CLEVELAND—This Sunday the Cleveland Museum of Art opened the doors to its newly renovated galleries, marking the end of the first phase of a massive $350-million expansion, the largest cultural project in Ohio's history, according to the Plain Dealer. The galleries had been closed to the public for three years.

The first phase of the expansion, masterminded by New York architect Rafael Viñoly, included refurbishing the galleries on the main level of the museum's original neoclassical white-marble home from 1916. By 2012, two substandard additions from 1958 and 1983 will be demolished, and two new wings will be built to flank the 1916 building and a 1971 education facility designed by Marcel Breuer; all will be joined by a huge glass atrium.

The project is part of a larger revitalization of the city's cultural institutions, which locals hope will draw more educated workers to Cleveland in the future. The museum's board has $145.5 million left to raise, but voted unanimously last month to move forward with the project.