ABSTRACT
The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland was founded in 1968 by Nina Sundell, Aggie Gund, and Marjorie Talalay as a private gallery to sell contemporary art channeled from New York City. In its nearly 50-year history, it has occupied three spaces before this one, its first purpose-built building. The museum was located in a retail space in a downtown mall, and then expanded to inhabit the entire second floor of a former Sears store, rented from the Cleveland Playhouse. When the museum moved to this third location, the board had expected that people on their way to a show would stop by the museum, but this did not happen. Moreover, this was a destination location, one that people had to seek out instead of stumble upon. In addition, the space was not ideal for the museum; there was no rental space for private events, the museum shop was small, and the education space was also used for storage.
