TMA’s phony “40 year” talking points
leveraging a paradigm shift 
Sara Jane DeHoff
President of the Board of Directors, 2023-2025
Sara Jane DeHoff was not the first female president (chair) of the museum’s board of directors, but at age 79 in 2023 she was the oldest person to ever step into that role. It’s a pretty hefty position which must have been full of stress since the museum is presently getting torn down to the studs, both physically and metaphysically.
“The last time we did work this major on a gallery was maybe in the 1980s. We’re talking over 40 years ago. It’s time.” Sara Jane DeHoff, The Blade, 11-21-2024
Ms. DeHoff has been a major donor and involved with the museum for many decades and remembers when the Canaday Gallery was built when the back entrance was added in 1982 but she seems to be forgetting:
- 1990 – Classic Court is reinstalled with the 2,000 year old Bacchus mosaic, and the Peristyle is renovated
- 1992 – Center for the Visual Arts designed by Frank O. Gehry is built, Houses gallery and museum’s reference library
- 2001-01 – Facade of the front of the building restored, $15 million spent on repairs, including “The new electronically controlled atmosphere is “state of the art” for artwork, “In such utterly stable conditions, the art will last longer than we could ever have imagined.” Carol Bintz, the museum’s finance director, said.
- 2001 – Professional Arts Building renovated, gallery added
- 2001 – Georgia and David K. Welles Sculpture Garden built, adding twenty-two sculptures and landscaped green spaces
- 2004 – 2006 – Glass Pavilion built for glass collection, 76,000-sq. ft. post-modern building designed by Tokyo-based SANAA, Ltd.
- 2008 – 1,450 solar panels are installed on the roof over the Classic Court and Peristyle to maximize operational efficiency through renewable energy, one of the largest solar panel installations in the state of Ohio. On a clear, sunny day, the solar modules produce up to 20% of the total electrical demand for the building.
- 2012 – glass collection reinstalled in the Glass Pavilion
- 2012 – Wolfe Gallery for Contemporary Art, a new renovated space costing $2-million, opens
- 2013 – The Art of Efficiency energy brochure boasts State of the Art HVAC
- 2016 – POLISHING THE GEM: renovation and reinstallation of galleries in the West Wing including Gallery 29, American Art
- 2016 – Levis Galleries (Galleries 28A-C) in the West Wing: “The renovation of the Levis Galleries is part of our plan for large-scale gallery renovation and reinstallation to be completed by 2020.”
- 2019 – HVAC temperature control replacement $605,020
- 2021 – Cloister Gallery renovated, repainted, reinstalled with new casework, lighting and security measures.
Adam Levine
Director, Toledo Museum of Art, 2020 – present
Adam Levine is the museum’s youngest director, starting in 2020 at age 34. It’s a pretty hefty position which must be full of stress for such an inexperienced museum professional to be tearing apart the museum Toledoans know and love.
I joke that there are two rules of human history that are inexorably true. First, every generation has been convinced that it knows absolutely everything, and second, every generation in history has been convinced that the generation before it knew absolutely nothing.
Second, we took a deep dive into the specific strategies utilized in pursuing innovation and decided that we wanted to be a “fast follower….” …we look to other, larger organizations in our industry or adjacent industries to prove concepts and bring costs down. Then we leverage these new tools and approaches when they are at or near maturity. – Adam Levine, July 14, 2025, Observer
“Leveraging Paradigm Shifts”
We seek to innovate for our community and for our field. Museums need big solutions for 21st century problems, and we will not be afraid to take calculated risks or to leverage paradigm shifts. 2021 strategic five-year plan
Last night, the Toledo Museum of Art sold three paintings made by artists better represented in the collection by superior examples. We are grateful for a successful result and are focused on the opportunity to leverage these funds into supporting our collecting strategy, our strategic plan, and our mission. Adam Levine, May 22, 2022, The Blade
“When you create a framework, it’s operational in an ongoing way,” Levine said. “Once we provided the resources to that ongoing effort, now we have a cultural shift and a new framework for how we can leverage this extraordinary collection to service the community.” October 1, 2022, The Blade
The Universe & the HVAC according to Adam Levine
Levine falsely framed that the museum deferred maintenance on the HVAC for years – numbers 3, 7, 13 in the above timeline show that the HVAC was indeed maintained before he came. He presented this as an excuse for having to close all galleries, to replace the HVAC in order to preserve the art. However he never mentioned the necessity to close all the galleries for HVAC replacement before the statement he made in The Blade on August 24, 2025.
“There was no universe where every gallery in the Toledo Museum of Art wasn’t going to have to close by 2027 because we had to replace the HVAC for the preservation of the artwork.” August 24, 2025, The Blade
The timing, Levine added, is driven by necessity. The museum’s heating and cooling system has reached the end of its life, and closing some galleries allows staff to tackle all upgrades simultaneously. November 17, 2025, WTOL
Why make changes now?
Levine said the short answer to the question of timing is that TMA’s heating and cooling system is at the end of its useful life and needs total replacement.
Since the HVAC system mostly exists in the attic and is divided into separate units, galleries must close as different zones are replaced throughout the building.
“You cannot leave artwork in galleries that do not have humidity and temperature control,” said Levine. “So forget the reinstallation — there was no universe in which every gallery of the Toledo Museum of Art wasn’t going to have to close by 2027 anyway, because the artwork would have needed to be moved as the HVAC unit was replaced.”
Museum leadership decided to seize on the opportunity to re-evaluate what Levine described as a “tired” conceptual framework that does not represent the world or the breadth of the collection as it has grown over the past 50 years adequately.
Museum administration decided it would be more efficient in terms of time and cost to reinstall the galleries as part of the HVAC replacement. –December 11, 2025, Toledo Free Press
With aging mechanical systems and infrastructure, the museum decided this would be the ideal time for a major renovation. Gardner noted that it is rare for a museum to have the opportunity to make such dramatic changes.
“We knew we were going to have to do a major infrastructure upgrade to the heating and cooling system, which necessitates taking all the artwork out of the galleries anyway,” [Andrea Gardner, deputy director] said. ~ January 24, 2026, bgindependentmedia.org
Deferred maintenance – ??
In addition to keeping up with changing audiences, the project allows the museum to tackle deferred maintenance and refresh tired areas of the building, Ms. Gardner said.
“It was really time to do an update, and so now we’re able to do that comprehensively and address our deferred maintenance…” Ms. Gardner called working on the reinstallation a “one-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” “They haven’t done it for 40 plus years, and so they probably won’t do it again for 40 plus years.” October 22, 2025 The Blade
Why are you doing this project? The Museum’s HVAC system had reached the end of its useful life. To safely replace it—and protect the collection—we needed to remove artworks from the galleries and store them securely. This necessary work also gives us the opportunity to rethink how we share the collection.
Why is so much closing at once? This is part of TMA’s once‑in‑a‑generation reinstallation project, marking our first full gallery reimagining in more than four decades.
Is the overall footprint of the museum changing? The overall square footage will be very similar, a little larger than it is now.
Has TMA loaned artwork to other museums or put artwork in to storage? Yes, but it will be back. In order to install the HVAC system, all the artwork had to be protected, which means it needed to be removed and put into storage. Some of the art was loaned to other museums and will return when the museum re-opens.
– TMA website, retrieved on May 20, 2022 TMA’s accordian question-answers about the renovation 2026
What are the museum’s plans for its art storage needs?
“The facility we are in is not growing, so we are looking for more art storage options, but that is not part of this project.” May 9, 2025, City Paper
Leveraging our art for a paradigm shift
The building torn down to the studs for a renovation requiring a multi-year closure but it’s not growing in size, and it has not built any new storage areas. Apparently Adam Levine won’t need storage areas because he has been and will be traveling the art that Libbey gave to Toledoans, leveraging our collection for the “paradigm shift.”
Instead of museum attendance recovering after the pandemic at the Toledo Museum of Art, as it has in every other major museum across the United States, our museum was busy all those years prepping our art for international exhibitions while they made plans to empty the museum and tear it down to the studs. Disturbing 114-year old asbestos while they were at it. A classic building that Toledoans loved just the way it was.
See this recent post – TMA: Succeeding at Failure
Sending our artwork all over the world for their new “branding” but the artwork is supposed to stay in Toledo for Toledoans
A Century of Modern Art Auckland Art Gallery
Sat 7 June–Sun 28 September 2025
Visitors can expect to be dazzled by the much-loved highlights of Toledo Museum of Art’s internationally-renowned collection, on display exclusively in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland from 7 June 2025. “Never have so many of our masterworks travelled together, and we could not be more excited for them to debut in Auckland.” Adam Levine said.
From Picasso to Van Gogh
Treviso, Santa Caterina Museum
15 November 2025 – 10 May 2026
A unique journey that brings together over 60 masterpieces from the prestigious Toledo Museum of Art to the city, with a total value of over one billion euro. Treviso is the only European stop on an international tour: a unique opportunity to admire works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, Cézanne, Matisse, and many other protagonists of modern art. Thanks to the temporary closure of the American Museum for significant modernisation and expansion works…
Monet to Matisse: Defying Tradition
Art Gallery of South Australia 11 July – 8 Nov 2026
It reads like a who’s who of the art world – Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso and more – and it’s heading to Adelaide for an Australian-exclusive exhibition. Featuring works never-before-seen in the country, Monet to Matisse: Defying Tradition feature masterworks from the acclaimed Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio and will open at the Art Gallery of South Australia in July as the debut exhibition in AGSA’s new Winter Art Series.
Presented in partnership with the South Australian Government through the South Australian Tourism Commission, AGSA’s Winter Art Series is a major new initiative that brings major international exhibitions exclusively to Adelaide during the winter seasons from 2026-29, celebrating Adelaide’s position as a vibrant cultural destination through exhibitions from world-renowned art collections and complemented by curated experiences and events. – weare.sa.gov.au
Leveraging art for commercial ventures around the world is apparently Levine’s “new paradigm shift” for the 21st Century. But this new paradigm does not fit in with the Libbey Will, which clearly puts the people of Toledo first. Not Last.
LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT of EDWARD DRUMMOND LIBBEY
ITEM XXV. All the rest, residue and remainder of my properties…. fifty per centum thereof in the payment of the cost and expense of maintaining its building…including the making of necessary repairs thereto and the salaries and wages of its officers and other employees, and all the remainder thereof in the purchase of paintings and other pictures and works of art for the purpose of public exhibition.
All paintings, other pictures and works of art by me bequeathed said The Toledo Museum of Art, its successor and successors, by this my Will, or by any codicil thereto, and all paintings, pictures and other works of art by it or them acquired by expenditures from said income, shall at all times be properly and appropriately housed in one or more rooms of The Toledo Museum of Art in said City of Toledo, each of which rooms shall at all times be designated and plainly marked “The Edward Drummond Libbey Gallery”; each and every of said painting, other pictures and works of art shall at all times be plainly marked “Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey”, and shall be kept adequately insured against loss from fire, theft and other causes. Said The Toledo Museum of Art, its successor and successors, may temporarily loan for the purposes of public exhibition elsewhere any such painting or other picture or work of art, upon taking proper security for its safe return; and it and they may, from time to time and at its and their discretion, sell or exchange any painting or other picture or work of art purchased by expenditures from said income, and from the proceeds thereof may acquire some other or others.
Each and every bequest by this my Will, or by any codicil thereto, made unto aid and for the benefit of said The Toledo Museum of Art, its successor and successors, is bequeathed subject to each and every the following conditions, to-wit: that aid The Toledo Museum of Art, its successor and successors, shall forever maintain in said City of Toledo a building for the public exhibition of paintings and other pictures and works of art, in which the same shall be properly and appropriately housed and protected, and, except as temporarily closed for repairs, alterations and seasonable vacations, shall be kept open a reasonable length of time on at least two days of each week, for the admission, without charge, of all persons whomsoever.
Toledo Museum of Art is not meant to be a traveling museum – Keep Toledo’s art in Toledo! Enforce Libbey’s Will — petition asking for oversight of the Toledo Museum of Art by the Ohio Attorney General, here.
Protect Toledo’s Art for Toledo’s future generations.