At the inaugural State of the CAC, leaders of the Contemporary Arts Center announced a new mission plan, developed through their work to create a strategic plan which will guide the institution in the decades to come.
Christina Vassallo, the CAC Alice and Harris Weston Executive Director, discussed the development of the CAC's strategic plan. Facilitated by the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, the CAC engaged a Strategic Planning Committee that considered the lived experiences and observations of board members, staff members, and key stakeholders. Over the course of nine months, the CAC followed a framework to develop six major objectives, which are mission-driven and reflect a focus on ensuring the institution can continue to operate at the highest level possible for its next 85 years.
The Strategic Plan objectives are
- The CAC is the premier venue in the region for all forms of contemporary art – exhibitions, public programs, performances, film, artist residencies, and community engagement.
- Develop outreach that communicates and promotes the CAC’s unique position to generate local, regional, and national attention.
- Deepen relationships with our current attendees, re-build membership levels, and develop new patronage.
- Build a board that reflects the CAC's artistic and operational ambitions.
- Increase and diversify contributions through institutional support, membership gifts, and individual giving.
- Invest in our operations and use our facility in ways that will support our artistic aspirations.
Using those newly outlined objectives as a basis, the CAC's developed a new mission statement: “The CAC is a lab for understanding ourselves, others, and the world around us through the experience and creation of all contemporary art forms.”
With an emphasis on community partnerships, revealing the artistic process, and better connecting visitors to its space, Curator Theresa Bembnister offered a preview of the CAC's 2024-25 exhibition season.
Chip Thomas and The Painted Desert Project (opening Sept. 6), by photographer, activist, and physician Chip Thomas (known as jetsonorama), combines photography and street art to celebrate Navajo culture and draws attention to the negative effects of capitalism. Thomas has lived among the Navajo people since the late 1980s. Subjective Evidence (opening Sept. 27) is the first American survey of German photographer Barbara Probst.The exhibition features Exposure series of images of multiple views of a single scene, shot using a radio-controlled system.
In October, the CAC teams with SOFTlab, a design studio based in New York City led by Michael Szivos. for an installation in the Kaplan Lobby will hang from the ceiling and will be visible through the lobby windows. SOFTlab combines a research-based design practice with an interest in how technology, craft, and materials come together.
Beginning in January, the CAC, in partnership with The Phillips Collection, presents the first comprehensive museum exhibition artist, activist, and educator, Vivian Browne. Vivian Browne My Kind of Protest consists of approximately 60 paintings, prints, and works on paper spanning the artist’s 30-year career, along with ephemera. In April 2025, the CAC partners with MOCA in Cleveland for Ohio Now, focusing on the work of Ohio-based artists. The season ends with an exhibition by Brooklyn-based figurative painter Marcus Leslie, Marcus Leslie Singleton: New Steps. More details about the exhibitions and images will be available soon.
In alignment with the new strategic plan objectives, the CAC will refine the educational and participatory programming offered. Shawnee Turner, director of interpretation and visitor experience, discussed how events will be a combination of CAC-originating initiatives as well as events developed by other institutions, continuing a commitment to local, regional, and national partnerships. The CAC will focus on all arts disciplines, including film, performance, music, movement, and other non-visual forms of contemporary art.