On a recent fall morning, a bright-eyed class of sixth graders from West Rowan Middle School filed into a small gallery inside the Waterworks Visual Art Center in Salisbury and quietly sat on benches or the floor, their knees together.
"All right, guys. Have a look around. Tell me what you guys think," the gallery attendant, Emily Seaford, said.
"Very abstract!" said a boy in front of a large portrait by Picasso.
The attendant walks through the room, pointing out landscapes and portraits by an impressive lineup of 19th- and 20th-century European artists, including Monet, Kandinsky, Bonnard and Picasso. Then, the kids are free to stand up and get a closer look.
One group of girls clusters in front of a portrait of Picasso's wife, Jacqueline.
"This — this one is kind of, um, a little outrageous," said 11-year-old Trinity McCauly. The woman in the painting is topless, and the girls giggle.
Then, the friends turn to another Picasso painting of a person with a triangle-shaped nose, and McCauly delivers some tough criticism.
"It look like a rat," she said. "I’m gonna be honest. That nose is pointy."
"It’s Pinocchio," a friend chimed in.
Just goes to show — there’s no harsher critic than an adolescent.
There’s much more love for a sunny, lakeside landscape by Monet, which attracts a small crowd of children. Esdras Cruz, 11, said he was impressed by a hyper-realistic bouquet of flowers by French painter Henri Fantin-Latour.
"It just looks so realistic that you could just go in there, grab one flower and smell it," he said.
A gift from a son of Salisbury and his wife
In the hallway, observing, is the museum’s executive director, Anne Scott Clement.
"We want these children to have this experience. I mean, they may never in their lifetime ever go and see a famous artist like this," she said.
The rich collection of 38 paintings and two sculptures comes to the museum from the estate of Julian and Josie Robertson. Not only is the exhibit free to the public — but this school year, every student in Rowan County will have the opportunity to take a field trip to see it.
It's a big deal for Salisbury, and Clement could hardly believe it when an agency called her last December asking about putting the works on display. She thought they meant somewhere else.
"And they said, ‘Oh, no — no, no, no. The Robertsons want to bring the collection to Waterworks,’ and I was just like — I was so taken back." she said.
Julian Robertson was born in Salisbury in 1932 and made his fortune running a hedge fund in New York. Josie Robertson was born in Texas in 1943 and loved the arts.
The couple spent decades traveling the world building their collection, all while Julian stayed connected to his hometown, said Jason Walser, who works for the local foundation founded by the Robertson family.
"He subscribed to the newspaper. He always had Cheerwine delivered to his office in New York on Park Avenue," Walser said. "He had a lot of connections, good friends that lived here. So, not only did he not forget where he came from, he stayed really actively engaged with Salisbury."
Every Rowan County student can view the exhibit this school year
After Josie died in 2010 and Julian in 2022, their children and the Robertson foundation in New York decided to put a portion of the collection on tour, starting in Salisbury.
The exhibit is free for the public through next August, and every student in Rowan County — including public, private and home-schooled — will have a chance to see the exhibit on daily field trips just like this one.
As their time in the gallery nears the end, 11-year-olds Kherington Joyner and Adriana Diaz linger near an abstract painting by German artist Gerhard Richter.
"This has been a good experience," Joyner said. "I’m kind of happy we got to see this today."
"Yeah, I feel like this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, so it’s really special," Diaz added.
The bus waits outside, and the teacher lines the kids up. They file out, peeking over their shoulders for one last look. As they leave, they tell the museum staff "thank you" in unison.
The museum staff wave, then get ready for the next batch of kids.
"Never Before Seen ... Modern Masterpieces" is on display at the Waterworks Visual Art Center in Salisbury, N.C., through Aug. 30, 2025. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. There is no charge to tour the galleries.
