Fantastic Celeveland Museum of Art

By being members of Positively Cleveland, we were given the opportunity to visit the Cleveland Museum of Art at an after hours networking event. The evening was a chance for everyone in the tourism industry to get to see the new and improved museum that was over 3 years in renovation.

Three years ago the Cleveland Museum of Art, home to over 900 works in 20 galleries, spanning 300 years of art history from the height of the Baroque age in 17th-century Europe to the rise of industrial cities in early 20th-century America, closed its permanent-collection galleries to start a massive expansion and renovation. Then on June 29,2012, the museum opened the doors to grand, newly renovated galleries on the main level of its original neoclassical white marble home, known as the 1916 building. The two new wings rose to stand on each side the 1916 building and the 1971 education facility which were all joined by a huge indoor atrium.

The museum now has a new Gallery One educational center, which includes a 40-foot-long interactive display wall, said by the museum to be the largest in any U.S. art museum. It was like a touch Wikipedia! Touch a picture and the art comes to life right in front of you! The museum has also unveiled ArtLens, its free new mobile application for the Apple iPad, which visitors can use along with the “Collection Wall” in the Gallery to customize their own individual  tours. You can borrow an IPad to take with you on the tour so you have all information about any and all art that you want to see. Now I only hope they will develop an Android app!

The evening was fabulous, the Museum is fabulous, and we highly recommend that you make some vacation plans to come to Northeast Ohio, stay awhile, and visit ALL of our fabulous museums. Below are just a few of the pictures of the new atrium.

Visiting the Cleveland Art Museum collections is FREE but there could be a charge for viewing Special Collections. Hours are 10:00 to 5:00 except on Wednesdays and Fridays when hours are extended to 9:00 p.m. The Museum is closed on Mondays. Enjoy the pictures that I took but do come and see the Museum up close and personal. You won't be disappointed! And also located in University Circle is the Contemporary Art Museum, Natural History Museum, the Crawford Auto Museum, and Severance Hall. And Hallauer House B & B is located just 40 minutes from the Museum, an easy drive on the Interstates.