Cleveland Museum of Art

Introduction

The Cleveland Museum of Art is one of the largest art museums in the United States, with more than sixty thousand works spanning the ancient world to the present. Founded in 1913 and opened in 1916, it is especially renowned for its Asian and Egyptian holdings. Free general admission reflects its founding commitment to public access.

Art and Artists

Cleveland has significant Jewish art representation. It partnered with New York’s Jewish Museum to integrate Jewish ceremonial objects throughout its permanent galleries, placing them in the broader cultural and historical contexts that shaped them while expanding Jewish representation across the museum. This partnership offers a strong best-practice model for how museums can work with Jewish cultural institutions to deepen representation, share expertise and meaningfully incorporate Jewish history and culture into the visitor experience. Its own holdings include a Torah ark, Torah finials, a mezuzah cover, Passover vessels, and works by contemporary Jewish artists including Shimon Attie and Keith Mayerson.

In 2024, the museum’s presentation of the international loan exhibition Africa and Byzantium was expanded to include a gallery on Jewish North Africa, including a special loan of a ketubah from the Mishkan Or Museum of Jewish Culture. The museum in that year also began what is now a multi-year partnership with the Jewish Museum in New York, continually displaying Jewish ceremonial objects from the latter’s world-renowned collection

The museum also maintains a public Nazi-era provenance program and has conducted extensive research into its European paintings and sculpture. Its decision to dedicate staff capacity specifically to provenance research stands out against peer institutions as a strong institutional practice. Israeli artists including Anna Ticho and Yitzhak Elyashiv are represented. In addition, in 2016 and 2024, Martin Guttman’s Corporate Music, created with Irish artist Michael Clegg, was displayed.

Policies

Cleveland’s visitor rules prohibit solicitation and the distribution or posting of materials on museum property, providing a content-neutral basis for keeping organized political activity out of its galleries. They also prohibit clothing that promotes hate groups, violence, or hateful symbols, an unusually explicit stance against hate imagery.

The museum identifies itself as an equal opportunity employer and has published an anti-discrimination policy reading “the museum does not tolerate unlawful discrimination based on race, color, sex, marital and civil partnership status, religion, national origin, citizenship, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, military or former military status, or any status or other characteristic protected by law.”

No public evidence was found of a defined mechanism for reporting antisemitic incidents.

Community Engagement and Programming

The museum has supported its Judaica displays with docent-guided tours and two loan collaborations with the Jewish Museum, Adorning Ritual and Guests of Honor: Art of Faith. Its Judaica work has also received support from Cleveland’s Jewish philanthropic community. In addition, museum staff have had ongoing correspondence and in-person meetings with staff from the Jewish Cultural Quarter (Joods Cultureel Kwartier) in Amsterdam and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland regarding museum efforts and activities.

In 2022, the museum’s board of trustees unanimously approved a revised and updated strategic plan, “For the Benefit of All the People,” which established Jewish art as a strategic collecting priority. In June 2025, the museum received a Lilly Endowment Religion and Cultural Institutions planning grant, funding one year of preliminary research and development towards future projects to illuminate the complexity and vibrancy of Jewish artistic, cultural, and religious practices from antiquity to the present.

Cleveland recognizes several heritage and affinity months but has historically not recognized Jewish American Heritage Month.

Bottom Line

Cleveland has made a meaningful commitment to Jewish art through Judaica acquisitions, provenance research, dedicated installations, and programming, and has likewise shown its commitment to addressing discrimination. A stronger public reporting mechanism, Jewish American Heritage Month recognition, and deeper Israeli representation would turn existing progress into an even more lasting commitment.