Columbus Museum of Art

The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collects and exhibits American and European modern and contemporary art, folk art, glass art, and photography. The museum has been led by Executive Director Brooke Minto since 2023. History The Sessions house and William Monypeny houses, hosting the art museum (left) and Columbus Art School (right) The Pizzuti Collection Claude Monet , Weeping Willow , 1918 The CMA was founded in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts. Beginning in 1919, it was housed in the Francis C. Sessions house, a founder of Columbus Art School (later known as Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD). Sessions deeded the mansion and property to the art museum, which operated there until 1923. The house was demolished, with the current museum built on its. Ross Building layout and architecture The 1931 museum building, today known as the Elizabeth M. and Richard M. Ross Building, was designed in the Second Renaissance Revival style by Columbus architects Richards, McCarty and Bulford . It has a concrete foundation, walls of limestone and concrete, and a truncated copper hipped roof. The building is horizontal, two stories high, and has a central structure advanced several feet in front of its two wings. The wings feature large limestone friezes, together known as The Frederick W. Schumacher Frieze or Masters of Art . The work, by. Collections This section does not cite any sources . Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . ( October 2019 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this message ) The permanent collection includes outstanding late nineteenth and early twentieth-century American and European modern works of art. Major collections include the Ferdinand Howald Collection of early Modernist paintings , the Sirak Collection of Impressionist and Expressionist works, the Photo League Collection, and the Philip and Suzanne Schiller Collection of American Social Commentary.