Cincinnati Art Museum

Cincinnati Art Museum

Since opening its doors in the heart of Eden Park in 1886, the Cincinnati Art Museum has shared with the public its extensive collections of local, American, European, Asian and African art.

The Cincinnati Art Museum was established in the late nineteenth century, when public art museums were still relatively rare outside of the Eastern portions of the United States. In the 1870s and 1880s, the Women’s Art Association established the “The Art Palace of the West,” a permanent art museum in the heart of Cincinnati’s Eden Park. When its doors opened in 1886, the Cincinnati Art Museum aided in pushing Cincinnati’s identity away from a backwoods town to a center of culture in the West. Within the next few decades, generous donations grew the museum’s collection so much that the museum had to expand its walls to accommodate new additions.

The American, European, and Asian collections are currently housed in the Schmidlapp, Emery, Hanna and French Wings, which were designed by the architectural firm of Daniel Burnham Associates. Housed in between these wings’ permanent exhibits is a permanent exhibit of African art as well. A unique holding for an American public museum, the Damascus Room is worth seeking out, as it’s one of the earliest surviving rooms from Syria.

In 2003, the museum began to feature the role of Cincinnati in the national history of art with the opening of its Cincinnati Wing. The Cincinnati Wing displays paintings, furniture, metal making and pottery. Video displays that show the process and craftsmanship involved in each particular art form. For example, a film about Rookwood pottery shows archival footage of the kilns and discusses the role of Rookwood pottery in Cincinnati over the twentieth century. In addition to its permanent collections, the Cincinnati Art Museum offers rotating exhibitions.

Notes for Travelers

The museum has something to offer patrons of all ages, including regular “Baby Tours” and a well-organized interactive space where children can express their creativity. In addition to these options, the museum offers MyCAM art hunts, in which users select a theme to locate specific works of art to explore while visiting the museum.

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