Nicolaysen Art Museum
Casper’s accredited contemporary-art museum pairs changing exhibitions with an unusually substantial hands-on Discovery Center.
Artwork inspired by Neltje
The Nicolaysen—or the Nic—is an American Alliance of Museums–accredited contemporary-art museum whose exhibitions move between emerging and established artists from Wyoming and beyond. It is not a museum to visit for one permanently displayed icon: the useful question is what argument the current curators are making through material, scale, place, and juxtaposition.
Families should treat the Discovery Center as part of the museum rather than a waiting room. Its sensory play, drawing and painting stations, puppet theatre, and crayon-rubbing table connect hands-on making to what is currently in the galleries. Check the exhibition list before traveling, then leave enough time to compare a few works slowly and try one of those ideas through making.
- Model
- Contemporary art
- Setting
- Discovery Center
- Allow
- 1–2 hours
Quick guide
- First question
- Changing contemporary exhibitions
- Set beside it
- Hands-on Discovery Center ↔ Wyoming and national artists
A focused visit to Nicolaysen Art Museum
- Begin
- Check the current exhibitions; gallery content changes substantially.
- Compare
- Compare how two artists turn material into meaning.
- Connect
- Place Wyoming voices beside artists from farther afield.
- Verify
- Use the Discovery Center to test an idea from the galleries.
Good to know
The Discovery Center closes at 4:30 p.m., thirty minutes before the galleries. Review exhibition and private-event changes before visiting, and use the museum’s published admission table rather than prices displayed by third-party ticket services.
Notice these
- Changing contemporary exhibitions
- Hands-on Discovery Center
- Wyoming and national artists