The collection at the Hood Museum of Art (Dartmouth College, Hanover, 603/646-2808, http://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tues. and Thurs.–Sat.; 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Wed.; noon–5 p.m. Sun., free) begins with the building itself—an award-winning postmodern design by architects Charles Moore and Chad Floyd. The collection inside the Hood Museum of Art is like a survey course of the world’s art, presenting European and American painting, sure, but also holding a particularly strong collection of less familiar areas like the Near East and Africa.

Among the highlights are a spectacular 9th-century bas-relief from an Assyrian palace, and a collection of art from Indonesia and the South Pacific that is among the most important in the country.

Situated on the main campus green, the Hood Museum of Art is attached to the Hopkins Center (603/646-2422, http://hop.dartmouth.edu), a gargantuan performing arts center that is the cultural lynchpin of western New Hampshire and eastern Vermont. Any day of the week, the center might present circus performers, contemporary Latin dance, Japanese No theater, the swing revival rhythms of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, or the sidesplitting rants of comedienne Margaret Cho. If you can’t be entertained here, you probably don’t know how.