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The Mint Museum is North Carolina’s oldest art museum and one of the largest art collections in the Southeastern United States. It is comprised of two facilities—Mint Museum Uptown and Mint Museum Randolph.

Mint Museum Randolph houses permanent collections of Decorative Arts, Fashion, Native American Art, & Art of the Ancient Americas. Mint Museum Uptown houses the Craft & Design Collection, as well as the collections of American, Modern, & Contemporary art. Both locations host temporary and visiting exhibitions. The museum's mission statement is to be “a leading, innovative museum of international art and design committed to engaging and inspiring all members of our global community.”

History
The building that would become the Mint Museum of Art began as the first branch of the United States Mint, which opened in 1837. The city was chosen as the branch’s location due to the region experiencing the country’s first gold rush. While it took some time for interest in the area to build, a seventeen-pound gold nugget was first discovered two decades prior on a farm owned by a man named John Reed. Architect William Strickland from Philadelphia designed the building and it was located on the corner of West Trade Street in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. One of the materials used in construction was Leopardite, a stone that is not found anywhere else in the United States except the Charlotte area. The quarry in the Belmont section of town also supplied stone for the construction of the Washington Monument.

The Mint continued operation—producing over $5,000,000 in gold coins—until the North Carolina Militia took control of it in 1861 during the early days of the Civil War. After the conflict ended, the government reopened the Mint as an assay office, and while coins were no longer minted, metal blocks were made and then shipped to Philadelphia for coinage. In 1901, Thomas Edison came to Charlotte to research the possibility of removing gold from ore via electricity, using the Mint building to house his experiments and visiting local mines on multiple occasions. While he considered moving to the area, Edison had little success with his experiments and returned to his home in New Jersey in 1903. Before his departure, however, Edison gave the Mint building’s superintendent, Stuart Cramer, a phonograph and fifty records.

After the assay office officially closed in 1913, the Mint building was used in multiple ways, including a federal court house, a Red Cross Headquarters during World War I, and a meeting place for the Charlotte Woman’s Club. In 1932 the United States Post Office located in the adjacent lot began making plans to add an additional wing, which would require the Mint building to be demolished. Many locals were distraught at the idea of losing such an historic site and began to campaign for its preservation. Martin Boyer Jr., an architect, drafted alternative plans for the post office that could potentially save the Mint building and made several trips to Washington D.C to plead its case. Another key member of this movement was Mary Myers Dwelle, whose father helped establish the Myers Park area of Charlotte. She was a member of the Charlotte’s Woman’s Club—acting as the head of their art department—and felt both the need for a cultural center in the city and a desire to save the Mint building. She and a committee worked on a plan to buy the old Mint building and have it moved to a new location. Despite being in the midst of the Great Depression, they raised funds and purchased the dismantled building for $950 and transferred the materials to a patch of land in the newly established Charlotte neighborhood of Eastover. Martin Boyer Jr. made complete architectural drawings of the building before the demolition began to help with an accurate reconstruction and also offered to supervise the rebuilding for free. The Mint Museum of Art officially opened on October 22, 1936 and was the first art museum in North Carolina. One month prior to its opening, however, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited the museum while in Charlotte for the “Green Pastures” Democratic Rally. His signature is the first one listed in the Mint Museum’s 1936 guest register.

More additions were added to the Mint Museum Randolph building after the move to Eastover. The Delhom Wing was constructed in 1967, and the Harry and Mary Dalton Wing in 1985.

Since the Mint Museum of Art had no art of its own when it first opened in 1936, its inaugural exhibition consisted of 16 American paintings on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C, as well as objects lent by multiple galleries, artists, and private collectors. The first piece of art to join the museum’s permanent collection was a portrait of Queen Charlotte—after whom the city is named—painted by  Allan Ramsay in 1762. Fallout from the Great Depression and World War II made the first decades a challenge for the Mint Museum, but Mary Myers Dwelle continued her commitment to the museum and worked with local and national collectors and art institutions to bring loans and exhibitions to Charlotte.

The museum became involved with the performing arts in 1954 with the founding of the Mint Museum Drama Guild by Dorothy Masterson. She served as the artistic director until her retirement in 1979. Not only did she direct most of the productions, she was also a frequent performer, even portraying Queen Elizabeth I in their 1959 showing of Elizabeth the Queen. The Queen’s Mintkin Puppet Theater for children began in 1960 and was overseen by puppeteer Jacqueline Crutchfield. Volunteers would write scripts, construct puppets, and build scenery to put on three shows a year, including one for Christmas.

To help raise funds for the museum, the Mint Museum Auxiliary was established in 1956. While originally a women's group comprised of sixty individuals, the Auxiliary now boasts over six hundred members and has donated over $13,800,000 to the museum. One of the organizations most notable projects was the annual Antiques Show that ran from 1967 to 2004. A message from first lady Jacqueline Kennedy was featured in the show’s initial catalog. Gloria Vanderbilt Cooper and her husband Wyatt Cooper—the parents of news broadcaster Anderson Cooper—acted as chairs of the Antiques Show in the 1970s.

In 1999, the Mint Museum of Art established the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, which was housed in a renovated Montaldo’s department store in uptown Charlotte. This provided the Mint with a separate location to display its extensive craft collection and procure new pieces and exhibitions.

Mint Museum Uptown opened on October 10, 2010 and integrated the Craft & Design Collection from the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, and the American Art and Modern & Contemporary Art Collections from the original Mint Museum of Art building into its new building in Charlotte’s business district. Designed by Machado and Silvetti Associates of Boston, the 145,000 square foot facility is also a part of the Levine Center for the Arts, which includes the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, the Harvey B. Ganntt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, the  Knight Theater, and the Duke Energy Center. With the closing of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design building, and the consolidation of the Craft & Design Collections and the American Art, Modern & Contemporary Art Collections into Mint Museum Uptown, the original Mint Museum of Art building was renamed Mint Museum Randolph.

Decorative Arts
The Decorative Arts Collection at the Mint, considered one of the finest in the Southeast, numbers close to 8,000 objects. It includes noteworthy examples of furniture, silver, and glass, but its greatest strength is in the field of ceramics. The museum has significant holdings in wares from England and continental Europe, as well as notable examples of American art pottery and Asian porcelain. The Mint also boasts the most comprehensive collection of North Carolina ceramics in the country.

Fashion
Since its establishment in 1972 as a volunteer effort by the Mint Museum Auxiliary to preserve community heirlooms, the Fashion Collection has grown to over 10,000 items spanning three centuries. From Fall 2017 to Summer 2018, the Mint celebrated the “Year of Fashion,” presenting exhibitions featuring designers William Ivey Long and Oscar de la Renta, as well as Charlotte Collects: Contemporary Couture and Fabulous Fashion, which highlighted designs worn by several leaders of the Charlotte fashion community. The Year of Fashion accompanied a major financial gift provided by loyal Mint supporters Ann and Michael Tarwater. In honor of his wife Ann, Michael Tarwater gave a lead gift to launch a Fashion Initiative at Mint Museum Randolph to enhance the storage, study, exhibition, and development of innovative immersive programs around fashion in years to come.

Native American Art
The works of art in the Native American Art collection range in date from the nineteenth century to the present day. Many were donated to the Mint Museum by Gretchen and Nelson Grice. The collection includes Mayan textiles from Guatemala and Mexico (particularly the state of Chiapas); performance masks from Mexico, Guatemala, the United States, and Canada; contemporary ceramics from the United States; and basketry by Indigenous Peoples of the United States and Canada.

Art of the Ancient Americas
This collection includes 2,500 pieces created between 2800 BCE and 1500 CE and is one of the largest in the United States, having been primarily donated by Dr. and Mrs. Francis Robicsek. Over forty ancient Mesoamerican, Central American, and Andean South American societies are represented by these works. Two galleries explore the collection from two different viewpoints—objects as a way to learn about the society that created them, and as art, taking into consideration overarching subjects and themes, the creativity and technical skills required to create them, and the role that they played in their particular culture.

African and European Art
Mint Museum Randolph also holds two, smaller collections of African and European Art.

The African Collection includes works of art from the regions of West Africa, including Mali, Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Côte d'Ivoire, with a focus on the nineteenth and twentieth-century. The museum showcases items such as carved masks, ceramic vessels, figurines and handwoven textiles.

Works in the European Art Collection feature a wide range of techniques and mediums from the Renaissance to the 1900s. Two works of note are thecoronation portraits of King George III and his wife  Queen Charlotte by court painter  Allan Ramsay.

Craft & Design
In 1999, the Mint Museum of Craft + Design opened as a division of the Mint Museum of Art. Its collection consists of decorative arts in the areas of glass, fiber art, metal, studio jewelry, design, studio furniture, wood art, and clay from around the world. While the Mint Museum’s current collecting focus is on works from the twenty-first century, the collection ranges in date from the early twentieth century to the present. Attuned to the ever-changing craft and design world, the museum aims to be a place where current issues can be discussed—producing scholarly works and collaborating with contemporary artists and designers.

To celebrate the opening of the Mint Museum Uptown location in October 2010, the Mint Museum of Craft + Design began Project Ten Ten Ten—in which the museum commissioned ten artists and designers to make works specifically for the new facility. They include Hildur Bjarnadóttir (fiber art), Cristina Córdova (ceramics), Tom Joyce (metal), Danny Lane (glass), Kate Malone (ceramics), Ted Noten (jewelry), Susan Point (wood), Ayala Serfaty (design), Tetsunori Kawana (fiber art), and Joseph Walsh (furniture). All the works—with the exception of those by Kawana and Malone—are permanently on view at the Mint Museum Uptown and can only be seen there; the commissions stipulate that the works cannot be lent to other institutions. Kate Malone’s Mr. and Mrs. Tutti Atomic is one work in two parts, which can be displayed either together or separately at either Mint Museum Uptown or Mint Museum Randolph. Like the other Project Ten Ten Ten commissions, it will never be lent offsite. Tetsunori Kawana’s Project Ten Ten Ten commission, Passage: Waterway, was a temporary, site-specific bamboo structure that was displayed on the grounds of Mint Museum Randolph from August 2011 to August 2012, then ceremonially destroyed.

The Founder’s Circle is an affiliate organization of the Mint Museum that contributes directly to the Museum of Craft + Design financially to fund art acquisitions and exhibitions. They also sponsor travel and education programs that promote craft and design.

American Art
The American Art Collection is located uptown in a suite of five galleries. It showcases paintings, prints, sculptures, photographs, and unique works on paper created from the Colonial Era to World War II. Three areas strength are Federal portraiture, landscapes from the 19th century, and early 20th century realism. Notable artists include John Singleton Copley, Thomas Sully, Thomas Cole, Sanford Gifford, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, Augusta Savage, which are displayed in approximately 6,000 square feet of gallery space at the Mint Museum Uptown alongside examples from the museum’s collection of historic decorative arts and fashion.

Modern & Contemporary
The Contemporary Art Collection at Mint Museum Uptown includes works from the second half of the Twentieth Century to the present day. These works reflect diverse societal values, identities, and pertinent issues within the public discourse. This collection features paintings, photography, artist books, sculptures, works on paper, new media (video, digital, and time-based works), and installations. The museum retains one gallery in its Uptown building that is dedicated to the work of Charlotte native Romare Bearden. Other important artists in the collection include Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Beauford Delaney, Ansel Adams, James Rosenquist, Vik Muniz, Beverly McIver, Ken Aptekar, and Dario Robleto.

Mint Museum Library and Archives
The Mint Museum Library is a reference center for individuals interested in visual or decorative arts with over 21,000 books, exhibition catalogues, art and design periodicals, auction catalogues, as well as files on 8,000 artists. The J.A Jones Reference Library and Delhom-Gambrell Reference Library are located in Mint Museum Randolph, and the Bank of America Resource Centers and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Resource Centers are within Mint Museum Uptown.

The Special Collections of the Mint Museum Library are kept separate from the library’s general collection and consist of rare and unique materials from the 17th to 21st century which help provide context to the works, artists, and history showcased by the museum’s various collections. Items featured are historical texts and limited and first editions.

The Mint Museum Archives were established in 2012 thanks to a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). The archives collects material relevant to the museum’s history, including photographs, press clippings, financial records, personal papers, and other primary source materials.

Mint Around Town
The Mint Museum has several works from its collection in public, offsite locations throughout the community. They include:
 * Kantruk by Robert Emmett Costelloe, which is located at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus
 * Sun Target by John Henry, which is located at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus
 * II Grande Disco by Arnaldo Pomodoro, which can be found in uptown Charlotte at the intersection of Trade and Tryon Street
 * Monument to the Unknown Artist by Alfredo Halegua, which is located at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus
 * Gandy Dancer by Steve Dancer is in the lobby of the CATS Light Rail on South Boulevard

Mint Museum Directors
&lowast;Helped when Sadie Burwell had to step down in the fall of 1945 on her doctor’s orders according to an April 19, 1946 Charlotte Observer Article.