Raleigh Resources

A City Rich in Culture & Education
national recognition and close-to-home convenience

If a downtown is the heart of a city, its cultural arts and educational opportunities help to feed its soul. And Downtown Raleigh boasts a rich selection of arts and activities to whet anyone’s appetite and expand one’s horizon.

Downtown Raleigh is home to seven museums devoted to history, science, and art, with educational programs catering to all ages. The Raleigh City Museum, located in the historic Briggs Building, is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of Raleigh from its earliest days as Wake Crossroads, to its prominence in today’s world of sports. From the Revolutionary War to racial equality, the North Carolina Museum of History, founded in 1902, captures the spirit of the state and its people through exhibits and its extensive collection of artifacts, while the NC Museum of Natural Sciences encourages visitors to explore the state’s natural wonders, from Acro the dinosaur to insects. One of its most popular events is the annual “Bugfest,” which includes cockroach races and bug-filled delicacies.

Kids from infancy to age seven learn about the world around them using their imagination and creative hands-on and interactive play at Playspace Children’s Museum. Exploris welcomes visitors of all ages to interactive exploration of our global connections — and features the state’s only 3D IMAX® Theatre, to bring the world even closer.

Established in 1983 as the City Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Contemporary Art Museum will soon have a new permanent home in the emerging Warehouse District. Upon completion, the Pope House Museum will invite the public into the home built in 1901 by Dr. M.T. Pope, an important African-American citizen of Raleigh.

Additionally, visitors to the State Capitol can be a part of history in the making while observing a legislative session, or schedule a tour of the Executive Mansion.

Known as the City of Oaks, Downtown Raleigh is also a city of arts, its cultural wealth enriched through a vibrant visual and performing arts community. More than a dozen art galleries and studios feature painting, sculpture, photography, pottery, mixed media, and more, making Downtown’s visual art scene a feast for the eyes. View works by students of NCSU’s College of Design at the Fish Market Student Gallery, or become a student yourself in a class or workshop offered at one of the working studios.

And with over 75 0 shows yearly at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, more than 50 outdoor events and concerts, and live music venues, audiences of all ages can partake of everything from ballet to Broadway, from world-renown artists to up-and-coming local and regional talent.

The Center for the Performing Arts comprises five venues — Meymandi Concert Hall, the Fletcher Opera Theater, Raleigh Memorial Auditorium, the Kennedy Theatre, and the two-acre Lichtin Plaza in front the Progress Energy Center. These performance centers present world-class professional and local live theatre, dance, opera, orchestral and popular music, and more from the North Carolina Symphony, Carolina Ballet, North Carolina Theatre, Broadway Series South, and A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute. Offerings include the traditional holiday favorite, The Nutcracker; the symphony’s Young People’s Series; and the everpopular Broadway musicals.

But Downtown Raleigh’s art events are not limited to concert halls and auditoriums. Moore Square Park invites you to “expose yourself to the arts” the third weekend of each May for Artsplosure, the Raleigh Arts Festival featuring more than 25 0 visual and performing artists and Kidsplosure. Artsplosure also hosts Raleigh’s First Night on New Year’s Eve, with music, comedy, and theatre performances, topped off by fireworks and the Raleigh Acorn Drop in the park. Take a gallery walk for a taste of Raleigh’s art, music, and dining scene on the first Friday of each month, or join the city’s biggest block party for live music and interactive entertainment during Raleigh Wide Open on Fayetteville Street in July — tie and jacket not required! You’ll also find a wide variety of live music, from jazz to zydeco, at many of the downtown area’s nightclubs.

The presence of private and public educational institutions in Downtown Raleigh, including two historically black universities and all-women’s schools, further expands the diversity of opportunities to engage the senses and broaden one’s perspective. Many offer cultural enrichment through continuing education and extension programs, as well as through their performing and visual arts departments. St. Mary’s School, a collegepreparatory boarding and day school for young women in grades 9-12, presents the Smedes Parlor Concert Series, now in its 26th year, and offers music instruction to children and adults through its Community Music Division. Historic Peace College, an all-women’s school in the Capital District, presents music, dance, and theater performances and lectures throughout the year. North Carolina State University’s Encore Center for Lifelong Enrichment, part of the McKimmon Center for Extension and Continuing Education, offers noncredit short courses and activities for adults over 50. For over 35 years, jazz fans have enjoyed the programming of WSHA, 88.9FM, the noncommercial public radio station broadcasting from Shaw University, the first historically black university of the South. And St. Augustine’s College, also a historically black university, hosts a variety of performances in the Seby Jones Fine Arts Auditorium, including a recent screening of a film by the first graduate of the school’s Theater Arts and Film Production program.

The offerings listed here are just a sampling of the many entertaining attractions and educational opportunities available in Downtown Raleigh to enrich your life through an appreciation of the cultural arts — and lifelong learning.