The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, later the Columbus Museum of Art, opened its purpose-built Broad Street museum building on January 22, 1931. The Wikipedia article fetched through the MediaWiki API gives the exact opening date, while the museum's own chronology confirms that the new building was completed and opened to the public in 1931 after construction begun in 1928. The chronology also records that the opening exhibition celebrated the Ferdinand Howald Collection and included extended loans from the Frederick W. Schumacher Collection and George Bellows paintings lent by Emma Bellows. The Renaissance Revival building gave Ohio's first chartered art museum a permanent civic presence and anchored the institution's modern collection around the Howald gift.
The opening established the museum's long-term home and public identity in downtown Columbus.
