The Cameron Art Museum, formerly known as the St. John’s Museum of Art, was founded in 1962 in the 1804 Masonic Lodge building in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, and is the state’s largest art museum. The museum worked well in the downtown area for forty years until outgrowing its current location.

The Cameron Art Museum was established in 2001 after the museum was relocated to the intersection of Independence and 17th Streets and given a new name. The creation of three display halls, as well as a lecture and welcome hall, was made possible by the museum’s new facilities and equipment. There was also space for outdoor exhibits, a clay studio, and an arts education center on the premises.

She and her husband, Bruce B. Cameron, had been volunteers at the original museum for 35 years, and her husband had been on the museum’s board of directors during that time as well. The Bruce B. Cameron Foundation launched an endowment campaign for a new museum in 1999 with a $4,000,000 grant, and the Camerons’ children generously provided the land on which the museum now resides. Following a vote by the board of directors, the new museum will be named after Louise Wells Cameron.

The Cameron Art Museum hosts a variety of exhibitions that are both historical and modern in nature. The permanent collection of the museum includes works by worldwide, national, and local artists, and it encompasses a wide range of artistic fields.

The Cameron Art Museum’s current location on Independence Street is the site of the Battle of Forks Road, which took place on February 20, 1865, during the American Civil War. The Confederate defeat in the Battle of Forks Road, which took place immediately after the Fall of Fort Fisher, signaled the beginning of the end for the Confederate States of America.

The Union gained control of the Cape Fear Port as a result of the Confederate defeat at Forks Road, cutting off supply lines to General Robert E. Lee in Northern Virginia and ultimately resulting to the Confederate Army’s eventual capitulation. The grounds of the museum are lined with Confederate revetments that were constructed during the Battle of Forks Road, and every year the museum commemorates the lives lost on its property with a re-enactment of the battle, which is followed by lectures, workshops, and artillery demonstrations, among other activities.

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