The Cleveland Museum of Art has announced a $2.5 million gift from longtime donors Sally and Sandy Cutler to establish an endowment that will support initiatives and priorities set by the museum's director.

The Sarah S. and Alexander M. Cutler Director's Chair will provide all future museum directors with the resources needed to launch innovative programs identified as important to the institution's future. Designed to ensure that the museum continues to recruit top talent for the director's position, the endowment will be used first by David Franklin, who begins his second year as museum director in 2012.

The new gift also increases the Cutlers' role in determining the museum's larger institutional initiatives and priorities. While other museums have created endowments to fund the director's salary and benefits, few have created a discretionary fund to support director-determined priorities and initiatives.

"Speaking on my behalf and for those directors who will succeed me in the future, this endowment will be instrumental in getting innovative new ideas and projects off the ground and supporting important priorities that might otherwise go unfunded by the museum's annual operating budget," said Franklin. "It will be a privilege to have the freedom to choose projects and initiatives that are experimental, that lead to new discoveries and, ultimately, have the potential to impact the museum field. These funds provide the stability to do those things regardless of the economic forecast for the general operating budget."