Mad dash in Monet's last days

Even Tar Heels tickets seem a fair trade for a chance to see sold-out exhibit

RALEIGH -- The Canes draw crowds, and the Tar Heels are tops, but the hottest ticket in town is the water lilies.

The N.C. Museum of Art has oh-so-sold-out the "Monet in Normandy" exhibit, which closes Sunday. Since the sellout over the weekend, desperate ticket seekers have offered lower-level Carolina Hurricanes seats, hand-knit items and, yes, tickets for the No. 1 Heels in exchange for passes to see the 50 paintings by impressionist master Claude Monet.

Robin Parrish, 30, of Raleigh bartered two $75 tickets to a Canes game against the Washington Capitals for a pair of $15 tickets for Monet. Anyone who questions her team loyalty should know that during the Canes' Stanley Cup run last summer, she was pregnant with son Camden -- named partly after goalie Cam Ward.

"I actually watched the finals in the hospital, and they had to come into the room and tell me to stop yelling," Parrish said. "But I can have other opportunities to see them. ... I think this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these paintings."

The museum has packed in as many people as it could during the show's run. It has expanded capacity by 50 tickets per hour, added days just for members, extended hours on some evenings and scheduled a 32-hour marathon viewing that starts Saturday morning. Still, Terri Morris, 53, of Burlington waited too long and couldn't score a final-week ticket.

Morris called two exhibition sponsors, Progress Energy and The News & Observer. She dialed Carolina Ballet, hoping her tickets for the "Monet Impressions" dance performance might offer a link to the museum exhibit. She even contacted people who had posted online ads seeking tickets -- just to see if they had gotten responses.

"Everybody had a story, but nobody had any tickets," Morris said. "The woman at Progress Energy said, 'I don't want to discourage you, but I think if we can't get them, then you're probably not going to be able to get them.' "

Despite the demand, some buyers had no trouble. Bob Ross, 58, of Carrboro got three calls after posting an online ad. He bought a pair of Friday afternoon tickets for $20 each.

"I was pleasantly surprised," Ross said. "I thought it was just a lost cause."

Signs of hope

The museum offered more than sympathy. It printed signs that read "I Need Tickets" for the empty-handed to hold outside the entrance. Museum spokeswoman Jennifer Bahus said most were able to buy tickets from other visitors holding extras or needing refunds.

With past blockbusters, including "Matisse, Picasso and the School of Paris" in late 2004, the museum released extra tickets when people moved quickly through the show and freed up room in the galleries. Bahus warned against banking on extra tickets this time.

"All the tickets that can be sold are sold," she said.

Museum director Larry Wheeler said he briefly considered extending the show by a day, but his staff was exhausted from the 14-week run. Opening Monday also would require the staff to work on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The show goes next to The Cleveland Museum of Art.

"We made the deal with the other museums and with the lenders, and I just think it's time to wrap it up," Wheeler said.

He predicted 225,000 visitors would see the show -- about 100,000 more than he estimated before "Monet" opened in October.

"I knew it was going to be more," Wheeler said. "It was my conservative staff that held me back."

If you missed "Monet in Normandy" and can't get to Cleveland, the Raleigh museum will bring in more Monets this year.

On Tuesday, Wheeler signed a contract to bring the exhibit "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism" from the Brooklyn Museum. The show of about 40 paintings may include up to four Monets, along with work by John Singer Sargent, Gustave Courbet and Childe Hassam. The exhibit will run Oct. 19 to Jan. 13, 2008.