In Blount Cultural Park next door to the Shakespeare Festival, the MMFA is a surprisingly strong regional museum with permanent collections of American art (with a particularly good 19th- and early 20th-century painting holding), regional Southern art, glass, and decorative arts. The Blount Collection of American art is the heart of the institution.
Admission is free. The museum is well laid out, walkable in an hour or two, and pairs naturally with a matinee at the Shakespeare Festival across the courtyard.