Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

Specialties

The mission of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art is to excite, engage, and educate through the arts.

History

Established in 1895.

The Cedar Rapids Public Library moved to a new building in the mid 1980s, vacating the Carnegie building where the Art Association was first established. The City of Cedar Rapids offered the original Carnegie building and some adjacent land to the Art Center. A successful campaign raised $ 10 million for the renovation of the Carnegie building and the construction of a 42,000 square foot addition designed by Charles W. Moore (1925 – 1993) and Centerbrook Architects. The new Cedar Rapids Museum of Art was formally opened with John Carter Brown (then Director of the National Gallery of Art) cutting the ribbon in December 1989. The CRMA remains an AAM accredited museum to this day.

Meet the Manager

Terence P.

Manager

Pitts joined the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in 2000 after twenty-​five years at the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, where he had been Director for the last eleven of those years. During Pitts’ tenure, the Museum strengthened its permanent collection by adding more than 680 new artworks; completed a successful $ 12.3 million endowment and capital campaign in 2003; installed state-​of-​the-​art compact shelving; and greatly increased the number of admission-​free days. He also served an important role during the 2008 flood, overseeing the Museum’s recovery and reopening, providing gallery space for the flooded National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library to present its collection, and giving storage space for the art collections of the Cedar Rapids Community School District and the Cedar Rapids Public Library.