Solicitation Letters, 1979-1983

Sherman Lee guided the growth of the museum through the building of a new wing by Marcel Breuer that opened to the public in 1971. By 1978, however, it was apparent that the museum was in need of further expansion. The museum library, located above the galleries in the 1958 wing, had reached a space crisis of dire proportions. Built to hold approximately 80,000 volumes of books, the library had no room left to expand. Books were piled along the stack aisles and in the hallway, hampering reference service and reducing space for researchers. Though the 1971 addition added room for the department of art history and education and created new galleries for special exhibitions, it added little gallery space for the permanent collection. As modern art grew in size the museum staff found they had to keep too much of the collection in storage due to a lack of exhibition space. The conservation department, which had begun under Lee's direction and had steadily grown during his tenure, also was in need of better facilities. In 1979 the board of trustees authorized the Cleveland architectural firm of Dalton, van Dijk, Johnson & Partners to perform a feasibility study to determine if a new wing could be added to the museum. Architect Peter van Dijk designed an addition on the west side of building along the wall of the 1958 wing, nestled between the loading area of the 1971 wing and the west side of the original 1916 building. The addition had four levels: two levels for the library, one level for additional gallery space, and one level for equipment. The design would allow the renovation of the conservation department, which would move into the library's former location, providing contiguous workspace for painting and three-dimensional object conservation and space for the increasingly sophisticated machinery needed to perform conservation work.

The trustees, however, were skeptical about adding another addition as the museum did not have sufficient funds to cover the full cost of constructing the wing and its accompanying ongoing operating expenses. Up to this point, the Cleveland Museum of Art had never conducted an extensive capital campaign. The extreme generosity of Leonard Hanna, Jr. helped fund both the 1958 and 1971 additions. Although the museum was still in a better financial situation than many other museums during that time period, some sort of fund raising action was necessary in order to be able to afford the new wing. Despite the trustees' reservations the museum entered into a contract in 1979 with Dalton, Van Dijk, Johnson & Partners for the preparation of schematics and specifications for the addition.

To address the fund-raising issue the trustees appointed a development committee. The trustees and Sherman Lee argued about the propriety of building a new wing without all of funds in place and how much money was needed both to fund the construction and operating expenses. The museum had never before had a development department but by 1980 there was a general call for a development office not only to oversee the raising of money for this project, but also for future needs. Eventually the trustees agreed that approximately six million dollars would be needed to fund the construction of the new wing and to create an endowment to cover the additional operating expenses.

In 1981 the museum hired the firm of Brakely, John Price Jones, Inc. to perform a capital campaign feasibility study. The firm interviewed community leaders to gather opinions about the best way to run the campaign and presented the trustees with a report in May 1982. Nevertheless, with the creation of the new department of development and membership, headed by James Szubski, the development committee recommended that the museum not create a highly visible public campaign and instead rely on money from the general reserve, grant money, and money raised through smaller campaign efforts. Ultimately, part of the funding came from a $500,000 challenge grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts which required the museum to raise $3.50 in new money (e.g. excluding membership dues) for every one dollar of the grant. Another portion came from a grant from the Kresge Foundation that also had matching requirements. In the end, the $6.7 million campaign for the building resembled an all-out public campaign.

By mid-1982 Lee and the trustees decided to go ahead with the building plans and selected R. P. Carbone as the contractor for construction. The company broke ground on August 19, 1982. Complicating the capital campaign the head of development and membership, James Szubski, abruptly resigned in January 1983, after having worked for the museum for less than a year. The museum hired consultants Charles L. Feldstein & Co. to manage the capital campaign after Szubski's departure.

Sherman Lee retired on June 30, 1983 in the midst of construction, so it was the next director, Evan Hopkins Turner, who presided over new wing's dedication and opening to the public. On January 30, 1984 the museum library was dedicated as the Ingalls library, honoring former trustees Jane Taft Ingalls and Louise Harkness Ingalls, and the gifts of many members of the Ingalls family, especially David and Frances Ingalls. The library nearly tripled its stack space to 21,000 square feet. The basement level of the wing was devoted to stack space and storage, with the first floor containing the reference area and offices for the library, photograph library, and slide library. The museum held a gala opening for the galleries above the library on February 7, 1984. The new wing provided additional space for nineteenth- and twentieth-century art in nine galleries above the library, allowing more of the museum's artwork to be displayed. Renovation of the former library for the conservation department continued during 1984. The department moved into its new quarters in 1985.

The records in this series are organized into three subseries: Fund-Raising, Architect's Records, and Miscellaneous. Fund-raising records begin with the capital campaign feasibility study performed by Brakely, John Price Jones, Inc., including the final report. Records relating to the capital campaign conducted by the development and membership department follow and include information on donors, pledges, expenses, and brochures for the capital campaign. Sample solicitation letters and lists to which they were sent are contained in a separate folder. There is also a small amount of material relating to the company Charles L. Feldstein & Co. which took over management of the capital campaign in 1983.

The architect's records are from the firm of Dalton, van Dijk, Johnson & Partners. The subseries begins with records relating to the initial feasibility study that recommended a new wing. Floor plans of the proposed addition and photographs of the architect's model follow. Contracts, invoices, job management meetings, building specifications, and change orders are included in this subseries. The final subseries of miscellaneous records contains the conservation department's requirements for renovating the space formerly occupied by the library, the approval papers from the Cleveland City Planning Commission, and photographs of Sherman and Ruth Lee in front of the new wing construction.