Ackland Events

2nd Friday ArtWalk: Extended Museum Hours
2026-03-13 17:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for extended hours at the Ackland Art Museum during the Carrboro-Chapel Hill 2nd Friday ArtWalk! Each month, we stay open from 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. to give visitors more time to explore.
Stroll through our galleries featuring highlights from a collection of over 21,000 works of art, browse the Museum Store, and sketch in the galleries using art supplies from our lobby’s art cart.
Admission to the Ackland is always free; no prior registration needed. Whether you’re stopping by solo or bringing friends, come be inspired during our extended open hours!

Drawing in the Galleries
2026-03-14 10:00 - 12:00, 2026-04-11 10:00 - 12:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for our popular Drawing in the Galleries program this month during Studio Saturday! Amanda Hughes leads participants in a creative exploration of a particular object in the Ackland’s collection.
Participants all draw from one object using their own gallery-safe materials (paper/notebooks and dry media like crayons and pencils), then discuss what they’ve noticed through the process of drawing.
This is a free public program. No registration required; all skill levels are welcome.

Stuff Your Fears with Artist Jen Clay
2026-03-14 10:00 - 16:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Inspired by the themes in her installation Soft Night, Watching, artist Jen Clay is hosting a drop-in activity to create stuffie versions of your fears and anxieties. The Ackland will provide supplies to decorate your own stuffie. Clay will be available to answer questions about how she uses soft textures and also encourages touch in her artworks to soothe dreads and worries about the world.
Participation is free and at your pace, but RSVPs are encouraged to guarantee a stuffie is available for your use. Please register below for your free individual ticket. Otherwise, they will be available first come, first served.

Art Adventures (Morning Session)
2026-03-14 10:30 - 12:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
This session is currently sold out. Click here to learn more about upcoming Art Adventure sessions, or email acklandrsvp@unc.edu with any questions.

In this art-inspired, hands-on art-making class for six- to nine-year-olds, participants will create their own artwork inspired by the art on view in Color Concentrated: A Salon-Style Show from the Robertson Collection.
Space is limited; registration required. Free for Ackland Members at the Household Level and above; $5 per child for all others.

Tour: A Closer Look at the Collection
2026-03-14 13:00 - 13:30, 2026-03-15 13:00 - 13:30, 2026-04-04 13:00 - 13:30, 2026-04-05 13:00 - 13:30, 2026-04-18 13:00 - 13:30, 2026-04-19 13:00 - 13:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join Ackland educators for a lively half-hour look at a small handful of artworks. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at and new perspectives on works on view at the Museum.
This is a free, walk-in event – no RSVP required.
This event is part of UNC–Chapel Hill’s Campus Life Experience (CLE) program. Students who attend can scan the QR code provided at the event to receive CLE credit.

Art Adventures (Afternoon Session)
2026-03-14 13:00 - 14:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
In this art-inspired, hands-on art-making class for six- to nine-year-olds, participants will create their own artwork inspired by the art on view in Color Concentrated: A Salon-Style Show from the Robertson Collection.
Space is limited; registration required. Free for Ackland Members at the Household Level and above; $5 per child for all others.

The Salon Salon: Floor to Ceiling Art at the Ackland
2026-03-19 18:00 - 20:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join Carolina Public Humanities and the Ackland Art Museum for a gathering that will foster deep thinking and conversation – a salon – through a guided viewing of Color Concentrated: A Salon-Style Show from the Robertson Collection. Color Concentrated displays paintings in the salon style, hanging in rows that extend from eye level upward, nearly to the ceiling of the gallery.
We’ll learn how the salon hanging tells the story of changing museum trends, from the seventeenth century to the present. Featured presenters include Ackland director Shalini Le Gall, deputy director for curatorial affairs Peter Nisbet, head of university programs and academic projects Elizabeth Manekin, and Nathan Marzen, head of exhibition design and installation.
Space is limited; tickets are required. The $65 ticket includes admission to the program, wine, and hors d’oeuvres. Click here to purchase your ticket today!

Tour: A Closer Look at "Color Concentrated"
2026-03-20 13:00 - 13:30, 2026-03-27 13:00 - 13:30, 2026-04-17 13:00 - 13:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join Ackland educators for a lively half-hour look at a small handful of artworks. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at and new perspectives on works on view at the Museum. Today’s tour looks at Color Concentrated: A Salon-Style Show from the Robertson Collection.
This is a free, walk-in event – no RSVP required.
This event is part of UNC–Chapel Hill’s Campus Life Experience (CLE) program. Students who attend can scan the QR code provided at the event to receive CLE credit.

Tour: A Closer Look at "Bill Bamberger: Boys Will Be Men"
2026-03-21 13:00 - 13:30, 2026-03-22 13:00 - 13:30, 2026-04-03 13:00 - 13:30, 2026-04-10 13:00 - 13:30, 2026-04-11 13:00 - 13:30, 2026-04-12 13:00 - 13:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join Ackland educators for a lively half-hour look at a small handful of artworks. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at and new perspectives on works on view at the Museum. Today’s tour looks at Bill Bamberger: Boys Will Be Men.
This is a free, walk-in event – no RSVP required.
This event is part of UNC–Chapel Hill’s Campus Life Experience (CLE) program. Students who attend can scan the QR code provided at the event to receive CLE credit.

Ackland F.A.M. Day: Growing Up
2026-03-22 13:00 - 17:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Activities for the whole family inspired by the Ackland’s current exhibition Bill Bamberger: Boys Will Be Men.
F.A.M. (Families at the Museum) Day is a free, walk-in program for all ages; drop in all afternoon!

Ackland Film Forum: "Crooklyn" (Spike Lee, 1994)
2026-03-24 19:30 - 21:00 | Varsity Theatre, 123 E. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Set in 1970s Brooklyn, Crooklyn recounts childhood from the perspective of nine-year-old Troy Carmichael (Zelda Harris), whose coming of age unfolds within the rhythms of Black family life, neighborhood culture, and social constraint. The film balances warmth and humor with moments of rupture, revealing how maturity often arrives through confrontation with authority, injustice, and grief. Lee presents growing up as both deeply personal and inseparable from place, race, and community—an education shaped as much by environment as by experience.

The film will be introduced by Daelena Tinnin-Gadson, Assistant Professor of Black Film Studies and African American Literature.
This film will be screened at 7:30 p.m. at the Varsity Theatre (123 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514). Tickets are free, but must be reserved on the Ackland’s webpage. Register below. UNC-Chapel Hill students can receive CLE credit for attending by scanning the QR code at the event.

About the Series:
Join the Ackland Film Forum this spring for Growing Up, Looking Back, a series that accompanies the Ackland exhibition Bill Bamberger: Boys Will Be Men. This semester’s series highlights the filmgoing experience by using three local movie theaters as its venues.
This film series is dedicated to the memory of Allison Portnow Lathrop, former Head of Public Programs at the Ackland Art Museum. For more than a decade, Allison was an indispensable champion of film culture on campus and in Chapel Hill, most notably through her visionary stewardship of the Ackland Film Forum. She fostered a spirit of generous collaboration among faculty, students, and artists. Her belief in the power of cinema lives on in the conversations and shared experiences she helped create.
The Ackland Film Forum is co-organized by the Ackland Art Museum and UNC Film Studies, housed in the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of English and Comparative Literature.

A Closer Look at “Color Concentrated” – Featuring Weixin Zhou
2026-03-27 15:30 - 16:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us at a special time for a conversational tour led by Weixin Zhou, UNC-Chapel Hill doctoral candidate in art history, specialist in European modernism, and researcher and co-author of exhibition texts for both Color Concentrated: A Salon-Style Show from the Robertson Collection and last fall’s Color Triumphant.
Please register for a free ticket below as space is limited.
This event is part of UNC–Chapel Hill’s Campus Life Experience (CLE) program. Students who attend can scan the QR code provided at the event to receive CLE credit.

2nd Friday ArtWalk: Documentary Photography
2026-04-10 17:00 - 21:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Spend a spring evening learning more about documentary photography during this month’s 2nd Friday ArtWalk inspired by Bill Bamberger: Boys Will Be Men.
Artist Bill Bamberger will offer tours of the exhibition alongside his faculty colleagues from the Duke Center for Documentary Studies while deputy director for curatorial affairs Peter Nisbet presents documentary photographs from the Ackland’s collection in special study room sessions.
Space is limited for the study room sessions. There are two opportunities to join: Session 1 from 6:00–6:45pm and Session 2 from 7:00–7:45pm. Please register below for your free ticket.
The event is free, for all ages, and all materials will be provided. The Museum will be open until 9 p.m. to see the exhibition and more.

Art Adventures (Morning Session)
2026-04-11 10:30 - 12:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
In this art-inspired, hands-on art-making class for six- to nine-year-olds, participants will create a portrait based on the themes in the works on view in Bill Bamberger: Boys Will Be Men.

Space is limited; registration required. Free for Ackland Members at the Household Level and above; $5 per child for all others.

Art Adventures (Afternoon Session)
2026-04-11 13:00 - 14:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States

Last Look Tour by Curator Lauren Turner
2026-04-12 15:30 - 16:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
A final guided look at Bill Bamberger: Boys Will Be Men, led by exhibition curator Lauren Turner, associate curator for contemporary art.
Free, but space is limited; registration required below.
This event is part of UNC–Chapel Hill’s Campus Life Experience (CLE) program. Students who attend can scan the QR code provided at the event to receive CLE credit.

A Closer Look at One Work of Art
2026-04-15 13:00 - 13:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Look closely and carefully at a single work of art in the Ackland collection with Andrea Bolland, Associate Professor Emerita of Art History, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Please register for a free ticket below, as space is limited.
This event is part of UNC–Chapel Hill’s Campus Life Experience (CLE) program. Students who attend can scan the QR code provided at the event to receive CLE credit.
