors totally. The multi-level gallery takes on six exhibitions each year, immersing visitors in an ever-changing landscape of installations, sculptures, and paintings by local and national artists.