CLEVELAND, OH.- The Cleveland Museum of Art today released a new strategic plan, Making Art Matter: A Strategic Framework for Our Second Century. The result of an intensive and inclusive year-long process, the plan will serve as a road map for the CMA over the next ten years as it inaugurates a second century of leadership and service.

“Since the conclusion of our centennial late last year, the museum’s trustees and staff have been engaged in a rigorous strategic planning process, with extensive input from both volunteers and its community partners. The result is an ambitious plan that will position the museum for a second century of growth,” said Cleveland Museum of Art Director and President William M. Griswold. “The plan will support the creation of transformative experiences through art, advancing new and existing audiences’ understanding and appreciation of the museum’s truly extraordinary collection.”

Making Art Matter: A Strategic Framework for Our Second Century will leverage the CMA’s renowned collection, expert curators, talented staff and dedicated volunteers, as well as its spectacular recent renovation and expansion, to reach new audiences and deepen visitors’ engagement with the artistic legacy of humankind.

“If all the goals, strategies, and objectives that comprise the plan were distilled into a single word, it would be ‘audience,’” said Griswold. “Over the next ten years, we will explore new approaches to the acquisition, presentation, and interpretation of the museum’s collection, we will maximize the impact of our extended campus, and we will create new ways to engage with the museum, in order that we may make art meaningful to an ever larger and more diverse public.”

Making Art Matter seeks to strengthen the CMA’s position as a global leader among museums, deepening its connections locally and with peer institutions throughout the country and around the world, while positioning the CMA as an important cultural destination for tourists from outside Northeast Ohio.

“We owe much to our founders and the generations of Clevelanders whose vision and generosity have given us this remarkable legacy,” said Peter E. Raskind, Cleveland Museum of Art board chairman. “Through this plan, we have the opportunity not only to protect this great institution, but also to ensure that we continue to live up to our potential, enhance what we have and make it even more effective and meaningful as we fulfill our mission for the benefit of all the people forever.”

The plan establishes ambitious goals for audience development and community support. The new initiatives and programs it describes will depend on increased engagement and support through membership and annual giving, grants and sponsorships and growth in endowment and legacy giving.

“We would like to acknowledge Scott C. Mueller, chairman of our Board Strategic Planning Committee, as well as each and every one of our trustees, the whole staff of the museum, and all our supporters and community partners for their valuable input,” said Griswold. “As we contemplate the future, we will vigorously pursue our mission, vision and promise, enhancing access for all those in Northeast Ohio and beyond to the entire history of the human experience as it is expressed through art.”