Munro, Thomas (1897-1974)

Dates

• Existence: 1897 - 1974

Biography

In 1931, the CMA’s director William Mathewson Milliken demonstrated his commitment to education by hiring educational pioneer Thomas Munro to succeed Rossiter Howard as curator of education. In addition to broadening the museum's roster of activities for children, Munro developed a rich adult education program that emphasized non-representational art, non-Western art forms, and all of the visual arts including film. Munro held his position at the CMA for thirty-six years, until his retirement in 1967. Like several other curators at the CMA before and after him, he was concurrently a professor at Western Reserve University. One of his students was Sherman Lee, later curator of Asian art and director (1958-83) of the museum.

Born in 1897 in Omaha, Nebraska, Munro was educated at Amherst College (BA, 1916) and Columbia University (MA, 1917), where he was influenced by the progressive views of the philosopher and educator John Dewey. During World War I he served as a sergeant with the psychological services of the Army Medical Corps before returning to Columbia for his PhD, awarded in 1920. On Dewey’s recommendation, Munro went to work in 1923 as the associate educational director for Dr. Albert Barnes, who was amassing a collection of paintings in Philadelphia. With Barnes’ help and with text by Paul Guillaume, Munro published Primitive Negro Sculpture, in French and English, in 1926. His work at the Barnes Foundation ended that year.

Thomas Munro’s developing ideas as a visiting professor of modern art at the University of Pennsylvania (1924-27) and a member of the philosophy faculty at Rutgers (1928-31) caused a stir with his contributions to the philosophy of aesthetics, articulated in his 1928 manifesto, The Scientific Method in Aesthetics. After joining the CMA staff in 1931, his subsequent publications dramatically advanced his reputation: The Arts and Their Interrelations (1949); Art Education: Its Philosophy and Psychology (1956); and Evolution in the Arts and Other Theories of Culture History (1963).

As a founder in 1942 of the American Society for Aesthetics and editor (1945-64) of the influential Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Munro argued passionately that the arts—properly taught—were essential to a liberal arts education. He outlined his ideas on this in his book, The Creative Arts in American Education: The Interrelation of the Arts in Secondary Education (1960).

Besides his other professional activities, Thomas Munro’s primary concern was the educational program developing at the CMA. He periodically recounted its progress in the museum’s publications, described his approach at conferences and in professional journals, and gained financial support from foundations and philanthropists for a number of his projects. Building on the CMA’s programs for children beginning with the museum’s opening in 1916, Munro developed his own approach from his theories of aesthetics and current ideas concerning children’s artistic development. His department’s classes for young people went beyond art appreciation and practice to include music study and dance.

The programs for adults enhanced the viewing experience by creating satisfying encounters with the museum’s collections, and offered concerts, tours, classes and lectures, leading to public support. Additionally, the department was the means by which the public could be persuaded to appreciate modern art at a time when it often engendered hostility and derision. The hierarchy of the arts was also a barrier that Munro’s programs sought to remove. During the 1930s the CMA hosted showings of classic films, lectures on photography, and presentations of industrial and commercial art forms. Munro’s most difficult, self-appointed challenge was to balance appreciation and respect for expertise in the arts with audience independence and self-reliance in personal responses to works of art.

Prior to Thomas Munro’s retirement, the CMA committed to contributing to the publication of his last book, Form and Style in the Arts (1970). Munro died in 1974 at the age of 77 in Sarasota, Florida, where he had lived after his retirement in 1967.

Sources:

“Thomas Munro (Literature).” Cleveland Arts Prize. https://clevelandartsprize.org/artistlist/thomas-munro/ Turner, Evan H., and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.

Munro, Thomas and Jane Grimer. Educational Work at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. https://archive.org/details/CMAEducationalWork1952/page/n3/mode/2up.

“Thomas Munro, Art Scholar, Dies,” New York Times, April 15, 1974. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/04/15/archives/thomas-munro-77-art-scholar-dies-author-founded-and-headed-society.html.

“Lee, Sherman E.” https://clevelandartarchives.libraryhost.com/agents/people/44.

-Biography by Anne Cuyler Salsich, 2025

Occupations

• Cleveland Museum of Art Staff Member

Found in 11 Collections and/or Records: