News

Cleveland Institute of Art has received two grants totaling $1 million from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation in support of the college’s campus unification project. The Foundation announced the second of the two $500,000 grants in early November.

“We are tremendously grateful to the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation for providing such generous support, and such meaningful validation, to our campus modernization and unification effort,” said Grafton J. Nunes, the college’s president and CEO. “Support of this magnitude is especially significant coming from this farsighted philanthropy with strong Cleveland roots.”

Morton Mandel, chairman and CEO of the foundation, said “My brothers and I have a long-standing commitment to Cleveland and we are excited about an additional grant for the campus unification project. The Mandel Foundation supports education and the arts in order to enrich the Cleveland community and we believe that the Cleveland Institute of Art makes a major contribution to our community.”

Construction is now underway for an 80,000-square-foot building to be adjoined to CIA’s Joseph McCullough Center for the Visual Arts at 11610 Euclid Avenue. In grateful acknowledgement of the Mandel Foundation’s philanthropy, CIA will name the soaring, sun-lit atrium between the two buildings for the Mandel brothers. The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Atrium will be a focal point of campus activity with a glass ceiling, 48 feet high at its peak; a café; and the setting for exhibitions of student and faculty artwork, group meetings, and social gatherings.

CIA’s new building will enable the college to unify its now-divided campus, bringing all 15 majors and all student services together in that one location in the new Uptown district of Cleveland’s University Circle. CIA currently operates a split campus, with some departments and functions housed in its George Gund Building at 11141 East Boulevard, and the remainder in its McCullough building. In January 2013, the college announced it would sell its East Boulevard property to the Cleveland Museum of Art and Case Western Reserve University.

“This is a very exciting time for CIA,” said Nunes. “We’re building an exceptional facility in which generations of students and Northeast Ohio art enthusiasts will learn about, create, view, and exhibit art and design, and enjoy classic and independent cinematic works through our Cinematheque program. I am very gratified that the Mandel name will be associated with the living room of our college.”

Like CIA’s East Boulevard building, the new building will also be named for George Gund II, whose descendants, together with the foundation that bears his name, donated $10 million to the campus project. Construction will take approximately 16-18 months, after which the college will begin the process of transferring equipment and functions from its East Boulevard building to the unified campus in Uptown. The unified campus will be fully operational by fall 2015.

“We look forward to having all CIA students learning and making art together for the first time in more than a quarter century,” Nunes said.

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation was established by Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1953. Its primary mission is to invest in people with the values, ability and passion to change the world. The Foundation supports programs in its own institutions and at selected universities and organizations. The Foundation has these areas of priority – leadership of non-profit organizations, higher education, Jewish education and continuity, urban neighborhood renewal and the State of Israel.