The art world has a New York problem. Every major publication writes about the Met, MoMA, the Whitney, and the Guggenheim as if nothing significant exists outside of Manhattan. It's not true.
Some of the best museum collections in the world are in mid-size American cities. Here are eight that deserve far more attention than they get.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art — Kansas City, Missouri Free admission. One of the finest art museums in the country. The Nelson-Atkins has exceptional collections of European painting (including one of the best Caravaggio holdings in the U.S.), Asian art, photography, and a sculpture garden with pieces by Henry Moore. The new Bloch Building by architect Steven Holl, all glowing glass boxes half-buried in the lawn, is worth the trip on its own.
The Frick Pittsburgh — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Henry Clay Frick was the steel baron who helped make Carnegie rich, and his Pittsburgh home has been converted into a museum complex on the East End. The collection includes Old Masters, decorative arts, Impressionists, and a carriage museum with the finest collection of horse-drawn vehicles in North America.
The Crystal Bridges Museum — Bentonville, Arkansas Built by Alice Walton (of the Walmart Waltons) in the Ozarks, Crystal Bridges opened in 2011 and immediately became one of the most significant art museums in the South. The permanent collection covers five centuries of American art — from colonial portraiture to Winslow Homer to Rockwell to contemporary. The architecture, nestled into a wooded ravine with ponds and bridges, is extraordinary.
The Amon Carter Museum of American Art — Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth has one of the great concentrations of art museums in America — the Kimbell, the Modern, and the Amon Carter are all within walking distance of each other in the Cultural District. The Carter specializes in American art and photography and houses one of the greatest photography collections in the world. Free admission.
The Cleveland Museum of Art — Cleveland, Ohio Free admission to a collection that includes ancient Egyptian artifacts, medieval armor, European masters, and one of the finest Asian art collections in the Western Hemisphere. The Armor Court alone — a full hall of medieval and Renaissance armor displayed in dramatic lighting — is worth two hours.
The Philbrook Museum of Art — Tulsa, Oklahoma An Italianate villa on 23 acres in the middle of Tulsa, with gardens that could be in Florence and a collection that spans from Native American art to European Old Masters to contemporary work. The combination of architecture, landscape, and collection is genuinely beautiful and almost never crowded.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts — Richmond, Virginia Free admission to a world-class collection that includes the largest collection of Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs outside of Russia, extensive holdings of Indian and Himalayan art, and a strong American collection. The Art Deco building and sculpture garden make the whole thing feel larger than it is.
The Minneapolis Institute of Art — Minneapolis, Minnesota Free admission. 90,000 works spanning 5,000 years. The MIA has exceptional collections in everything — period rooms, Chinese jade, Impressionists, African art, contemporary photography. It's genuinely encyclopedic and criminally undervisited by people outside Minnesota.