The
Indianapolis Museum of Art
announced ambitious
plans to become a new kind of
art museum with three major
art experiences for visitors.
According to IMA director Bret
Waller, the intended
transformation will propel the
116-year-old institution into
the top tier of American art
museums. The new vision will
improve visitor services, build
art collections and exhibition
facilities, and develop as major visitor destinations the Oldfields Estate and the new Art &
Nature Park. The museum already has raised or has commitments for nearly two-thirds of the
$160 million investment required to realize its vision.
When this vision is realized the IMA will be unique among American museums in the
character, variety and quality of the diverse art experiences it offers visitors to its beautiful,
150-acre urban campus, Waller explained. In addition, by increasing our general operating
endowment, the IMA will be able to expand educational programming for adults and children.
The expanded endowment will help cover the cost of mounting world-class special exhibitions
and bringing top-tier traveling exhibitions to central Indiana. Our aim is to more than double
our current number of visitors and to serve one million people a year by the time this vision is
fully realized.
Great art is essential, said Waller, but museums also must focus on the quality of the visitor
experience. With the variety of great art experiences we will be able to offer visitors, this will be
a place where everyone finds something exciting and everyone feels invited, welcome and
comfortable.
Leonard J. Betley, IMA chairman, said, We challenged ourselves to think of what it would take
to become one of the best dozen art museums in the country and what it would mean to the city,
the state and the region. We sought the opinions of our donors and patrons. This ambitious
idea of a new kind of art museum is the culmination of that visioning process, and, when
completed in several years, will take the IMA to a position of national prominence.
According to Betley, additions and improvements to the main museum building complex will
enhance the visitor experience and will enable the IMA to present important art collections that
are not now shown or are not adequately displayed.
The projected investments will enhance four major asset areas of Indiana’s premier art museum:
the IMA’s excellent art collections, the Museum’s buildings and grounds, the historic Oldfields
Estate and the new, 100-acre Art & Nature Park to be developed on the IMA’s grounds. In
addition, funds will help secure the future of the IMA by building the operating endowment.
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