The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art will extend its operating hours to 9 p.m. on the first and third Fridays of each month starting April 2, 2010.

Later hours will allow patrons of the Knight Theater (which is adjacent to the museum) and other venues to visit the museum prior to a performance and thus combine an evening of visual art with an evening of performing art. Because of the museum’s proximity to Charlotte’s Historic South End, later hours will allow South End Gallery Crawl participants the opportunity to include the Bechtler in their evening art viewing.

Docent-led tours of the museum will be offered at 6:30 p.m. on each late night. Entertainment and program offerings are in the planning stages and will be implemented in the coming months.    

All portions of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art will be open during the extended hours. Regular admission applies. Admission is $8 for adults; $6 for seniors, college students and educators; $4 for youth (11 to 14) and free for children (up to 10).

The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art is dedicated to the exhibition of mid-20^th-centry modern art. It is named after the family of Andreas Bechtler, a Charlotte, North Carolina resident and native of Switzerland who assembled and inherited a collection of more than 1,400 artworks created by major figures in modernism. The collection comprises artworks by seminal figures such as Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miro, Jean Tinguely, Max Ernst, Andy Warhol, Le Corbusier, Sol LeWitt, Edgar Degas, Nicolas de Stael, Barbara Hepworth and Pablo Picasso.

Operating hours are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sunday 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.; closed Tuesdays. (Starting April 2, the museum is open until 9 p.m. the first and third Fridays of each month.) The museum is located at 420 South Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC 28202.