RALEIGH, N.C. — In 1947, North Carolina generated headlines when it became the first state in the country to allocate state funds to purchase art for its people.

The state legislature contributed $1 million to purchase the state’s first collection of art.

Seventy-five years later, the North Carolina Museum of Art, located on Blue Ridge Road in Raleigh, continues to instill the message of "art for the people."

Valerie Hillings took over the role of director for the North Carolina Museum of Art in 2018.

“All of what you see in this building belongs to the citizens of North Carolina, thanks to the vision of our state of our legislature and our leaders that continue to see the value of culture and the lives of our people in the state,” Hillings said.

Hillings, a Duke University graduate, found her passion and profession in art.

“I never was really good at making art, but I always appreciated it,” Hillings said.

Hillings oversees the North Carolina Museum of Art. The renowned museum is filled with more than 4,200 pieces of work from all around the world, some of which were created more than 5,000 years ago.

“That first million dollars had a lot of foresight, the idea that the state would invest in building this collection, but there still needed to be private support as well to contribute to make it as great as it could be,” Hillings said.

The first million dollars was matched by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. The group funds projects to advance the study and conservation of European art.

Kress’s donation was able to bring Italian artist Giotto di Bondone's infamous piece, the “Peruzzi Altarpiece,” to North Carolina.

“This amazing only altarpiece by Giotto in the United States is here in North Carolina because of that first million dollars and then that challenge that brought this remarkable piece into our collection,” Hillings said.

The original museum opened on Morgan Street in downtown Raleigh in 1956. It expanded quickly, relocating to its currently home on Blue Ridge Road in 1983.

Some of the original 139 pieces in the museum’s collection are still on display in the museum’s west building.

“The world keeps changing and the collection keeps changing and we think of comparing works from different periods here. You have these two works of young men - it’s a way for us to look freshly at old art. It's a way thinking of contemporary life has continuity of what came before, but wanting the collection to represent all of the people we want to bring in all of North Carolinians with different viewpoints, different experiences, different lived experiences,” Hillings said.

Hillings says the art allows people to see different ways of the world that all became possible on the last day of the legislative session in 1947.

In October 2022, the museum will open a reinstallation called, "The People’s Collection, Reimagined."

“I look around here, you’re coming to the museum, which is a journey, but thinking of conceptional journey to another time and place,” Hillings said.

The North Carolina Museum of Art is free and open to the public Wednesday through Sunday. Tickets are required for special exhibitions and programs in the East Building. 

Clarification: This article has been updated to reflect the days of the week the museum is free and open to the public.