The North Carolina Art Society

The North Carolina Art Society was formed in 1924. Its goal? Create support for a state art museum. Carolina native and businessman Robert F. Phifer contributed necessary funds as well as roughly 75 paintings in 1928. This led to a series of ‘temporary’ art exhibitions in the Agriculture Building of Raleigh in 1929.

In 1947, state legislatures appropriated $1 million to purchase a collection of art for the people of North Carolina. The appropriation, which was unheard of at the time, drew national attention. The appropriation was in response to an anonymous ‘challenge-grant’ from Philanthropist Samuel H. Kress of New York. Kress was a friend of Lawyer Robert Lee Humber, a Greenville native. Humber worked tirelessly with the legislature to ensure the bill’s passage. An amended bill finally passed in the waning hours of the last day of the legislative session. Rep. John Kerr of Warren County famously said, “Mr. Speaker, I know I am facing a hostile audience, but man cannot live by bread alone.”

The $1 million legislative appropriation was used to purchase 139 European and American paintings and sculptures. The Kress foundation matched the $1 million appropriation with a gift of 70 pieces of art, primarily Italian Renaissance.

In April of 1956, the Museum opened up in the renovated State Highway Division Building on Morgan Street in downtown Raleigh. It was the first art museum in the country established using state funds. Local media dubbed it “the Miracle on Morgan Street.”