Today, it encompasses a collection that spans more than 5,000 years of artistic work from antiquity to the present, an amphitheater for outdoor performances, and a variety of celebrated exhibitions and public programs.

One of the leading art museums in the American South, the NCMA recently completed a major expansion winning international acclaim for innovative approaches to energy-efficient design.

[3] In 1928 the society acquired funds and 75 paintings were first displayed in a series of temporary art exhibition spaces in the Agriculture Building in Raleigh in 1929.

Designed by Edward Durrell Stone and Associates of New York and Holloway-Reeves Architects of North Carolina, the new building opened in 1983, under the directorship of Edgar Peters Bowron (1981-1985).

[5] In April 2010 the museum opened the new 127,000-square-foot (11,800 m2) West Building, designed by New York-based architects Thomas Phifer and Partners as part of an expansion initiative.

The single-story structure, surrounded by sculpture gardens and pools, was created to feature the museum's permanent collection as well as more than 100 new works of art acquired on the occasion of the expansion.

Highlights include a gift of 30 Auguste Rodin sculptures and work by artists Roxy Paine, Ursula von Rydingsvard, El Anatsui, Jaume Plensa, Jackie Ferrara, Ellsworth Kelly, and David Park.

In between, the collection addresses many of the themes and subjects of American art history, such as the celebration of wilderness and the search for a national identity; the conflicts over race, immigration, and social class; and the rapid evolution of society from Jefferson's republic of farmers to Rockefeller's industrial dynamo.

[7] The ancient American collection features art from three distinct areas of the Western Hemisphere: Mesoamerica, Central America, and the Andes.

All periods combined, the collection's strength resides in funerary material, which includes the painted coffins of Djed Mut and Amunred, servant statues for chores in the afterlife (called shabtis), and a canopic jar that once contained the mummified liver of a man named Qeny.

[8] The museum possesses a number of British portraits, most of which are installed in a gallery devoted to European portraiture and its early American counterpart.

Cubist and surrealist pieces by Paul Delvaux and Joseph Cornell as well as other Modern masters such as Richard Diebenkorn, Andrew Wyeth, and Alberto Giacometti.

The museum's Judaic art collection celebrates the spiritual life and ceremonies of the Jewish people through ritual objects of artistic excellence.

All objects are designed for use in synagogue worship, observance of the Sabbath and holidays, or ceremonial occasions honoring the life cycle and Jewish home.

Encompassing 164 acres (0.66 km2) of fields, woodlands, and creeks, the Museum Park features more than a dozen site-specific works of art and two miles (3 km) of trails.

As of 2010[update], art on view in the Park includes works by Thomas Sayre, Vollis Simpson, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Ledelle Moe and a camera obscura entitled Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky by Chris Drury.