The Gregg Museum of Art and Design at NC State was denied a $1 million grant by Wake County’s Tourism and Hotel Tax Fund in favor of two sports facilities, one of them for-profit, potentially pushing back the move-in date for Gregg to its new location.
The museum, currently located next to the JC Raulston Arboretum, is planning to move to the old chancellor’s residence near the Belltower, across the street from David’s Dumplings.
Construction for the museum is planned to begin in late February or early March if money is raised by the end of the year, according to Roger Manley, director of the Gregg Museum. Once the construction begins, it will take 18 months for the construction to be completed.
The total budget for the Gregg Museum is $9.4 million, with $5.5 million intended to come from NC State and the remaining $3.9 million from private donations. Currently, the museum is $1.4 million short of its goal.
The biggest private donation came from the Windgate Foundation, which donated $750,000.
“We were hoping to get Wake County Tourism and Hotel Tax Fund to help us, but they turned us down because they wanted to support two sporting facilities instead of a cultural facility,” Manley said.
The tax fund awarded money to a basketball-themed camp and a private ice hockey training facility instead of the museum.
“What is too bad about it is that NC State is one of the biggest employers in Wake County,” Manley said. “We have thousands of employees and students who shop and live here. We put a lot of money into the county, and they gave money instead to a private organization—the hockey training facility.”
Currently, Gregg features about 34,000 objects. North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh has 5,000.
“In terms of numbers, we have a bit more than the art museum in Raleigh, but they do have larger pieces,” Manley said.
Museum construction will add a 1,500 square foot addition to the forner chancellor’s residence.
“It will quadruple the size of the original space,” Manley said. “There will be three new galleries, a lobby and an outdoor exhibition space. We will be able to have outdoor films and screenings—the sort of things we couldn’t do when we were in Talley.”
When Gregg was part of the Student Union, it wasn’t allowed to advertise its location at Talley and was limited to a small space. Once the museum moves to its new location, it will be added to the campus map, Manley said.
“Part of the problem we suffered from is that by being there and having such a small display place in Talley is that we were never able to display more than two displays at a time, and people thought that there was all there is to the museum,” Manley said. “If we had a display on clothing, then people would just think it was a clothing museum, or if we had a ceramic display people would think that we only had ceramic exhibits.”
The museum features an encyclopedic collection with showings that include ceramics, photography, paintings, clothing and more.
“We try to have artwork in our exhibitions that can be used for teachings, so it can be somehow connected to what is taught at NC State,” Manley said. “College of Textiles is here, College of Design is here, and because of that, we have a lot of textiles, fashion, ethnic clothing, things like that which people can use to learn from.”
The museum also offers internships that will be accessible to more students once it moves to the new location. The internships, although unpaid, do provide course credit.
“That will be kind of awesome,” said Rebekah Minkiewicz, a junior in design. “At App State where I transferred from, there was an actual museum where students could intern and go see exhibits for extra credit, and I even took a class there. It was very nice. I think the exposure is really great, and it looks good on resumes.”
