309 Best Sights in USA

MODA is the only museum in the Southeast devoted exclusively to design mounts exhibits on fashion, graphics, architecture, furniture, and product design. The eco-friendly building is located just across the street from the High Museum of Art.

This unique museum on the southern edge of Old Salem showcases the furniture, painting, ceramics, and metalware used in the area through 1820. The bookstore carries hard-to-find books on Southern culture and history.

A gorgeous, Mediterranean-revival structure houses outstanding collections of Asian, African, Native American, European, and American art. Although American artists such as Hassam, O'Keeffe, Bellows, and Morisot are represented, the museum is known more for its pieces by French artists, including Cézanne, Monet, Rodin, Gauguin, and Renoir. In addition, photography exhibits draw from a permanent collection of more than 14,000 works. Docents give narrated gallery tours, and you can grab lunch at a café that has a beautiful bay view.

Founded in 1901, the Society of Illustrators holds many events and programs at this former town house--turned-museum. There are eclectic exhibitions on comics, science fiction, fashion, animation and 3-D, and historic illustrations from the permanent collection of 2,500 pieces, including the holdings of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA). In addition, there are lectures, costumed sketch nights and more. On the third floor, order a drink from the 128 Bar, which sports Norman Rockwell's "The Dover Coach," a large-scale oil painting for the Saturday Evening Post that was donated by the illustrator himself.

Located in the cluster of museums at Museum Hill, this interactive, multimedia exhibition tells the story of Native American history in the Southwest, merging contemporary Native American experience with historical accounts and artifacts. The collection includes some of New Mexico's oldest works of art: pottery vessels, fine stone and silver jewelry, intricate textiles, and other arts and crafts created by Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache artisans. Changing exhibitions feature arts and traditions of historic and contemporary Native Americans. while the long-standing Here, Now and Always exhibition shares glimpses into the lives and culture of area tribes. You can also see art demonstrations and a video about the life and work of Pueblo potter Maria Martinez.

The Veterans Memorial Building, a handsome 1927 Classical Revival structure designed by a local architectural firm, houses this engaging museum of contemporary art. The focus is on works by artists from San Jose north to Oregon.

This striking, modern building contains some 2,500 works produced by regional creative minds past and present, including painters, sculptors, photographers, and other artists. Soaring spaces, circular exhibit rooms, a glass gallery, and a broad spiral staircase add to the free-form feeling of the displays. There's a small but impressive gallery shop.

World-renowned photographers such as Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Edward Weston are represented in this museum's permanent collection, which includes everything from 19th-century daguerreotypes to contemporary photojournalism prints. In addition to selections from its own collection, the museum hosts excellent traveling exhibits. Photos rotate frequently, so call ahead if you're interested in something specific to find out if it is currently on display. MOPA is also known for its film screenings. Check the website for upcoming showings.

Located at the entrance of Museum Hill, this adobe museum occupies a classically Southwestern former home designed in 1930 by acclaimed regional architect John Gaw Meem. The Spanish Colonial Art Society formed in Santa Fe in 1925 to preserve traditional Spanish-colonial art and culture, and the museum, which sits next to the Museum of International Folk Art and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture complex, displays the fruits of the society's labor: one of the most comprehensive collections of Spanish-colonial art in the world. The objects here, dating from the 16th century to the present, include retablos, elaborate santos, tinwork, straw appliqué, furniture, ceramics, and ironwork. The contemporary collection of works by New Mexico Hispanic artists helps put all this history into regional context. The museum also hosts national traveling shows and its gift shop features artwork from participants in Santa Fe's yearly Spanish Market.

The world's only museum dedicated solely to the American Arts and Crafts movement, which saw a range of beautiful yet functional works created in the United States between 1890 and 1930, was funded by a local philanthropist and collector. Displays in the 137,000 square feet of gallery space feature everything from architecture and furniture to prints, photographs, and paintings.

The building is a masterpiece, too, with a grand atrium, skylights, and the drama of a central spiral staircase. In addition to a reference library and a theater, the museum also has a gift shop, a graphic studio, an upscale café, a children’s gallery, and green space.

"Land and People of Napa Valley,” a concise but well-mounted permanent exhibition on this hillside facility's lower level, surveys the people and natural conditions that have shaped the valley's history. Temporary shows in the main upstairs gallery often feature the works, some from the museum’s permanent collection, of local and regional fine artists.  The museum’s flagship location, The MAC—Napa Valley Museum of Art & Culture, is in St. Helena.

A highlight of any Duke visit, this museum displays African, American, European, and Latin American artwork. The collection includes works by Henri Matisse, Kehinde Wiley, and Pablo Picasso. The museum offers a steady stream of engaging events throughout the year.

Formerly known as the Freer/Sackler, the National Museum of Asian Art formally rebranded to its current name in 2019. The museum opened in 1923 as the Freer Gallery of Art to showcase the collection of American industrialist and donor Charles Lang Freer. The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery was built next door in 1987 after Sackler donated 1,000 objects and $4 million for a museum to house them. With its commitment to preserving Asian art, the museum counts more than 44,000 items in its permanent collection hailing from countries like China, Japan, and Korea, also expanding into Southwest and Southeast Asia. One of the most popular rooms is the Peacock Room, which has dazzled guests at the Freer Gallery of Art since 1923. Initially designed by artist James McNeill Whistler to showcase a Chinese blue-and-white porcelain collection, the room marries its avian motif with a striking use of color inspired by the arts of East Asia.

A dramatic four-level structure designed by Will Bruder houses this splendid museum's collection, which focuses on themes such as the Sierra Nevada/Great Basin and altered-landscape photography. The exterior's torqued walls are sided with a black zinc-based material that has been fabricated to resemble textures found in the Black Rock Desert.

Noted American artist and sculptor Walter De Maria's 1977 avant-garde installation consists, quite simply, of 280,000 pounds of gently sculpted soil filling 3,600 square feet of a second-floor loft maintained by the Dia Art Foundation since 1980. You can't touch or walk on the dirt, nor can you take photos, but looking at it is quite peaceful. De Maria's equally odd and impressive work The Broken Kilometer, an 18.75-ton installation that consists of five columns of a total of 1,000 meter-long brass rods covering the wooden floors of an open loft space, is a few blocks away ( 393 W. Broadway) and is a good complement. The two installations have the same hours. 

Founded in 1912, the museum galleries today span two buildings: the Cushing/Morris Gallery and the Wright Gallery in the 1864 Griswold House, a National Historic Landmark designed by Richard Morris Hunt. In the museum's permanent collection are works by Fitz Henry Lane, George Inness, William Trost Richards, John La Farge, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Gilbert Stuart, Winslow Homer, and Helena Sturtevant, as well as contemporary artists like Dale Chihuly, Howard Ben Tré, and Joseph Norman.

An 1898 Upper West Side town house contains this small, eccentric museum dedicated to the work of Russian artist Nicholas Roerich, who immigrated to New York in the 1920s and quickly developed an ardent following. About 200 of his paintings hang here—notably some vast canvases of the Himalayas.

The university's art museum displays both historic holdings—19th-century Mexican retablos, for example, representing the nation's's largest collection of this religious art form—and contemporary ones, such as Robert Rauschenberg lithographs.

In 1985, the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904–88) transformed this former industrial plant into a showcase for his modernist and earlier works. A peaceful central garden is surrounded by galleries, showing a comprehensive selection of Noguchi’s sculptures in stone, metals, paper, and ceramics, as well as architectural models, drawings, designs, and photographs. Temporary exhibits rotate, like their 40th anniversary exhibit, along with collaborations with other artists. The museum is about a mile from subway stops, but less than half a mile from the Astoria stop on the NYC Ferry; check the website for complete directions.

Housed in side-by-side buildings designed by two Southern California modernist architects—Irving Gill and Frederick Fisher—the museum showcases contemporary art exhibitions including paintings, photography, sculptures, furniture, quilts, and architectural glass by California area artists.

Founded by 13 visionary women in 1962 and one of the earliest contemporary art museums in California, the OCMA opened in 2022 in its new home at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. Designed by award-winning architect Thom Mayne, OCMA's striking 53,000-square-foot building has 25,000 square feet of free-flowing gallery space to house its extensive collection of more than 4,500 works produced in the 20th and 21st centuries by artists with ties to California. Outside, a grand staircase provides amphitheater seating and serves as a community gathering point, inspired by the steps at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. There is a bar, café, and sculpture terrace on Level 2. 

Part of the City of Orlando's collection of arts venues, the Museum of Art sits in the Loch Haven Park complex. It exhibits contemporary art, mid-18th- and 19th-century American art, and an important collection of ancient artifacts of the Americas. In addition to American art created before 1945, and an extensive photography collection, exhibits of African textiles, and graphic art from such artists as Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns add to the diversity of its displays. The museum's collection of Chihuly glass, obtained during an exclusive exhibition in 2004, is among the finest in the country. A monthly free day takes place on the third Thursday of each month, known as Access for All Third Thursdays.

One of only a handful of fiber arts museums in the country is housed throughout three floors of the Queen Anne–style Gaches Mansion, which rises grandly over La Conner's downtown. Exhibits change throughout the year and feature both contemporary and historic quilts, wall hangings, and other textiles, most of them created in the Pacific Northwest. The lovingly restored mansion itself makes for an interesting tour, and there's a well-curated museum shop.

This world-class art museum, housed in a building by famed architect E. Stewart Williams, focuses on photography, modern architecture, contemporary glass, and fine art. Outside, you're greeted by several large-scale works, including Seward Johnson's 26-foot, 34,000-pound Forever Marilyn statue, which depicts the actress in the iconic, billowing-dress Seven Year Itch pose. Inside, 28 bright, open galleries contain permanent-collection works and photos by such artists as Dale Chihuly, Allen Houser, Deborah Butterfield, Ginny Ruffner, Mark Di Suvero, Julius Shulman, and William Morris. Other highlights include enormous Native American baskets, as well as furniture handcrafted by the late actor George Montgomery.

A 433-seat theater and an 85-seat hall present plays, concerts, lectures, operas, and other cultural events while two gardens are filled with sculptures. There's a great gift shop for classier souvenirs. Free Thursday nights are accompanied by DJ performances. Note, too, that the museum operates a separate Architecture and Design Center ( 300 S. Palm Canyon Dr.), which, coincidentally, is housed within a former savings-and-loan office also built by Williams.

Contemporary artwork of the northwest United States makes up the bulk of the collection here. There is an educational resource room where kids and adults can try hands-on puzzles and projects, along with several exhibition halls and a photography collection. The gift shop sells the work of local artists, and a perennial and butterfly garden on the south side of the building is a perfect spot for a summer picnic.

Inside a gleaming glass box, this museum on the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette features world-class works, including 150 paintings and collages by Henry Botkin and a Louisiana collection including artists Elemore Morgan Jr., George Rodrigue, and Hunt Slonem.

Pensacola's city jail once occupied the 1906 Spanish Revival–style building that is now the secure home for the museum's permanent collection of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by 20th- and 21st-century artists. And we do mean secure: you can still see the actual cells with their huge iron doors. Traveling exhibits have focused on photography (William Wegman, Annie Leibovitz, Ansel Adams), Dutch masters, regional artists, and the occasional art-world icon, such as Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí.

The paintings and bronze sculptures of George Phippen, along with works by other artists of the West, form the permanent collection of this museum about 5 miles north of downtown. Phippen met with a group of prominent cowboy artists in 1965 to form the Cowboy Artists of America, a group dedicated to preserving the Old West as they saw it. He became the president but died the next year. A memorial foundation set up in his name opened the doors of this museum in 1984.

This museum is one of the most visually appealing pieces of architecture in the Southwest. Basking in natural light, the museum makes great use of its modern, open space by tastefully fitting more than 17,000 works of art from around the world—including sculptures by Frederic Remington and paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, Thomas Moran, and Maxfield Parrish—within its soaring concrete walls. The museum hosts more than 20 significant exhibitions annually and has one of the most acclaimed fashion collections in the country.

With modern, funky, and intriguing exhibits by new and emerging artists, this small, beautifully designed modern museum is inside the former home of the late artist and publisher Esther Barrows Webster, one of Port Angeles's most energetic and cultured citizens. Outside, Webster's Woods Sculpture Park—open daily dawn to dusk—is dotted with oversize art installations set against a backdrop of the city and harbor.