Newsroom: Columbus Museum of Art Receives $1.2 Million Gift from Art Bridges Foundation
Columbus, Ohio — October 12, 2023 — The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is pleased to announce the receipt of a $1.2 million grant from Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program in support of the Museum’s Free Sundays and quarterly free Community Days. This generous gift will enable the Museum to continue hosting free admission on Sundays for the next three years, deepening CMA’s commitment to offering accessible platforms for learning and engagement, regardless of financial barriers.
For the past ten years, Free Sundays have been a core aspect of CMA’s offerings. Serving up to 100,000 visitors per year, Free Sundays accounts for a significant part of the Museum’s annual attendance. Waiving admission costs on Sundays is among the Museum’s ongoing efforts to enhance accessibility for all community members, alongside the availability of free gallery materials offered in multiple languages spoken within Columbus — including Spanish, Arabic, Somali, Mandarin, and Nepali — as well as the Museum’s investment in resources for individuals with visual impairments, hearing impairments, and autism spectrum disorder.
In addition to Free Sundays, the Art Bridges Foundation’s gift will provide funding for several Community Days, which will include special programming connected to exhibitions on view with free participation for guests of all ages, to further engage the Columbus community with the Museum’s special exhibitions.
Earlier this month, the Museum celebrated the openings of two new exhibitions: Accra! The Rise of a Global Art Community, showcasing the work of 18 artists with deep connections to Accra, Ghana, and their impact on global art discourse, and Quilting a Future: Contemporary Quilts and American Tradition, surveying how artists across generations have used the medium to explore social, political and environmental concerns. The first of the Museum’s funded Community Days is being planned for January 2024, with a full day of programming around Accra! The Rise of a Global Art Community. Recognizing that Columbus has one of the largest Ghanaian immigrant communities in the United States, this upcoming Community Day will celebrate Ghanaian culture with events and activities designed in collaboration with artists and local partners.
CMA is among 64 institutions nationwide receiving funding through Art Bridges Foundation’s newly launched Access for All program, a three-year funding initiative that aims to increase access at museums across America and foster engagement with local audiences. For the past five years, Free Sundays have been made possible as a result of the Museum’s 2018 Free for the Future Campaign, in which CMA successfully raised funds to maintain the program through 2023. Supplementing this support, Art Bridges Foundation’s’ investment will allow Free Sundays to continue uninterrupted while also enabling the Museum to further invest in efforts to reach underrepresented communities within Columbus.
CMA’s Executive Director and CEO, Brooke Minto, says, “We are honored to be among the 64 institutions nationwide benefiting from the Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program. This support is instrumental in our pursuit of making art a shared experience for our community and the Museum a place to be enjoyed by all.”
Coupled with another $1.2 million grant received from Battelle last month to establish the Fund for Learning — a three-year initiative aimed at nurturing creativity, critical thinking, civic-mindedness, and well-being among visitors of all ages — the Museum is poised to continue to grow the public programming for which it has been recognized nationwide, making it a welcome resource for residents of Columbus and beyond to explore, imagine, and flourish.
About Columbus Museum of Art
CMA is where creativity and the daily life of its community intersect and thrive, as the Museum champions new and different ways of thinking and doing. CMA celebrates the creative process and sets the stage for people to experience art, ideas and relationships that spark creativity and nurture collective, courageous imagination.
CMA’s collection includes outstanding late 19th- and early 20th-century American and European modern works of art, grounded in the Ferdinand Howald and the Howard D. and Babette L. Sirak Collections. The Museum houses the world’s largest collections of works by beloved Columbus-connected artists Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, Elijah Pierce and George Bellows and acclaimed collections such as The Photo League and the Philip J. and Suzanne Schiller Collection of American Social Commentary Art. The recently established Scantland Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art also continues CMA’s dedication to showcasing the art of our time.
The Greater Columbus Arts Council, Nationwide Foundation, Ohio Arts Council, Paul-Henri Bourguignon and Erika Bourguignon Fund for Visual Arts and Richard H. and Ann Shafer funds with the assistance of the Ingram-White Castle Foundation of The Columbus Foundation provide ongoing support.
About Art Bridges
Art Bridges Foundation is the vision of philanthropist and arts patron Alice Walton. The mission of Art Bridges is to expand access to American art in all regions across the United States. Since 2017, Art Bridges has been creating and supporting programs that bring outstanding works of American art out of storage and into communities. Art Bridges partners with a growing network of more than 220 museums of all sizes and locations to provide financial and strategic support for exhibition development, loans from the Art Bridges Collection, and programs designed to educate, inspire, and deepen engagement with local audiences. The Art Bridges Collection represents an expanding vision of American art from the 19th century to present day and encompasses multiple media and voices.
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