Cleveland Museum of Art

The museum's creation was made possible by the bequests of three prominent Cleveland industrialists: Hinman B. Hurlbut, John Huntington, and Horace Kelley, who left money specifically for an art museum. Jeptha H. Wade II donated the land in Wade Park for the site. Although the museum was incorporated in 1913, the planning process began decades earlier, sparked by the death of Hurlbut in 1884 and the subsequent wills of Huntington and Kelley.

The trustees, led by Henry Clay Ranney, united the three estates to fund the institution. The museum opened in 1916 after years of planning and construction, with Frederic Allen Whiting serving as the first director from 1913 to 1930.

The original neoclassic building, constructed at a cost of $1.25 million, was designed by the Cleveland firm Hubbell & Benes and built of white Georgian marble. It opened in 1916 and forms the focus of the city's Fine Arts Garden. The museum has undergone several significant expansions: a 1958 addition designed by Hays and Ruth doubled the floorspace; a 1971 North Wing designed by Marcel Breuer featured a stepped, two-toned granite facade; and a 1983 West Wing added library space and galleries.

Between 2005 and 2013, a major renovation and expansion project led by architect Rafael Viñoly demolished the 1958 and 1971 additions, replacing them with a new wrap-around building and east and west wings, completing the transformation of the complex.

The museum's collections are divided into 16 departments, with particular strengths in Asian and Egyptian art. The Asian collection, developed significantly under director Sherman Lee, ranks as one of the finest in the country. Other major holdings include the Guelph Treasure, a collection of sacred medieval objects from Brunswick, Germany, acquired in 1931, and the ancient bronze Apollo Sauroktonos ("Cleveland Apollo") acquired in 2003.

The European collection features masterpieces by Jacques-Louis David, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh, including "The Large Plane Trees." The museum also holds a significant collection of African art, comprising 300 traditional works, and a small but notable collection of fine art photography dating back to 1893.

The Cleveland Museum of Art has maintained an international reputation for the quality and breadth of its collections, bolstered by major bequests such as the Rogers Bequest and the Severance Fund in the 1940s and 1950s. Under the leadership of directors like William M. Milliken and Sherman Lee, the museum established itself as a leader in art collecting and education. The institution is also recognized for its commitment to public access, waiving admission fees and, in 2019, waiving its rights to roughly 30,000 public domain objects to make them freely available online.

The museum's educational programs, including the long-running "May Show" for local artists, have been central to its mission since its early years.

In recent decades, the museum has focused on community engagement and digital innovation. The ARTLENS Gallery, featuring interactive displays and a mobile app, allows visitors to view and interact with the museum's digitized collection. In 2021, the museum opened a community arts center in Cleveland's Clark-Fulton neighborhood, hosting displays and former Parade the Circle floats.

The museum also maintains an active schedule of special exhibitions, lectures, films, and musical programs. In 2016, the museum celebrated its centennial with a wide variety of community events and special exhibitions, marking a century of service to the public.