rourke art museum

Not too big or too small, great venue for art showings and the story behind this place is fantastic. Community support seems to work here.

As my other reviews may show, I am not a huge fan of Art Museums. We visited the Rourke for Museum Day Live 2012 and it was fine, just not my cup of tea. There were a few interesting pieces of art, but overall- same old same old. The works from Asia, the Bison out front, and the historic nature of the building itself were my favorite parts of our visit.

because they did not shovel the snow in the front entrance, i didn't think you could enter there. so i entered through a side door and was basically yelled at and accused of trying to not pay...so i avoided the rest of the staff my time there. thankfully that was not hard to do, as there were few of them and they do not walk around much. this type of service was surprising, especially if they are trying to promote visitors to return. aside from that, the museum is small and has a rather limited range of artwork, but is pretty good for the FM area. there is a warhol and a couple of rosenquist paintings, which is neat for such a small museum. you can see the entire collection easily in under 1 hour, even if you read every single bit of info provided. My favourite pieces were by zhimin guan, a local painting professor. For the price, i don't think it's worth it though. you are better off driving to minneapolis to see the MIA, which is free and a thousand times better in terms of variety of artwork, presentation, cleanliness, and staff friendliness. i will not return again unless there is a major exhibition that is worth my time and money.

A nice surprise! Very classy Museum displaying a variety of art, from locally gifted artists to art from all over the world. An incredible inventory of art!