The 2026–2029 Strategy Focuses on Deep Community Connections, Wellbeing and Sustainability, Radical Hospitality and Learning

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CINCINNATI — October 7, 2025 —The Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) has charted its path for the next four years with a new strategic plan. The plan, which the museum’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved at its August 2025 meeting, sets three institutional priorities: deep community connections, organizational wellbeing and sustainability, and radical hospitality and learning.  

At the conclusion of the plan’s timetable, CAM will be on the cusp of its 150th anniversary in 2031.

“Our 2026-2029 strategic plan builds on 145 years of service to the community and places the Cincinnati Art Museum at the heart of civic life,” shares Cameron Kitchin, Louis and Louise Dieterle Nippert Director. “Arts and humanities are central to joy, learning and creative innovation. I am thrilled to embark on this next chapter together to inspire and connect people through the power of art.”

Deep Community Connections. CAM believes that wellness is a superpower of art. The museum will introduce and build upon wellness offerings to the community, like its new Member Yoga program, and to its employees and volunteers. Key components include ongoing research to inform how museums can better contribute to quality of life as well as creating and nurturing partnerships with organizations and experts who help people achieve health in body and mind.

Organizational Wellbeing and Sustainability. This focus area pertains to the sustainable health of CAM’s buildings, grounds and collections. As CAM approaches its 150th anniversary, the museum will seek resources to continue modernizing the building towards energy efficiencies and upgraded technical capabilities, all while maintaining best-in-class collections handling. To ensure the museum can realize these and other essential facility needs, which will allow it to continue serving the community, CAM will closely monitor changing fundraising trends and priorities. This will become especially critical as the wealth transfer from Baby Boomers to Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z escalates. 

Radical Hospitality and Learning. Put simply: This is the pursuit joy. CAM will explore ways to improve the visitor experience to ensure they leave happier than when they arrived. This will include new and restored galleries, plans to enhance outdoor trails and sculpture programs, ongoing adherence to accessibility best practices, digital improvements and acquisitions and exhibitions that meet visitor interest.  

Board members Andrew Quinn, Bruce Petrie, Jr., Eric Kearney, Cheryl Rose and Kelly Vanasse provided leadership and invaluable guidance throughout the strategic planning process.

"One of the most crucial roles an art museum plays in its community is contributing to its members’ quality of life,” shares Quinn, the president of CAM’s Board of Trustees. “We know that the Cincinnati Art Museum has an impact. Now, as the organization writes its next chapter, it will continue to find new ways to serve the public with intention and purpose—driven by a desire to contribute to community members’ personal well-being and, ultimately, to a vibrant Cincinnati."

Following its most recent strategic plan–which prioritized visitor experience and scholarship, community impact and outreach and organizational capacity and that resulted in several transformative changes such as the Art Climb, renovated ground level, new front drive, front entrance ramp, among others–CAM’s Board of Trustees, staff and community members began work on the current plan in 2024 to consider how the museum can be of the highest service in its next chapter.

About the Cincinnati Art Museum

The Cincinnati Art Museum features a diverse, encyclopedic art collection of more than 73,000 works spanning 6,000 years. In addition to displaying its own broad collection, the museum conducts extensive research and creates and organizes several exhibitions each year. It also hosts national and international traveling exhibitions. Through these critical projects and art-related programs, activities, and special events, the museum contributes to a more vibrant Cincinnati by inspiring its people and connecting its communities.

Cincinnati Art Museum is supported by the tens of thousands of people who give generously to the annual ArtsWave Campaign, the region’s primary source for arts funding. The Ohio Arts Council helps fund the Cincinnati Art Museum with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. The Cincinnati Art Museum gratefully acknowledges operating support from the City of Cincinnati, as well as its members. Free general admission to the Cincinnati Art Museum is made possible by a gift from the Rosenthal Family Foundation. Generous support for the museum’s extended Thursday hours is provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program. Exhibition pricing may vary. Parking at the Cincinnati Art Museum is free. Accessibility accommodations are available. More information is available at cincinnatiartmuseum.org.

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