Cleveland Institute of Art

Our mission is to nurture the intellectual, artistic, and professional development of students and community members through rigorous visual arts and design education.

Our vision is to advance culture, community and global quality of life.

At Cleveland Institute of Art, we strive to maintain a safe and healthy environment for students, faculty, staff, and visitors. To that end, CIA partners with Case Western Reserve University and the University Circle Police Department.

The Great Lakes Research exhibition follows a yearlong tour of artist studios in the region by FRONT Artistic Director Michelle Grabner. The exhibition considers a local geographic home within the context of the international exhibition, reclaiming regionalism as a vital means of identifying and prioritizing cultural centers.While the subcultures, histories, idioms, and dialects differ between Toronto and Minneapolis, Chicago and Cleveland, Milwaukee and Detroit, these cities’ physical and psychological distances from coastal cultural hub cities unite their diverse cultural output.

The Great Lakes Research celebrates the curatorial practice of the studio visit, which reinforces the importance of local cultural fieldwork. In the process of selection, Grabner visited numerous studios to investigate and inform a group of works by artists who shape local and regional cultural patterns. Many of them have been pivotal as teachers and mentors in forming the practices of young artists. They advance alternative geographic and theoretical positions and recognize regional discourses as legitimate while nurturing creative practices that work within a global framework.

CIA’s Continuing Education and Community Outreach program offers dynamic art and design classes through unique course content and access to high-quality faculty and facilities. Each semester we serve adults and students in grades 5-12 by helping each individual learn new techniques or improve existing skills. Educators can take workshops or classes and earn CEUs for each studio hour.

The Jessica R. Gund Memorial Library has collections specifically developed for the visual artist, designer, and craftsperson. The library's collections support CIA's accredited degree programs, with a special focus on providing materials for studio-intensive instruction.

Everyone is welcome in CIA's Gund Library. Our primary mission is to serve current students, faculty and staff of the Cleveland Institute of Art and our partner libraries - Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Rock Hall Library & Archives. As an OhioLINK participant, we also welcome current students, faculty and staff from any OhioLINK library.

The general public, visiting scholars, and art and design professionals are welcome to use the collections on-site on weekdays during regular business hours. Visitors wishing to use the library during nights or weekends should call in advance and will need to sign in with the Institute's security personnel. Anyone 16 years of age or younger must be accompanied by an adult while in the library.Library computers are reserved for CIA and partner library patrons; visitors are asked to check at the desk before using library computers. Printing is restricted to CIA and partner library patrons.

The facilities at the Cleveland Institute of Art provide students with space designed specifically for studying, living, and exhibiting art. Our campus is a creative, friendly environment that allows students to pursue their dreams.

At Cleveland Institute of Art we take your career seriously—whether you choose to build a studio practice, join an established business, become an entrepreneur or continue your studies toward an advanced degree.Opportunities for using your talents are widely available locally and nationally and the Career Center has the tools, resources, and strategies to help you find them.The Career Center staff helps you make that transition from student to working professional. Through one-on-one career advising, you’ll learn how to write a resume and cover letter, practice interviewing techniques, and search for jobs and internships.

Disability Services provides accommodations and academic support services ensuring equal access to students with documented learning disabilities, mental health issues, medical disabilities, and mobility issues. Some of these disabilities include dyslexia, dyspraxia, auditory processing disorder, non-verbal learning disability, Autism, Asperger’s, ADD, ADHD, acquired brain injury, speech, hearing or visual impairment, PTSD, Lupus, and depression and anxiety disorders.

Every year, the Cleveland Institute of Art builds on to an internationally recognized heritage of excellence and innovation that dates back to 1882.

That year, the school was chartered as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women. The school’s first name reflects the forward-thinking views of founder Sarah Kimball, who opened her home for the first class meetings, attended by just one teacher and one student. Open to male and female students alike, the Cleveland School of Art, as the school soon became known, blossomed under the influence of a dedicated and talented faculty, whose prize-winning art and award-winning commercial designs are known collectively, even today, as “the Cleveland School.”

Over time, the school’s success prompted changes in facilities—from Mrs. Kimball’s sitting room to the attic of Old Cleveland City Hall, and then to the late Horace Kelley’s mansion on present-day E. 55th. In 1905, CIA built a brick Italianate building in University Circle (razed as part of a 1960s site redevelopment), which boasted a grand exhibition gallery predating the Cleveland Museum of Art by a decade.