Artistic vision

What started as a phone call and
lunch for Michael Horvitz has culminated in a $258 million construction project at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

“I always loved the museum and considered it a great museum and one of Greater
Cleveland’s real world-class assets,” Horvitz
says.

His relationship with the institution
changed in 1992 when he was appointed to
the museum’s board after having lunch with
the board president. By 1996, Horvitz was
elected president, and in 2001, he was elected
to the newly created position of chairman.
He’s provided financial and intellectual leadership and helped keep the museum on
course during its ongoing $258 million renovation and expansion project.

“Michael Horvitz has played an instrumental — indeed, one could say indispensable —
role in shaping the course of the Cleveland
Museum of Art over the past decade and
more,” says Timothy Rub, the museum’s
director. “As president and then chairman of
the board of trustees, he has been deeply
involved in all of the key decisions that have
been made during what can be described,
without exaggeration, as one of the
most critically important periods in
the history of this institution.

“Throughout this process, he has
been a thoughtful and passionate
advocate both for change —
whenever and wherever this
was needed — and for the
ongoing commitment to
excellence that has created
the international reputation
that the Cleveland Museum
of Art enjoys today.”

Horvitz shrugs off any praise for his
community service because he sees it
as his civic duty.

“I came to the museum not so much
from a love of art — though I do love
it — but from a sense of civic importance,” Horvitz says.

“No matter where you live, each of
us has a responsibility to help the
community that has given us the
opportunities we all have had. We all
have an obligation to improve the
social and cultural life of the community in any way you can. There
are always people more fortunate than
you and less fortunate than you, but we
all have an obligation.”

Giving back to the community isn’t a one-sided affair. The contributor gets something
out of it, too.

“It’s very satisfying,” Horvitz says. “What
you get out of it depends on what you put in
to it. I think writing a big check can be satisfying in a certain way and has some ego gratification, but getting involved and spending
time and effort to help them succeed is a different level of satisfaction.”

Horvitz says the the way to begin is to get
involved with something you believe in.

“The starting point is to find something that
you are passionate about or think you might
become passionate about,” he says. “Do
something you feel you can make a difference in. There is no shortage of great causes
and organizations, and they all need people.”

One way to start is to get an organization’s
annual report, find out who’s on the board of
directors and start making contacts to find
out how you can help.

While financial support is always welcome,
many organizations are short on either leadership or those who have connections within
the community to get things done.

“A lot really need the guidance the CEO or
businessperson can give them,” Horvitz says.
“You do have to have a slightly different mind-set when you work for a nonprofit. It’s easy
for a businessperson to try to evaluate something on whether it makes money, but nonprofits are more mission-driven than profit-driven.

“You have to think about the mission and
how to organize things.”

Horvitz, who is Of Counsel with the law
firm of Jones Day, says the organizational
skills CEOs bring are critical to nonprofits,
and time has to be made for giving back to
the community.

“I understand the pressure today’s CEOs
are under,” he says. “There is huge pressure
to make the business perform, to make it
responsive to the needs of shareholders and
the corporation. Clearly, that’s their first priority, but some CEOs fall into the trap of
almost using those pressures as an excuse for
not getting involved in their own community.

“We all have an obligation to do something.
There’s room in everybody’s schedule for
nonprofits. The pressure of business is great,
and it can easily make you put your civic
responsibilities aside. Don’t let that happen.”

HOW TO REACH: Jones Day, www.jonesday.com; Cleveland
Museum of Art, www.clevelandart.org