CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART

director , in presenting the Museum with a complete outfit of the new “ Daylight ” lamps for the exhibition floor .

At the outset of this undertaking , your committee sought long and earnestly for a director of experience , of pleasing personality , of artistic tastes , of far vision and of a genius for organization , and before the cornerstone was laid , our search was rewarded by securing as your director , Mr . Frederic Allen Whiting . Mr . Whiting has been indefatigable in his labors to perfect the museum organization and to hasten the day which we celebrate . On behalf of the trustees I wish to make public acknowledgment to Mr . Whiting of our appreciation of all that he has done , and our confident expectation of his continued successful administration .

We then have , fellow members , a completed museum . We have a museum organization already in action . What is to be done with it ? To what goal of accomplishment is it to be ad ministered ? What is to be the policy of the Museum ? It seems to me not inappropriate that on this occasion a general answer should be given to these questions , as the trustees have deter mined , and paraphrasing what the trustees have determined , this shall be the policy of the Museum :

( a ) It is hoped , in time , to afford in this Museum an exhibit of art in its broadest sense ; to here display examples of the highest art as it has existed in all ages and in all countries .

( b ) In procuring and showing such exhibits , it shall be an inflexible rule that nothing shall here be exhibited which is an imitation or of doubtful origin ; that no object shall find a place in our Museum which is not , of its type , an example of the best .

( c ) It is also the determination of the trustees to give recog nition at all times to the fact that one of the purposes of the Museum is as an educational agency , and that there shall ever be maintained an effective educational department , organized to stimulate and promote the intelligent appreciation of art .

We have , friends , laid a sure foundation for such an ideal Museum . One thing needful must be found without our walls - the cordial , sympathetic , helpful interest of the public . While this Museum is founded by private beneficence , it is in a literal sense a public undertaking , to be forever maintained for the benefit of the public . It should then , as it seems to us , be always part of the policy of its administration to encourage , stimulate

gency departmen of art . ideal