Filed Under Art and Design

Cleveland Museum of Art

By CSU Center for Public History and Digital Humanities
Outdoor Art Installation, 1991 "The Way of Pervading Unity" (foreground) by Joan Damankos, and "Big Art" (frieze wrapping, background) by Abraham Bruckman. These were temporary installations commissioned for CMA's 75th anniversary celebration, June 7-9, 1991. Source: Cleveland State Library Special Collections Date: 1991

The Cleveland Museum of Art is one of the foremost art museums in the world, having outstanding collections of Pre-Columbian, medieval European, and Asian art. It opened to the public in 1916 on Jeptha H. Wade's Wade Park property in University Circle. Constructed in the Neoclassical Revival style of white Georgian marble, the museum became a fixture in the international art collecting circuit as a result of large bequests in the post-World War II years. The museum opened additional wings to house its burgeoning collections in 1958, 1971, and 1983. The newest expansion promises to keep the Cleveland Museum of Art in the forefront of national art museums.

Audio

The Majesty of the CMA Architect Robert Madison opines on the majestic qualities at the Cleveland Museum of Art Source: Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection
The Legacy Of Jeptha Wade Leslie Cade of the Cleveland Museum of Art describes the influence of Jeptha Wade on the Museum's history and success Source: Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection
Childhood Visits Artist Joseph O'Sickey reflects on drawings he made during childhood visits to the Cleveland Museum of Art Source: Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection

Images

Outdoor Art Installation, 1991 "The Way of Pervading Unity" (foreground) by Joan Damankos, and "Big Art" (frieze wrapping, background) by Abraham Bruckman. These were temporary installations commissioned for CMA's 75th anniversary celebration, June 7-9, 1991. Source: Cleveland State Library Special Collections Date: 1991
Bird's Eye View of Museum This postcard shows the Cleveland Museum of Art in its original form, as designed in 1916 by Cleveland architectural firm Hubbell & Benes. Source: Cleveland State Library Special Collections
Wade Park Lagoon Source: Cleveland State Library Special Collections
South Facade, ca. 1980 Source: Cleveland State Library Special Collections Date: 1980
The Fountain of Waters The Fountain of Waters is a 1927 sculpture by Chester A. Beach located outside of the Cleveland Museum of Art near Wade Lagoon Source: Cleveland State Library Special Collections
The Thinker, Pre-Damage This sculpture at the Cleveland Museum of Art is one of about ten such casts made by the sculptor Auguste Rodin while working on his never-completed Gates of Hell series, which was based on Dante's Divine Comedy. The sculpture, which sits outside the south entrance to the museum, was badly damaged by a pipe bomb in 1970. Source: Cleveland State Library Special Collections
Wade Lagoon in the Summer Source: Cleveland State Library Special Collections
The Garden Court, ca. 1960 Source: Cleveland State Library Special Collections Date: 1960

Location

11150 East Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44106

Metadata

Related Resources

  1. "Cleveland Museum of Art." Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. case.edu/ech/articles/c/cleveland-museum-art
  2. Leedy, Walter C. Cleveland Builds an Art Museum: Patronage, Politics, and Architecture, 1884-1916. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
  3. Witchey, Holly Rarick, and John Vacha. Fine Arts in Cleveland: An Illustrated History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.
  4. Wittke, Carl. The First Fifty Years: A History of the Cleveland Museum of Art From 1916-1966. Cleveland: John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust and Cleveland Museum of Art; distrib. by Press of Western Reserve University, 1966.

Official Website

clevelandart.org

Citation Info

CSU Center for Public History and Digital Humanities, “Cleveland Museum of Art,” Cleveland Historical, accessed October 3, 2023, https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/29.

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