Mission

Founded in 1919 as the Dayton Museum of Fine Arts, the Dayton Art Institute (DAI) is one of the nation's finest mid-sized art museums. The DAI's mission is to provide a diverse audience with knowledge, pleasure, cultural awareness and sensitivity to the visual environment by collecting, exhibiting and preserving the fine arts; promoting and cultivating aesthetic values in the visual arts; and providing exposure to the arts through a variety of structured and unstructured learning experiences. During the past decade, the museum has reaffirmed its tradition of providing outstanding educational programs and special exhibitions. The DAI's collection, now comprised of more than 27,000 objects spanning 5,000 years of art history, is rated as "superb in quality" by the American Association of Museums.