NCMA After Hours: Ancient Nubia

NCMA After Hours: Ancient Nubia takes over the East Building at the North Carolina Museum of Art on Thursday, October 15, from 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM. It's the museum's monthly evening for adults—though it's open to all ages—where you can walk through the galleries after dark with music and making inspired by the People's Collection. This particular night celebrates the opening of Ancient Nubia: Excavating Treasures of the Nile, a show on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The exhibition is curated by Denise Doxey, the Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern Art, and it puts the Kingdom of Kush—a powerful civilization of the Middle Nile Valley—into the limelight. The materials come from royal tombs and pyramids excavated by the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition more than a century ago. It covers the kingdom's three main historical periods, nearly 3,000 years, and includes hands-on and digital interactives, a replica of a royal tomb, and a special display by the NCMA's own Nubiologist, with recently donated Egyptian objects shown as comparatives.

The evening itself is built around that. DJ Uymami will be spinning traditional and contemporary Sudanese music, and local artist Zaire Miles-Moultrie will be screen-printing live, with a complimentary special-edition print for visitors while supplies last. There are also hands-on art activities to get into. From 7 PM to 9 PM, there's a ticketed craft beer and dessert tasting called 'Brewed and Bewitched'—that one requires prepaid reservations—and at 8 PM, a guided tour takes you through the Ancient Nubia exhibition.

General admission is free. The whole thing runs from 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM at the East Building, 2110 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh.