309 Best Sights in USA

The MFA's collection of approximately 450,000 objects was built from a core of paintings and sculpture from the Boston Athenæum, historical portraits from the city of Boston, and donations by area universities. The MFA has more than 70 works by John Singleton Copley; major paintings by Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Fitz Henry Lane, and Edward Hopper; and a wealth of American works ranging from native New England folk art and Colonial portraiture to New York abstract expressionism of the 1950s and 1960s.

More than 30 galleries contain the MFA's European painting and sculpture collection, dating from the 11th century to the 20th. Contemporary art has a dynamic home in the MFA's dramatic I. M. Pei–designed building.

The museum is open until 10 pm on Thursday and Friday. Save time and purchase your tickets online in advance as lines can get quite long. The museum requires you to check any bag larger than 11 inches by 15 inches (even purses).

The showpiece of this spectacular, 2-acre complex of delicate and creative art-glass installations is the 500-foot-long Chihuly Bridge of Glass, a tunnel of glorious color and light that stretches above Interstate 705. Cross it from downtown to reach this striking building, which rises above the Foss Waterway and next to a shallow reflecting pool dotted with modern-art sculptures. Inside, you can wander through quiet, light-filled galleries that present a fascinating array of rotating exhibits, take a seat in the conical-roofed Hot Shop amphitheater to watch glass-blowing artists, or try your own hand at arts and crafts in the studio. There's also a café and an outstanding gift shop.

The two buildings of the National Gallery hold one of the world's foremost art collections, with paintings, sculptures, and graphics dating from the 13th to the 21st centuries. Opened in 1941, the museum was a gift to the nation from Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon. The rotunda, with marble columns surrounding a fountain, sets the stage for the masterpieces on display in more than 100 galleries.

Ginevra de' Benci, the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci on display in the Americas, is the centerpiece of the collection's comprehensive survey of Italian Renaissance paintings and sculpture. Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer, masters of painting light, anchor the magnificent collection of Dutch and Flemish works. The 19th-century French Galleries house gorgeous impressionist masterworks by such superstars as Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas.

Walk beneath flowering trees in the sculpture garden on the Mall between 7th and 9th Streets. Granite walkways guide you through a shaded landscape featuring works from the gallery's growing collection and loans for special exhibitions.

There are many free docent-led tours every day, and a recorded tour of highlights of the collection is available free on the main floor adjacent to the rotunda. The Information Room maintains a database of more than 1,700 works of art from the collection.

See an impressive collection of wildlife art—most of it devoted to North American species—in 14 galleries displaying the work of artists that include Georgia O'Keeffe, John James Audubon, John Clymer, Robert Kuhn, and Carl Rungius. A deck looks out on the National Elk Refuge, where you can see wildlife in a natural habitat. An elaborate ¾-mile outdoor sculpture trail includes a monumental herd of bronze bison by Richard Loffler trudging across the butte.

Dozens of strikingly ornate neon signs designed from the late-19th through the mid-20th centuries are displayed in this restored 20,000-square-foot former Elks Club building. The museum's owner, David Benko, often personally leads visitors through the two floors of exhibits. In addition to recognizable vintage neon signs for Shell Oil, Buster Brown Shoes, and Coca-Cola, you'll see countless signs from diners, shops, and other independently owned businesses. There's also a cache of photos, documents, and other historical materials that trace how neon signage influenced American culture and commercial design through the midcentury.

Located in Portage Park, this museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting art inspired by combat and created by veterans. Founded in 1981, its goal is to serve as a space for civilians, veterans, and current military alike to share an open dialogue on the lasting impacts of warfare. The museum houses over two thousand works of art from those who have served in conflicts from WWII through the Global War on Terror. 

 Early-20th-century German and Austrian art and design are the focus here, with works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Egon Schiele, and designers from the Wiener Werkstätte. It's perhaps best known for having Gustav Klimt's portrait, Adele Bloch-Bauer I or Woman in Gold, a painting with a story almost as compelling as the art. The gallery sits Inside a 1914 mansion created by architects Carrère and Hastings, who also created the New York Public Library. Once the home of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III, the Neue Galerie was founded by the late art dealer Serge Sabarsky and cosmetics heir and art collector Ronald S. Lauder. The first-floor Café Sabarsky is popular for its elegant Viennese coffeehouse setting and menu. If busy, try the lower-key and smaller Café Fledermaus, which has much the same offerings. 

An important stop for art lovers, this 100-year-old museum's collection of more than 8,500 works, from 1740 to the present, focuses solely on American art. Among its treasures are paintings by John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, and Georgia O'Keeffe, as well as sculpture by Isamu Noguchi. Of particular note is the selection of Impressionist artists, including Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, and John Henry Twachtman, as well as Thomas Hart Benton's five-panel mural The Arts of Life in America. The museum also has a café, a large shop, and a library of art books.

This seven-story structure—a glimmering, metal-mesh-clad assemblage of off-center squares—caused a small neighborhood uproar when it was built in 2007, with some residents slow to accept the nontraditional building. It also caused a stir when it shut down in 2024 and reopened a year later with a Rem Koolhaas--designed extension that has nearly doubled its exhibition space. Not surprisingly, given the museum's name and the building, shows are all about contemporary art, often provocative and frequently with a video element. Free tours are offered; check the website for times.

This installation of “assemblage art” on a sandy 10-acre tract of land in town honors the work of artist Noah Purifoy, whose sculptures blend with the spare desert in an almost postapocalyptic way. Purifoy lived here for the last 25 years of his life until his death in 2004. He used found materials to create works that highlighted social issues, and his pieces have been displayed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Museum of Modern Art in New York, and elsewhere.

On the west side of Raleigh, the NCMA houses more than 5,000 years of artistic heritage, including one of the nation's largest collections of Jewish ceremonial art. The museum hosts touring exhibitions of works by such artists as Caravaggio and Rodin. There are gallery tours offered daily, and on Saturdays at 10:30 you can catch a guided tour of the surrounding park. The 164-acre park features nine monumental works of art, which visitors can view on foot or by bike.

As seen in the New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade, this low-profile brown building is one of the finest midsize museums anywhere, with a collection that spans more than 2,000 years of Western and Asian art. It all began in the 1950s when Norton Simon started collecting works by Degas, Renoir, Gauguin, and Cézanne. His collection grew to include works by old masters and Impressionists, modern works from Europe, and Indian and Southeast Asian art. Today the museum is richest in works by Rembrandt, Picasso, and, most of all, Degas.

Head down to the bottom floor to see temporary exhibits and phenomenal Southeast Asian and Indian sculptures and artifacts, where pieces like a Ban Chiang blackware vessel date back to well before 1000 BC. Don't miss a living artwork outdoors: the garden, conceived by noted Southern California landscape designer Nancy Goslee Power. The tranquil pond was inspired by Monet's gardens at Giverny, and there's even a copy of Rodin's "The Thinker" to inspire a little musing of your own.

Led by visionary director and chief curator Bonnie Clearwater, the NSU Art Museum's international exhibition programming ignites downtown Fort Lauderdale. Part of Nova Southeastern University, the 83,000-square-foot modernist building, designed by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, opened in 1986. The interior holds an impressive permanent collection of more than 7,000 works, including the country's largest collection of paintings by American realist William Glackens and pivotal works by female and multicultural artists, avant-garde CoBrA artists, and a wide array of Latin American masters.

The lobby-level Museum Café is a cool hangout with art-inspired gifts.

Ogunquit has long been an important site for artists, and this stellar museum—the only one in Maine focused solely on American art—continues that legacy. The collection includes 3,000 early modern and contemporary paintings, sculptures, drawings, and more, including works with ties to Ogunquit's once-famous artist colony. The main gallery offers sweeping views of Perkins Cove. Leave time to stroll around the 3-acre seaside sculpture park in good weather. Visit the website for admission pricing.

Salem's world-class museum celebrates superlative works from around the globe and across time, including American art and architecture, Asian export art, photography, and maritime art and history, as well as Native American, Oceanic, and African art. With a collection of 1.8 million works, housed in a contemplative blend of modern design, PEM represents a diverse range of styles; exhibits include pieces ranging from American decorative and seamen's art to an interactive Art & Nature Center and photography. While there, be sure to tour the Yin Yu Tang house. This fabulous 200-year-old house dates to the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) of China. The museum brought it over from China in sections and reassembled it here.

The nation's first art school and museum (founded in 1805) displays a notable collection of American art that ranges from the Peale family and Gilbert Stuart to Andrew Wyeth and Faith Ringgold. Fox Hunt by Winslow Homer and The Artist in His Museum by Charles Willson Peale are two famous works. PAFA's most prized work, The Gross Clinic by Thomas Eakins, depicts Samuel D. Gross, a celebrated 19th-century surgeon, presiding over an operation; the masterwork is co-owned with the Philadelphia Art Museum. The striking 1876 Gothic revival building was designed by Philadelphia architects Frank Furness and George Hewitt with a multicolor stone-and-brick exterior and an interior in rich hues of red, yellow, and blue; in time for America's 250th birthday, there's a new installation from its permanent collection. Until then, changing exhibitions in different mediums are presented in the adjacent modern Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building, an 11-story facility that holds classrooms and studios for continuing education and certificate students. Between the two buildings is the pedestrian Lenfest Plaza featuring Paint Torch, a 51-foot-tall sculpture of a paintbrush by Claes Oldenburg. The Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Art Museum may get more visitor attention, but art lovers will appreciate this special place.

This über-high-design architectural masterpiece on Biscayne Bay is a sight to behold. Double-story, cylindrical hanging gardens sway from high atop the museum, anchored to stylish wooden trusses that help create this gotta-see-it-to-believe-it indoor-outdoor museum. Large sculptures, Asian-inspired gardens, sexy white benches, and steel frames surround the property. Inside, the 120,000-square-foot space houses multicultural art from the 20th and 21st centuries. Most of the interior space is devoted to temporary exhibitions, which have included the likes of Ai Weiwei: According to What? and Grids: A Selection of Paintings by Lynne Golob Gelfman. Even if you aren't a "museum type," come check out this magnum opus over lunch at Verde, the museum's sensational waterfront restaurant and bar.

The treasures at the Pacific Northwest's oldest arts facility span 35 centuries of Asian, European, and American art—it's an impressive collection for a midsize city. A high point is the Center for Native American Art, with regional and contemporary art from more than 200 indigenous groups. The Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art contains six floors devoted entirely to modern art, including a small but superb photography gallery, with the changing selection chosen from more than 5,000 pieces in the museum's permanent collection. The film center, known as PAM CUT, presents a variety of screenings and festivals. Also, take a moment to linger in the peaceful outdoor sculpture garden. Kids under 18 are admitted free.

Maine's largest public art institution's collection includes fine seascapes and landscapes by Winslow Homer, John Marin, Andrew Wyeth, Edward Hopper, Marsden Hartley, and other American painters. Homer's Weatherbeaten, a quintessential Maine Coast image, is here, and the museum owns and displays, on a rotating basis, 16 more of his paintings, plus more than 400 of his illustrations (and it offers tours of the Winslow Homer Studio in nearby Prouts Neck). The museum has works by Monet and Picasso, as well as Degas, Renoir, and Chagall. I.M. Pei’s colleague Henry Cobb designed the strikingly modern Charles Shipman Payson building. The museum shop is stocked with unusually cool and imaginative items and gifts.

Founded in 1914 to collect and exhibit the works of artists with Provincetown connections, this facility has more than 4,000 works from more than 900 artists, displayed in changing exhibitions that mix up-and-comers with established 20th-century figures like Milton Avery, Philip Evergood, William Gropper, Charles Hawthorne, Robert Motherwell, Claes Oldenburg, Man Ray, John Singer Sargent, Andy Warhol, and Agnes Weinrich. A stunning contemporary wing offers lots of exhibit space. The museum store carries books of local interest, including works by or about area artists and authors, as well as posters, crafts, cards, and gift items. Workshops, lectures, studio nights, free events, and more keep things lively.

This luscious French Second Empire–style building rises across the street from the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Even with such lofty neighbors, it is still the most appealing structure on the block. The Renwick Gallery, a branch museum of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, was the country's first purpose-built art museum, and it was known then as "the American Louvre." Designed by James Renwick Jr. in 1858 to hold the art collection of Washington merchant and banker William Wilson Corcoran. The National Historic Landmark building has been a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum dedicated to American crafts and decorative arts since 1972. The Renwick's exhibits are showcased in a captivating, interactive environment designed to illustrate the history of craft in America and its future. Exhibits highlight exciting contemporary artists using materials in innovative ways, redefining what craft is and taking it in bold new directions.

This museum houses more than 100,000 objects ranging from ancient art to work by contemporary artists and designers from around the world. Highlights include Impressionist paintings, costumes, textiles, decorative arts, Gorham silver, Newport furniture, an ancient Egyptian mummy, and a 12th-century Buddha—the largest historic Japanese wooden sculpture in the United States. Artists represented include major figures in the history of visual art and culture, including Cézanne, Chanel, Copley, Degas, Hirst, Homer, LeWitt, Matisse, Manet, Picasso, Rothko, Sargent, Turner, Twombly, van Gogh, and Warhol—to name a few. Particularly significant are the displays of works by current and past RISD faculty and students. Stop by the museum's Café Pearl for a bite to eat.

This small jewel of a museum, administered by the Philadelphia Art Museum, holds one of the biggest collections outside France—almost 150 bronzes, plasters, and marbles—of the work of sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). Movie theater owner Jules Mastbaum acquired the works to found the museum, which opened in 1929. The building and grounds, designed by architects Paul Cret and Jacques Gréber, honor Cret's idea that inside and out offer a "unified setting" for the presentation of sculpture. Entering the museum, you pass through a peaceful courtyard garden with sculptures to reach Rodin's The Gates of Hell—a 21-foot-high sculpture with more than 100 human and animal figures. The museum rotates works in thematic shows every two years or so but may include major works like The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, Balzac, and Eternal Springtime.

On the Rollins College campus, this museum (formerly known as the Cornell Fine Arts Museum) houses Florida's oldest art collection (its first paintings acquired in 1896)—one with more than 5,000 pieces, from Italian Renaissance works to 19th- and 20th-century American and European paintings. Special exhibitions feature everything from Native American artifacts to Soviet propaganda posters. Outside the museum, a small but charming garden overlooks Lake Virginia. Some of the museum's collection graces the walls of the nearby, Rollins-owned, Alfond Inn. The museum is free to visit; free guided tours are offered on most Saturdays at 1 pm. Note, too, that a new downtown home for this museum is in the fundraising stages.

Fans of edgy art will appreciate the Rubell Museum (formerly the Rubell Family Collection). Mera and Don Rubell have accumulated work by artists from the 1970s to the present, including Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Damien Hirst, and Keith Haring. New thematic and topical exhibitions debut annually, during Art Basel in December. (For example, a previous exhibition, Still Human, delved into the impact of the digital revolution on the human condition.) Admission always includes a complimentary audio tour; however, true art lovers should opt for a complimentary guided tour of the collection, offered Wednesday through Saturday at 3 pm. Stop in for lunch at the on-site restaurant, Leku, serving Basque cuisine that's just as beautiful as the museum's art.

Don't miss this magnificent global art museum right on the River Walk, near the Museum Reach section. Housed in the former historic Lone Star Brewery, the 69,500-square-foot museum is best known for its spectacular Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art, with thousands of works of Spanish colonial art, folk art, pre-Columbian art, and Latin American modern and contemporary art. There are also impressive collections of American Indian, African, Islamic, European, and Ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian art. An extensive collection of Asian art is housed in its own Lenora and Walter F. Brown Asian Art wing, including pieces from the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties. Past exhibitions have included works by impressionists, Matisse, sculptor and designer Harry Bertoia, Carlos Mérida, Rodin, and many more. The museum offers a variety of tours, along with classes, workshops, and special events. The SAMA museum gift shop is one of the best, brimming with accessories, home decor, gifts, art prints, jewelry, seasonal items, and books, including guides to selected collections.

Known for its Spanish baroque and Renaissance paintings, including works by El Greco, Goya, and Rubens, the city's most comprehensive art museum also has strong holdings of South and East Asian art, ancient miniatures from India, and German expressionist paintings. The museum's exhibits tend to have broad appeal, and if traveling shows from other cities come to town, you can expect to see them here. Free 45-minute docent tours are offered throughout the day. An outdoor Sculpture Court and Garden exhibits both traditional and modern pieces. Enjoy the view over a craft beer and some locally sourced food in the adjacent Panama 66 courtyard restaurant.

Opened in 1935, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art was the first museum on the West Coast dedicated to modern and contemporary art, and after a three-year expansion designed by Snøhetta, it emerged in 2016 as one of the largest modern art museums in the country and the revitalized anchor of the Yerba Buena arts district. With gallery space over seven floors, the museum displays only a portion of its more than 33,000-work collection and has numerous temporary exhibits. Allow at least two hours here; ambitious art fans could spend a full day. The museum’s holdings include art from the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection, one of the world's greatest private collections of modern and contemporary art. Highlights include deep collections of works by German abstract expressionist Gerhard Richter and American painter Ellsworth Kelly and an Agnes Martin gallery. The third floor is dedicated to photography. Also look for seminal works by Diego Rivera, Alexander Calder, Matisse, and Picasso. Don’t miss the third-floor sculpture terrace or the fifth floor's eye-catching "One-way colour tunnel" by Olafur Eliasson under the museum's signature oculus. Around 45,000 square feet of the museum is free to the public and contains a handful of works. Save time by reserving timed tickets online.

 This architectural marvel rose from the ruins of the oldest surviving railroad building in the United States. Appropriately, the architect chosen for the lofty design and remodel project was Christian Sottile, the valedictorian of Savannah College of Art and Design's 1997 graduating class and the former dean of the School of Building Arts. Sottile rose to the hearty challenge of merging the past with the present, preserving key architectural details of the original structure while introducing contemporary design elements. SCAD Museum of Art houses two main galleries with rotating exhibits by some of the most acclaimed figures in contemporary art: the Evans Gallery features works of African American arts and culture, while the André Leon Talley Gallery is devoted to fashion and high style.

Sculptor Jonathan Borofsky's several-stories-high “Hammering Man” greets visitors to SAM, as locals call this pride of the city’s art scene. SAM's permanent collection surveys American, Asian, Native American, African, Oceanic, and pre-Columbian art. Collections of African dance masks and Native American carvings are particularly strong. SAM's free floors have the best attractions for kids, including an installation of a massive tree-like sculpture hanging from the ceiling and the Chase Open Studio. If you're interested in checking a special exhibition, consider buying tickets in advance as they can sell out. The listed admission price to see the museum's general collections and installations is suggested pricing, though the museum charges fixed pricing for tickets that include special exhibitions.