Id give 5 stars if the permanent collection were free to the public. Instead they make no distinction between special exhibitions and entrance. One ticket gives access to everything. The displayed collection is small but still impressive. Nice collections of African and Latin American Art. Nice use of technology for virtually changing the colors on statues or for reading the pages of a Medieval manuscript.
The Nasher is a brilliant resource that gave life to Dukes vibrant art community when it opened in 2005. Make sure to visit the Cafe! As one of Duke Universitys first Visual Art majors, this institution makes me incredibly proud as an alumnus. As a resident of Durham the curatorial work and programming of the administrative staff are a beacon of social positivity in the community.
We went for a Kara Walker exhibition and a show on the South several years ago. I was impressed by the curating of the exhibitions and the architecture of the museum.
Friendly staff, some great exhibits and great price.
Always go here just to grab coffee and browse. It’s a small museum but the few permanent pieces they carry are pretty solid. Especially the medieval and Greek pieces. The path around the outside of the museum is nice too. It’s a nice spot to enjoy as a date or just a pleasant day out. #recommend
Nice musuem but small. Free admission on Thursdays. Kuds always have fun here.
Loved that this museum was mostly free!! It has many great pieces and what it lacks in depth it makes up in breadth! (You can expect to see a wide variety of periods and styles represented though not always a ton for each)
Waiters/tresses and the restaurants Manager are always so nice and attentive! It has always been a pleasure tu have brunch, with my wife and once a month for the last year or so, here. Food is amazing too!!
Way better than otitial expectations
Great place to gather with family and friends.
Great management and service at this location.
Cute gift shop, clean and inviting, super clean bathrooms, organized
Excellent collections, always well curated, laid out clearly for the meandering, searching, learning art spectator. Dont try to rush through the exhibits though, you will miss too much of the cohesive narratives. Do make sure youve got the right mindset and amount of time to absorb the artworks.
Great small museum to hit!! Nice changing exhibits!
Contemporary museum with a lot of academic art history. I was first introduced to the museum through an awards ceremony for a one-day mask making competition as an undergraduate student (first year) at North Carolina State University College of Design. It was a special event held around April 2011. It is now 2018 and I have moved on to modern design in California, but Duke Universitys art museum was one of my first inspirations to continue with design. My mask was made out of recycled paper and paint.
Excellent art museum, here are a few pieces that are meaningful to me. So, if you still think the earth is only 3,000 years old
I really enjoyed this trip it was the 1st time Ive ever gone to the nasher museum on Duke Universitys campus I took my students from intercession on a tour guided field trip it was very insightful
A small university museum with a permanent exhibition and temporary displays featuring classical and contemporary art. The cafe serves weekend brunches as well as weekday breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Thursdays are open to the public free of charge.
Love it here! Come on a Thursday and get free entrance, stop by the museum cafe for lunch (surprisingly incredible food), and check out the amazing exhibits!
A gorgeous museum, located right on the campus of Duke University. The exhibits are very well put-together, with a variety of contemporary and historical pieces on display.Make sure to check out the Courtside exhibit currently on display, which shows a variety of in provided basketball hoop from around the world.
Some iconic pieces ( Andy Warhols Soup Can) soft drums and some nice 13th Century strained glass, plus an awesome depression era photography exhibit. Its summer, how about something outdoors, or a small jazz combo making some music in the rotunda?
Great content. Staff was not friendly. They were browsing the internet. Only one smiled and said enjoy. The exhibits were great.
Fantastic array of Structural Supporting Glass roof that has UV Ray blocking characteristics. Art display was phenomenal !!
I love this place. Great atmosphere, beautiful art, friendly and knowledgeable staff. They pull in art from so many talented artists, and from around the world!
Beautiful views indside and out and interesting art
So much to see. Beautiful art. Great food!
Museum is well maintained and organized; but they are lack of new exposures. They always have at least two aisles closed out of five.
Happy I was there for Carlo Dolci which was amazing. Overall the collections are small which is a plus : youre visit is quick and easy focuses on the best selection.
I love this museum and I hope to go back as soon as possible. The staff were very kind, its a beautiful place, and so many beautiful things to look at!
The permanent collection at The Nasher museum is pretty good. and most of the touring exhibits Ive seen were also pretty nice. But one should understand that this is a small museum. It is free to go on Thursday, and thats when you get your moneys worth.
This is a nice museum but several exhibits closed or not available. Seems like a waste of $7 per adult with roughly half of the museum with inaccessible. Plus, theres the cost of parking. What was available for touring was nicely presented.
Located on the Duke Campus the Nasher Museum offers a variety of Art from Renaissance paintings to Modern Art. The museum is small so it takes under an hour to view. There is a café and a nice outdoor seating area. For Duke students and military the admission is free. They have various exhibits throughout the year.
Entrance was hard to find. All staff members are volunteers were pleasant and wonderful to be with!
The Nasher is a small museum but very high quality, well worth the visit. It also has a wonderful restaurant.
Great place to visit. If ur into abstract art.. The Cafe is a real treat!!
Museum is small. An easy one hour trip. Always love going to the touring exhibits. The always viewable collection has variety but I do often skip it. Check for free days.
Very good special exhibits, delicious food in the restaurant! Convenient meeting place for friends.
This museum is easy to walk around in an afternoon. Its full of light and open space. Theres a nice cafe there and a small gift shop. They have changing exhibits all the time. The one I saw was People Get Ready which was excellent!
Great place & art exhibitions! Frida Khalo right now was fabulous!
While the dew is still on the roses is a moving exhibit, not to be missed while its here!
My wife and I went here on a rainy day during a little getaway in Durham. The traveling exhibit was about Pop art and it was OK. We thought it was interesting and presented well. My only problem was that the pieces that I found most interesting were those that didnt have a card explaining them, but thats just me.The general collection is good, but it is pretty small. They have a good collection from the Americas. There are some interesting Roman pieces too. There is a really interesting photography exhibit from Hugh Mangum that we enjoyed. Thats a recent addition to the general collection and its worth seeing.Why only 3 stars? As regular plebians (read: not Duke alumni) we had to pay $7/person to get in for what was barely an hour of looking around. I actually read every card on the wall and spent some time looking more seriously at a few pieces and we still barely spent an hour there. We also had to pay to park in the lot. I dont feel like it was a great value for what we saw and experienced.
An awesome place everyone should visit.
Artwork was really nice. Museum is small though and only has four sections for exhibits.
Friendly staff and good food. A bit pricy, but the art is awesome.
Fantastic display of art and the like. We will be back for an extended visit. Very courteous and helpful associates.
I went there with my boyfriend and this museum was incredibly disappointing. This museum is basically a white hate museum and it has a lot of contemporary art. As a minority, I think the attitude was very racist against whites. All forms of hate should be discouraged regardless. The only good part of the exhibition with old relics, other than that youll be seeing lots of pictures that seem like it was taken with a cheap Kodak (I guess thats contemporary art).
Always fascinating exhibits. Accessible pricing.
Really nice museum great people ️️
Awesome building and artwork. A must do!
First time here. Recommended!
Great time in workshop, collaboration between the gardens and museum. Thank you to our teachers they were great!
Exceptional curated exhibit up now.
It was nice but much smaller than I expected. Cost $7 and we werent there very long. Typically you have to pay for parking but the machine wasnt working, but no signs or notifications of that so we tried to pay for like 20 min with multiple cards and cash before we gave up. Had brunch at the cafe which was nice. Probably wont be back.
Somehow this time exhibition was not much to look. A little but disappointed.
Brunch was delicious. Galleries were small but great.
Not a big museum but a really good collection of arts and rotating exhibits. A person can only soak in museum for so long and I often find myself mentally exhausted after couple hours in a large museum. So this is a good size; another ~25-30% increase in size would be perfect. Nonetgeless, I really like that they have great selection of contemporary art (seems to be their focus), and that is great. They have some more classic stuff, but why not keep focusing on contemporary and modern art, and be known for it?
Interesting place. Only in free day you can see only one holl of exhibition
They had some decent art. However, they displayed their art so incredibly poorly that some of the best African art was stuffed in a corner of one of the wings; disappointing. They also had this really neat projector that projected the color I chose onto a medieval four person piece; that was really neat and was the only thing that saved me from utter despair while visiting this museum.
A small, intimate art museum with a goal of displaying works of artists f color. Often offers free admission (Thursdays and Free Family Fun Days), does lots of community engagement, and has a wonderful staff of docents. The icing on the cake is the restaurant.
Who doesnt love free admission (on Thursdays) at this small and welcoming museum where in under 90 minutes you can get a taste of art ranging from ancient Greece to contemporary North Carolina? I particularly like that the museum showcases work from traditionally underrepresented artists.
Small but very nice museum.
Bilingual storytimes every second Thursday of the month and free entry to museum! A good and fun place to visit.
Toilet wasnt working..terrible experience. Food was great.
Good food and great Mimosa during brunch
The student monologues about refugee storie was great. If I could name the show for a title of a book it would be, What an incredible group of young people and well articulated stories.. I hope the stories will become a podcast. 5 stara
Fairly good exhibits for such a small Museum
Great museum with a nice collection!
Wonderful exhibits. Interesting space. Thursday nights are free :)
Very inspring work at this location. I just wish when I was there I was given a heads up that wedding/event set-ups were taking place. It totally ruins the scenery.
Delicious food and fast, friendly service. Go with a Duke student who can pay for you with food points, and youve got a great evening ahead.
An atrium that is well lit by natural light connects this museums several galleries. Permanent exhibition is small but nice, and the Mesoamerican collection is excellent. The museum also has a community focus and a few digitally enhanced exhibits. Unlike many other university art museums, it is not free to the public (except on Thursdays).
Pretty small place. The art was still cool though. Only took about an hour to an hour and a half to see everything. Still worth the visit though. They have sections of art such as Africa, ancient Greek, etc.
Good food great exhibit
I have seen some truly amazing art at this great venue..it is also a amazing event venue located on the campus of Duke University....
Nice spot. Look for free tours certain days of the week.
Had an excellent native american art exhibit
Wonderful place to visit.
Has some nice art.
We didnt get to spend nearly enough time there to see everything there, but I was really surprised at how unfriendly the staff there was toward us.
For the size of the museum, the Nasher is exceptional. There are three exhibit spaces in the museum that are very well curated. The size of the museum is perfect for an afternoon, especially to escape the heat of the day in the summer. Sometimes, I leave art museums feeling exhausted or overwhelmed by how much there is. The Nasher is manageable and interesting in how they seem to showcase pieces from all over, but also respect the local art scene as well (and in Durham it is vibrant!). There is also a cafe that serves a popular brunch! A very pleasant stop during a visit to Duke.
LOVE this collection. They have some great and significant pieces. And good entry discounts!
Cute gift shop, nice African masks and art, but some paintings of nudity... I like the area where you can write about yourself and display it. Very nice.
We had a great brunch
I prefer to come here in the fall the weather is cooler
Very cool. Great field trip location
Loved it! All on one floor.
Very cool... smallish and intimate installations.
Great art museum right in the middle of town
A gem. This little art museum is very very nice. We attended the Dolci exhibit yesterday. Very nicely laid out - high quality. The cafe was excellent in quality and staff. This is almost a hidden gem in Durham, well worth spending an hour or two at!
Portobello balsamic onion.
Great architecture and open design
I had a wonderful time here with my daughter just before she left for college. The space is open and inviting, and the exhibits well staged.
Great art, but it is uppety and not comparable to the Dutch Museums, Rembrandt beats it all
Great experience
Pleasant. Relaxing. Thoughtful.