Raleigh, North Carolina
Starting from scratch in 1949, in a recycled state office building, the North Carolina Museum has a collection and a presentation of it that really pleased me. O.K., so the legislature gave them a million dollars; sounds like a lot of scratch to start with until you look at inflation.
Reading a new biography of Dr. William Valentiner, the inspired director of the Detroit Institute of Arts whose friend Edsel Ford commissioned the Diego Rivera murals, I finally understood the quality of Raleigh. Valentiner went on to Raleigh after mandatory retirement in Detroit.
What he did for North Carolina (and Interstate 95 travelers with the wit to stop) is astonishing. I can name no "great work" (maybe the small O'Keeffe church is an exception) from the State Museum's collection.
But the greatness lies in the genius of juxtaposition. Valentiner puts his choice little works in genre alcoves that are truly instructive--four still lifes here spanning several hundred years, five portraits there over an even longer span--and even the casual gallery goer gets it!
There is also a "Braille" gallery which begins with a Harry Bertoia that makes inviting sounds even to sighted people. You really must stop at Raleigh. There's a fine Victorian section of town a few minutes walk away in a high state of retrieval.
And the architecture students of North Carolina State (that's where Matthew Nowicki of the famous State Arena taught) have compiled a fine guide to the local architecture.
--from 20 Museums You've Never Heard Of/Horizon Magazine 1981
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