The Cleveland Museum of Art, located at 11150 East Blvd in University Circle, tucked between the Botanical Gardens and The Natural History Museum, is one of the most famous locations in Cleveland. The Museum is home to over 63,000 works of art spanning from the beginning of art history to now. The Cleveland Museum of Art is well known for being one of the country’s best art museums for many reasons and is a must-see for any native or visitor of the city.
The Cleveland Museum of Art, unlike many other art museums in the nation, is completely free to visit. So many other museums with a collection as expensive and impressive as Cleveland’s charge an entrance fee. Tickets to enter “The Met” in New York City can range from $17-$30. Tickets to The Guggenheim range from $18-$25. The Art Institute Of Chicago’s tickets range from $21-$27. However, Cleveland’s collection is completely free to view, which is a significant asset to the Museum.
“A big part of what stands out about our museum is that it’s free!” said Lisa Focareto, a frequent art museum visitor and art teacher at the Willoughby School of Innovation.
The Cleveland Museum is home to an incredible collection that changes quite frequently. Unlike other museums in the area, like the Natural History Museum, the Art Museum rotates through its collection, not displaying all of its many pieces simultaneously. If you go to the Art Museum at the beginning of the year, chances are a few pieces will be changed out by the end of the year. Most of the Museum’s collection is not actively on display and instead in storage in the basement. Currently, there are 4,253 pieces on display at the Museum. The rest of the pieces that belong to the Museum are either in storage or on loan to other museums.
One of the pieces that best showcases the life of the Cleveland Museum of Art is “Sandy and Her Husband,” a painting by Emma Amos, which the Cleveland Museum acquired in 2018. The piece has gone on loan to several museums, most recently the Chicago Institute of Art in December 2024.
“Our collection, even though you’ll only see about 4000 items a day, the collection is about 65,000 items,” a museum attendant said. “We send a lot of them around the world for special shows. In fact our (Salvador) Dali is traveling right now.”
Of the 4,000-ish pieces on display, it can be challenging to pick a favorite, but a few stand out in the expansive collection. “Gold and Grey” by John Rogers Cox is one of the Museum’s most famous pieces, standing out from the stark white wall on which it is mounted.
“One of the reasons it’s my favorite piece is because I don’t even know why I like it, but I’m compelled to look at it everytime I go,” museum goer Walter Gomula said.
Another piece that stands out in the collection is Van Gogh’s “Two Poplars in the Alpilles near Saint-Remy,” 1 of 6 Van Gogh pieces currently on display at The Cleveland Museum; this oil painting jumps out at the viewer with its thick brush strokes and bold colors. Seeing a photo of this piece does no justice; under the Museum lights, the paint glistens and is given a new life; the thick quality of the oil paint makes the painting feel 3D, with shadows and highlights that seem unreal. It’s easy to see why this piece is eye-catching.
“Every time I look at it, which has been a lot of times, I find something different,” Focareto said
The Cleveland Museum of Art’s content is a large reason that it is such an incredible museum. Compared to other art museums in similar areas, Cleveland has far more work and higher-quality pieces. Many people who have been to art museums around the world still consider Cleveland’s one of the best.
“Cleveland has one of the best Museums in the entire world, not only in content, but in architecture, and it’s free which is unheard of,” Gomula said.
The Cleveland Museum of Art truly is one of the greatest art museums in the country. It is free to visit, it has a rotating collection of over 65,000 pieces, the building is an incredible blend of old and new architecture, and it is a great way to spend a day or afternoon.
