The board of directors for the new art museum, scheduled to open in 2012 at Island Gateway, voted to adopt a new name: Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, said Executive Director Greg Robinson.

The name change from Bainbridge Art Museum was prompted by a couple of reasons. Foremost was to avoid confusion with Bellevue Art Museum, which shared the BAM acronym. Secondly, board members felt that adding the word Island was a more specific identifier for the community.

The museum’s focus will be on showcasing art from Kitsap, Olympic Peninsula and Puget Sound areas,

“We’re right in the heart of that,” Robinson said.

The change will take some time to execute, but it is in the process of filing the paperwork with the Secretary of State to formally change the nonprofit’s name.

He said the museum never promoted the use of the term BAM, but the art world tends to be acronym-heavy. The museum may or may not end up using the new BIMA acronym.

The museum has held a number of focus groups seeking input from the community. When looking for an alternative name, the board revisited the focus group comments and found that the name Bainbridge Island Museum of Art was a popular choice.