Tag: Toledo Museum of Art

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Artists of Toledo

Open letter to Sara Jane DeHoff, Chair of the Board of the Toledo Museum of Art

The heavy words inspiring the reinstallation of the Toledo Museum of Art don't have much to do with art.

Subject: Urgent Follow-Up: Further Concerns Over TMA’s Disposition of Core Artworks and Lack of Transparency

Dear Ms. DeHoff,

I hope you are well. I am writing again as a deeply concerned citizen regarding the troubling decisions at the Toledo Museum of Art, and to follow up on my February 10 email—which, like my previous correspondence, has not received a response. I have reached out on numerous occasions, yet my genuine inquiries continue to be met with silence and, more recently, outright censorship.

I am particularly disturbed by recent developments regarding our museum’s core collection.

I recently learned through a news report from New Zealand that TMA is loaning 57 Impressionist and 20th-century paintings—many are gifts from Edward Drummond Libbey and are featured in the museum’s “Masterworks” book—to the Auckland Art Gallery while TMA’s building undergoes renovations.

What is especially ironic is that Auckland is currently celebrating the recent bequeath of the art collectors, Julian and Josie Robertson with an exhibition called “The Robertson Gift: Paths through Modernity” Feb 9, 2024 – Feb 1, 2026, a collection of 15 paintings valued at $190 million.

Yet by interjecting the TMA loan into the mix, the Auckland Gallery is, in effect, dwarfing the impact of the Robertson Gift, since just two or three paintings from the Toledo collection are worth more than the total Robertson bequest that Auckland professes to be so honored to be given, and the Toledo show, “A Century of Modern Art,” consists of 57 bigger, better paintings. 

Meanwhile, back in Toledo, the museum-going public is witnessing the shoving aside of the treasured Impressionist masterworks as the museum gets them out of sight, a core collection of gifts from Edward Drummond Libbey, and an important promise that has been broken.

Seems like all around the world, the gifts of generous museum donors are being dishonored.

In 2022, the day Director Adam Levine announced the sale of the beloved three famous Impressionists paintings, in the very same email*, he promised museum supporters that the other Cezanne, Matisse and Renoir paintings would always remain on view on the museum’s walls. Now to send these paintings away under the guise of renovations when the museum boasts of 280,000 square feet of gallery space is a real betrayal, and alarms are going off that something is seriously wrong with the museum’s stewardship.

Moreover, when I asked the museum for the complete list of the 57 paintings, Adam Levine dismissed my request, telling me that “this information of course will be public domain since the works will be on display in New Zealand!” (That is, if I want to hire a detective.) He said that sharing the full list would “just be used to sensationalize” my concerns. I should be talking to him directly instead of talking about this publicly, he said, in an attempt to shut me up.

This total lack of transparency, the efforts of censorship, coupled with sudden actions by the museum make me wonder, will we ever see these Impressionist paintings hanging on the walls of the Toledo Museum of Art again? After all, in just a few short years, the museum has sold three paintings, moved the other paintings from the prominent galleries in the main museum to the Glass Pavilion across the street, and now is sending this large collection to the other side of the world without any announcement, leaving museum supporters to find out from a news article from New Zealand; bringing light to a broken promise and the museum’s total lack of transparency, all while the community is stunned over the closing of the Cloisters, and unbeknownst that the Impressionist paintings are on their way out. All of this underscores suspicion.

Considering that the museum is under the spell of DEI (DEAI) and promotes the idea that people want to see themselves on the walls, it seems that these French paintings have been banished because they are too European for the demographics of the two-mile radius of the museum that the museum is using to advance their radical DEI agenda. Maybe it’s all a guise to sell the valuable paintings, who knows?

Adam Levine certainly has minimized the importance of the Libbey Endowment to the museum by selling the three paintings in 2022 for $59 million and making a private fund out of the money. The museum has lost all credibility of being trustworthy – the one thing a museum must NEVER lose, as at the Toledo Museum of Art the current leaders are the custodians of the wonderful gift of cultural heritage that came from Edward Drummond Libbey and Florence Scott Libbey.

It is telling is that at the very same time of the January 29 announcement in New Zealand that didn’t reach the Northern Hemisphere until a week later, TMA announced the closure of the Cloisters on January 30, with only three days’ notice, announcing it on Facebook, spurring hundreds of impassioned comments from the community.

The Cloisters, consisting of ancient columns, capitals, and arches that were sourced from 12th to 15th century medieval sites in southwest France to evoke a medieval monastery cloister, collected and permanently installed into the museum over the span of five years, was the highlight of the east and west wing expansion of 1933 and symbolizes the heart of the museum. It was just renovated and reopened in 2022. But now it’s excised and relegated to the far east wing next to the Ancient court, replacing four nice little gallery rooms, just so the museum can put everything in alphabetical, oh, that is chronological order, a conveyer belt style loop design forcing visitors to look at art through a specific political prism. It sounds frankly hideous; hardly an idea worthy of gutting the museum. Adam Levine plans to use what’s left of our superlative collection for his radical ideology that he plans to use to set as an example for all other museums to follow. 

Radical plan to gut museum was only revealed this month, February 2025

The plans to dismantle the beloved, fragile historic Cloisters and move it to the Wolfe Gallery were never publicly disclosed beyond whispers to select visitors and internal sketches shared with other museums at the 2023 symposium. And now, after the closure of the Cloisters, the museum states that the Cloisters will be moved to the footprint of the current Galleries numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6.

I ask that you ensure that our public heritage is not sacrificed at the whim of the current museum director who doesn’t seem to like the museum and wants to change everything about it, right down to the “physical studs” of the building itself, as he was quoted saying in a recent Channel 11 news article.

If our mission is to integrate art into the lives of people, then rehanging our collection is only half of the equation. The reinstallation offers us a chance to go back to the conceptual as well as the physical studs, rethinking the museum experience for the 21st century. We are developing exciting plans on this front that we believe can create different paradigms for engagement. –Adam Levine

There is nothing in the 2021 five-year plan about gutting the museum and redoing it down to the studs. Back in 2018 there were plans to renovate and money was collected for that but the plan seemed to be abandoned when the museum announced their five-year plan in 2021. What happened in-between was that the director Brian Kennedy resigned just one year short of his contract, leaving the museum in the lurch. After a year or two Adam Levine was hired. But right away Adam Levine made the blunder of telling people that the museum would stay neutral during the George Floyd demonstrations. Having to walk back his statement, ever since then the museum has been practicing self-flagellation — the DEI (DEAI) came in and made sweeping changes to the museum administration, adding layer upon layer of bloated bureaucracy, and here we are now, at the sacrificial alter offering up our entire museum, the gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, witnessing it becoming a shadow of its once self.

A collection created by donor funds and connoisseurship collecting, now it’s done by identity politics, federal dollars, and the turning of the back on the founders by a director who stated publicly in a 2022 Forbes interview:

The superpower that an art museum has is when something goes up on the wall, it’s considered good. We set the canon. –Adam Levine

Levine sold a Cezanne, Matisse and Renoir with the excuse that the museum never intended to have multiple examples by the same artist in their collection. But that is not true. I researched it – see my list of multiple paintings by the same artist; of the roughly 800 or more paintings in the TMA collection in 2022, 57 are by the same artist. Collecting these paintings was clearly intentional.

The Toledo Museum of Art has never sought to have multiple examples by the same artist-fewer than 11% of the artists in our collection are represented by two or more paintings; masterpieces by Cézanne, Matisse, and Renoir will remain regularly on view on our walls. –Adam Levine

He cut ties with the founder Edward Drummond Libbey by selling gifted paintings for $59 million and not putting that money back into the Libbey Endowment but instead into a private fund. (see, April 8, 2022 email to museum supporters.)

The three paintings being sold will provide the Museum with more than $40 million, greater than the total corpus of the current Libbey Funds supporting our art purchases. We will use these proceeds to create a new acquisition endowment –Adam Levine

Contrary to this statement made in the Feb. 8, 2024 Toledo Free Press article, Patrons pay tribute to Cloister Gallery, he IS using taxpayer funds to put the wrecking ball to the museum that we know and love.

The museum did not provide details about the cost for moving The Cloister. The spokesperson wrote that TMA is privately funded and the project is one small part of the larger reinstallation that is being funded through individual and corporate philanthropy. –Doreen Cutway, museum spokesman and senior public relations manager

The museum went to the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, the President and CEO of which is also the Secretary of the Toledo Museum of Art Board of Directors, Thomas Winston, asking them to install port authority facilities into the museum in the form of an HVAC system. The port authority eagerly agreed and posted a bond for the museum as a part of their .4 mill operating levy that was passed by voters on November 5. More money was asked from the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority and the Columbus-Franklin County Finance Authority for the total of $24.89 million for a new HVAC system.

The museum has received many millions of dollars from Ohio and from the federal government in recent years, all grants are public record on the corresponding Ohio and federal websites. Grants that are hurting the fundamentals and founding principles of the museum.

The museum is probably taking advantage of the generous NEA Arts & Artifacts Indemnity Program to insure our 57 artworks for a billion dollars or more to send them off to New Zealand. Otherwise the loan wouldn’t be feasible. And if that program is stopped, in the current political environment while our paintings are abroad? Oh well, it’s mostly the work of old white men anyway.

As I noted above, in asking for the complete list of 57 renowned paintings going to New Zealand, Adam Levine refused to share it, saying he was afraid that I would use it to sensationalize my concerns. What is left for me to sensationalize? Adam Levine has provided all the sensationalism himself already.

I respectfully urge you, as Chair of the Board, to address these issues publicly. The Toledo Museum of Art is a treasured institution built and endowed by the Libbeys as a gift to the people of Toledo, and decisions of this magnitude must be made with full transparency and not just pushed on community using tactics like censorship and gaslighting. I ask that you halt the destruction of the Cloisters, cancel the loan to New Zealand and rehang the Impressionist and 20th century paintings.  And then find new leadership that will provide proper stewardship and keep our museum intact.

Thank you for your time and attention to this critical matter. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Penny Gentieu

Again, I’d like to point out Adam Levine’s statements in his April 8, 2022 email about the sale of the Cezanne, Matisse and Renoir:

The Toledo Museum of Art has never sought to have multiple examples by the same artist-fewer than 11% of the artists in our collection are represented by two or more paintings; masterpieces by Cézanne, Matisse, and Renoir will remain regularly on view on our walls.

For the record, here is a list of 16 of the 53 artists of the 57 artworks going to New Zealand, major works for which information has been released to the “public domain” as Levine put it, as reported in the Auckland press release.  The artists in bold have only one painting in the TMA collection. There are 37 other artists (4 artists have more than one artwork in the show) and the museum refuses to make those names public at this time. But with this list of 16 names only, it seems like the entire museum collection of Impressionist to Modernity may be shipped off. What would Edward Drummond Libbey and Florence Scott Libbey think of that? What does the public think?

  1. Cezanne     
  2. Degas   
  3. Helen Frankenthaler   
  4. Édouard Manet 
  5. William Merritt Chase   
  6. Modigliani    
  7. Berthe Morisot     
  8. Monet  
  9. Pablo Picasso   
  10. Pissarro   
  11. Robert Rauschenberg     
  12. Renoir   
  13. Vincent van Gogh 
  14.  James McNeill Whistler   
  15. Gauguin    
  16. Mondrian

*Adam Levine rationalized the sale of the three impressionist paintings by saying that it was never the intention of the museum to have multiple examples of the same artist, that fewer than 11% of the artists in our collection are represented by two or more paintings; here is a list that I made of multiple paintings by the same artist. It’s obvious that the purchase of multiple paintings by the same artists was intentional.

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Artists of Toledo

Urgent Call for Intervention: Toledo Museum of Art’s Risky Decisions Threaten Our Cultural Heritage

In 2022, our three famous French Impressionist paintings were sold for $59 Million. And that was just the beginning.

Dear Governor and Mrs. DeWine,

I write to request your urgent intervention regarding a series of troubling decisions made by the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) that jeopardize our Ohio’s rich cultural heritage and the public trust.

Recently, TMA announced—via a Facebook post on January 30—that its historic Cloisters Gallery would be closed with only three days’ notice. This beloved space, featuring authentic 12th- to 15th-century columns gifted by Edward Drummond Libbey, has long served as a sanctuary for art lovers in Toledo. The sudden closure, which has prompted hundreds of impassioned comments from the public, is being accompanied by plans to relocate the fragile Cloisters that are permanently installed in their present location to a spot two galleries over.

Just as alarming, and happening concurrently but not revealed to Toledoans, is the news from “down under” that TMA is loaning 57 iconic Impressionist and 20th-century paintings—many of which are featured in its “Masterworks” book—to the Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand, where the exhibition is scheduled to open on June 7, 2025. As noted in the Auckland Art Gallery’s press release dated January 29, “Visitors can expect to be dazzled by the much-loved highlights of Toledo Museum of Art’s internationally-renowned collection.” Director Adam Levine even stated, “Never have so many of our masterworks travelled together, and we could not be more excited for them to debut in Auckland.” However, this loan was not announced publicly by TMA; the news only surfaced on the Auckland gallery’s website on January 29, and it didn’t reach the Northern Hemisphere until a week later (thanks to Google)—an indication that these actions were concealed from the Toledo community.

The exhibition include works by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Helen Frankenthaler, Édouard Manet, William Merritt Chase, Amedeo Modigliani, Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Robert Rauschenberg, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, James McNeill Whistler, among others.

Given that TMA boasts 280,000 square feet of gallery space and that these 57 paintings represent the core of its collection—masterworks that many believe could be valued at up to $1 billion or even more—the decision to send them halfway around the world under the guise of renovations is, frankly, irresponsible. This move not only deprives the public of access to art they hold dear but also raises serious questions about how these artworks are insured. Are federal funds, such as those provided through the NEA’s Arts & Artifacts Indemnity Program, being used to safeguard these masterpieces, and is that a prudent strategy?

Furthermore, TMA’s community communications have been patchy at best. In the February 8, 2024 Toledo Free Press article, Patrons pay tribute to closed TMA Cloister Gallery, Laurie Bertke wrote, “The biggest two questions on the lips of many visitors included where is it being moved and why. Museum security guards and other employees asked about plans had limited details to share over the weekend.” This lack of transparency, coupled with the secretive nature of these decisions—as evidenced by internal sketches shared at a 2023 symposium—suggests that TMA’s leadership is not engaging the public in decisions that fundamentally affect our community’s cultural legacy.

Regarding the museum’s renovation, the museum”s PR spokesman Doreen Cutway was quoted in the article that while there may be other gallery closures in phases, “the museum’s goal is to keep things on view as much as possible during the process.” Sending off this astounding amount of the best, most beloved paintings en masse all the way across the world is the direct opposite of that promise.

As for the renovations being done to the museum, which seem to entail a complete gutting and redo of this beloved museum, they won’t provide details about the cost of moving the Cloister. It would have to cost several million dollars to move it carefully, and what a waste. As quoted in the Toledo Free Press article, the museum spokesman said, “TMA is privately funded and the project is one small part of the larger reinstallation that is being funded through individual and corporate philanthropy.” However during the past few years, the museum has received over $6 million in grants from the state of Ohio, including a whopping $1.6 grant in this year alone. They also receive money from the NEA and NEH. Not to mention the $3.58 Million Covid relief grant. Edward Drummond Libbey and his wife, Florence Scott Libbey built and endowed this museum for the people of Toledo. Many of the paintings the new director is sending away are gifts of the Libbeys. The Cloisters Gallery was a gift of the Libbeys.

I respectfully urge you to look into these developments. Our state’s cultural institutions are vital to our collective identity, and decisions of this magnitude should not be made without clear public accountability. I ask that your office inquire into whether TMA’s actions align with its legal and fiduciary responsibilities. I ask that you ensure that our public heritage is not sacrificed at the whim of the new and controversial museum director, Adam Levine, who doesn’t seem to like the museum and wants to change everything about it, right down to the “physical studs” of the building itself, as he was quoted saying in a recent Channel 11 news article.

For your reference, please see the following links:

Thank you for your time and attention to this critical matter. I trust that you share my concern for preserving Toledo’s cultural heritage for current and future generations.

Sincerely,

Penny Gentieu

pages from Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, published in 2009

Museum floor plan in 2014, note the purple + bright blue will be moved to the orange galleries — the museum’s greatest paintings, European, Renaissance now hanging in the Great Gallery and adjacent galleries getting shoved aside while the Cloisters get moved two galleries over.

The art museum is renovating. Glass art will be taken out of the Glass Pavilion, the $30 million building that was built in 2006 to show the renowned glass collection. It will be interspersed amongst other artwork across the street in the main building, arranged chronologically. They have already relocated, one year ago, the impressionist paintings to the Glass Pavilion. UPDATE: Feb. 7, 2025 — they are lending 57 of the impressionist and 20th century core art collection to New Zealand.

The heavy words of Toledo Museum of Art’s reinstallation word cloud have little to do with art.
Save the art museum.
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Artists of Toledo

Urgent Follow-Up: Reckless Disposition of TMA’s Core Art Collection

Regarding the much-loved highlights of Toledo Museum of Art’s internationally-renowned collection being sent overseas

The objection is not that TMA is lending one or two paintings, the objection is that 57 is a huge number of beloved masterpieces to be taking away from public view and sending to the other side of the world — 57 — outrageous! And why didn’t the museum publicly announce this loan of an extreme number of paintings being sent to New Zealand for a special exhibition?

Cezanne     Degas    Helen Frankenthaler    Édouard Manet  William Merritt Chase    Modigliani    Berthe Morisot     Monet   Pablo Picasso   Pissarro    Robert Rauschenberg     Renoir   Vincent van Gogh   James McNeill Whistler   Gauguin    Mondrian

Sent by email on February 6, 2025:

Dear Charitable Law Section, Ohio Attorney General’s Office,

I write as a concerned citizen to follow up on my previous correspondence regarding the Toledo Museum of Art’s (TMA) reckless decisions concerning its core cultural assets. In addition to the issues raised earlier—namely, the planned dismantling of the historic Cloisters, the demolition of the Wolfe Gallery, and the repurposing of the Glass Pavilion (a $30 million structure built in 2006 specifically to house its renowned glass collection)—breaking news from New Zealand now reveals further alarming developments.

Reports from across the world indicate that TMA is loaning 57 Impressionist and 20th-century paintings—many being gifts from Edward Drummond Libbey and described as “the much-loved highlights of Toledo Museum of Art’s internationally-renowned collection”—to the Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand while TMA’s building undergoes renovations. Notably, most of these paintings had already been moved to the Glass Pavilion one year ago, and this decision to send such core works overseas has not been publicly announced on TMA’s website or through any press release. Given that TMA houses 280,000 square feet of gallery space and these works form the core of its collection, their removal not only deprives the local public of access to many of their most beloved paintings but also puts these invaluable works at significant risk. How are these works insured? Is TMA relying on the NEA’s Arts & Artifacts Indemnity Program or another mechanism to safeguard artwork potentially valued at up to $1 billion? Is it safe in today’s climate to depend on federal funds for such crucial protections?

Furthermore, this move is particularly alarming in light of the Auckland Art Gallery’s current major exhibition, “The Robertson Gift: Paths through Modernity.” This exhibition, which displays art movements very similar to those represented by the loaned TMA works, is effectively duplicative—ironically underscoring the historical and cultural significance of donor gifts while highlighting TMA’s pattern of secretive decision-making. Adding to the dismay is a stark reminder of an April 8, 2022 email from Adam Levine, in which TMA assured the public that “masterpieces by Cézanne, Matisse, and Renoir will remain regularly on view on our walls,” emphasizing that fewer than 11% of the artists in their collection are represented by multiple works. Clearly, these current actions contradict that promise.

It is outrageous that TMA now plans to relocate the historic Cloisters—featuring authentic 12th- to 15th-century columns gifted by Edward Drummond Libbey—to the site currently occupied by the Wolfe Gallery, at an estimated cost between $2.5 million and $10 million. This move risks irreparable damage to these fragile, centuries-old artifacts. Equally troubling is the decision to demolish the Wolfe Gallery—a space renovated just 13 years ago with a $2 million donation from Frederic and Mary Wolfe, two esteemed patrons who have since passed away. Such actions blatantly disregard donor intent and raise profound ethical and financial questions regarding TMA’s management.

Moreover, the repurposing of the Glass Pavilion is equally disturbing. Designed and funded specifically to house TMA’s world-renowned glass collection, plans now call for removing much of that collection to be integrated into the main museum. This decision not only undermines the Pavilion’s purpose but further endangers priceless works of art.

The lack of transparency surrounding these decisions is deeply disconcerting. The public was only informed of these drastic changes days ago with the sudden announcement of the Cloisters’ closure—a clear indication that museum leadership deliberately sought to avoid scrutiny.

I respectfully urge your office to investigate whether these actions align with TMA’s legal obligations regarding charitable gifts and responsible nonprofit governance. The pattern of secretive, reckless decision-making displayed here is eroding public trust in cultural institutions and endangering priceless works of art.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this critical matter.

see the homepage for a description of the Cloisters that they closed and are moving — https://artistsoftoledo.com/

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Artists of Toledo

Libbey’s Nightmare

The Blade’s January 4, 2025 faulty news story by Lillian King begs for corrections.

A new vision: Looking back on TMA’s 2024 acquisitions
“The thought was that if we focus on quality, we’ll end up not only with a superlative collection, but we’ll end up with a collection that tells a global art history,” Adam Levine is thinking. He probably means, if you want to tell a story about global art history, and if you focus on quality, you will end up with a superlative collection. But he also says that the museum has the superpower to wave a magic wand and make great art out of crap. So what is it?
The writer points out that the museum had 386 new acquisitions in 2023, up from 60 in 2022. She did not mention that that includes the 306 Japanese Netsukes (little toggles) donated by Richard R. Silverman to go along with the hundreds of other such pieces that he had previously donated. This repetition expands on world art history? 30 of the 386 acquisitions are photographs donated by Spencer Stone. 19 are works on paper by Barbara Jones-Hugo, some purchased & some donated by the art dealer David Lusenhop of Cleveland, who sold them the controversial burnt American flag piece in 2022. The museum also acquired six works on paper and one 3-D object by Matt Wedel, the ceramist who had the five-month long show in 2022-2023 that filled up the Levis Gallery with “Phenomenal Debris.” Reflected in that title, the new acquisitions, short of Spencer Stone’s 30 superlative photographs, are nothing to brag about.
The writer falsely claims that “as a non-profit institution, TMA is obligated to educate on the entire world,” which is absurd. Did Adam Levine tell her that and she blindly repeated it? Comparing their new acquisitions to their mission to cover the entire globe, the writer equates it to the “coming of fruition” of the founders’ dream of “building an art collection of the highest caliber.”
The writer fails to mention that the overwhelming majority of the recent acquisitions do not advance the museum’s ambitious new mission to expand the narrative of world art history, in fact it defeats it. Quality, not quantity, made our encyclopedic museum collection great.
The writer cutely writes that “Egyptian curios and mummified cats wouldn’t cut it anymore.” Obviously she knows nothing about the museum’s collection. If only she would have read her own newspaper’s article two weeks before about the newly appointed assistant curator of ancient art, Roko Rumora. Here’s what he said: “In the field of classical archaeology and ancient art history, the Toledo Museum of Art is something of a household name. TMA’s ancient collections are among the richest and most diverse in the United States…”
The Libbeys founded an art museum, but it seems that Adam Levine wants to turn it into a folk art natural history museum to cover every civilization and time period and call it art, perhaps to influence the art market.
The museum lost direction
the director ran off with the museum
Why is Adam Levine literally tearing apart the museum that we love, selling great art and not replacing it with new art as per the rules of Libbey Endowment, nor did he put the proceeds back in the Libbey Endowment (being accountable to the public), but kept it separate and private? He moved the museum further away from the founders, adding layers of bureaucracy. He’s remodeling the interior and exterior and shifting everything around including the removal of the glass art out of the Glass Pavilion that was just built in 2006 for the display of the glass art collection. What drastic changes, yet Adam Levine has a fiduciary duty to care for the art and the art museum for future generations. But he’s minimized the founders wishes and rules for the museum by selling three paintings so valuable that they are equal to the value of the Libbey Endowment, and used the paintings gifted by Edward Drummond Libbey to loosen the ties to Edward Drummond Libbey and blur his vision.
Gaslighting
Adam Levine arrogantly says that the superpower of museums is that they can display anything and the art world will call it quality. That’s no dream — that’s Libbey’s nightmare.
Screenshot of museum’s Facebook showing the museum’s stewardly point of view – Edward Drummond Libbey would be getting the finger from the new curators if only the artwork had arms.
Buying moccasins and marked-up bear skins and editioned statues of life-size armless women with their midriffs split in two just won’t cut it, for more than a season or two.
Categories
Artists of Toledo

The Museum of Continuities: How a politically charged museum is doomed to fail

The heavy words of Toledo Museum of Art's reinstallation inspirational word cloud shown at their symposium, Expanding Horizons: New Approaches in Display and Interpretation. 

they will tell you exactly how to think.

They will tell us what art we can make.
They will make their own art.

It’s a new year with lots of action at the Toledo Museum of Art. They are putting into motion the changes they deem necessary due to the colonial and racial history of the museum. They can’t help themselves from offering up the Toledo Museum as a sacrifice, and by doing so, it is their goal to be the example for all other museums to follow.

They hosted a symposium on July 21, 2023, attended by dozens of museums nationwide, to discuss the changes that need to be made as retribution for the sins of our non-Native American-born ancestors, and the art they collected. This is regardless of the Toledo Museum of Art having been the most progressive of museums from the very beginning, thanks to the generosity and forethought of the founders Edward Drummond Libbey and his wife Florence. But somehow the ever-expanding Museum Board of Directors have allowed these ambitious outsiders to use our venerable populous institution for their collective frustrated-artist projections.

After the ritual land-grab apology to the Native American ancestors who used to live on the land on which the museum is built, and their descendants, (but notably no apology given to the artists of Toledo for taking away their culturally rich nearly 100-year old annual Toledo Area Artists Exhibition) the symposium commences by pointing out the troubling colonial and racist histories and legacies of the museum.

“Everyone is thinking of re-installations and reinterpreting collections today especially as a field and as institutions we’re coming to terms with the colonial and racist histories and legacies of our own institutions and their continued impact on what we do and how we do it today.”

The following are a few comments by Diane Wright, Curator of Glass and Decorative Arts: (who is perfectly fine with dismantling the Glass Pavilion to distribute the glass art chronologically throughout the main building.)

“Making efforts to get things right, we will inevitably get things wrong too.”

“My hope is that this will not inhibit us from taking risks finding our collective and our individual voices and using the light that day, maybe the angle of our hand that we’re holding our kaleidoscope, or just how we experience color and structure and patterns.”

“As museum professionals we are focused on content structure and creating connections. Yet it is the individual human engagement with our museums that is what turns this into something truly extraordinary. And making efforts to get things right most creativity that we can muster being true to who we are as Museum professionals and institutions to connect art and people.”

Accompanying Diane Wright’s presentation is a word cloud defining their collective goals for the museum:

NETWORKS     POWER    MYTHMAKING     INTERSECTIONALITY    ECONOMIC SYSTEMS    DISABILITY STUDIES       DREAMSCAPE    ECOSYSTEMS     ENVIRONMENT     MYTHOLOGY    GENTRIFICATION     INDUSTRY     ROMANCE     HEALTH    GLOBALISM    MEMORY & MEMORIAL     TECHNOLOGY     CHANGE    MATERIALS     CLIMATE     (IN)EQUALITY     MEDICINE    WAR     RESILIENCE    CHRONOLOGY    FAMILY     COMMUNITY     TOLEDO    FEMINISM    HUMANITIES    RACISM     COLONIALISM     FANTASY    AGRICULTURE    RACE     INTERIORS     CROSS-CULTURAL EXCHANGE     CONTINUITIES    TRAUMA    KINSHIP     POLITICS    BORDERS     CHILDHOOD    ENERGY    GENDER    HISTORY & HISTORIES    TIME    IDENTITY     MATERIALITY    RESISTANCE    SPIRITUALITY    NATIONS & NATIONALITY     

I asked AI to write a story about an art museum, using their word cloud words. What it came up with is so weird, and oh-so eerie. It was written in the past tense!  Lo and behold, this is what the computer wrote —

The Museum of Continuities

Nestled in the heart of Toledo, a city known for its resilience and rich history, stood the Museum of Continuities, a revolutionary institution dedicated to exploring the intersections of art, society, and humanity. From its inception, the museum sought to dismantle traditional boundaries, inviting visitors to step into a dreamscape where the past, present, and future collided.

A Network of Interconnected Themes

The museum’s galleries were designed as ecosystems, each exploring different facets of the human experience. The Networks of Power exhibit examined the invisible structures that shape societies, from colonialism and globalism to modern-day economic systems and technology. Visitors traced the chronology of humanity’s struggle with (in)equality, resistance, and the resilience of marginalized communities.

In another wing, Interiors of Memory & Memorial invited reflection on trauma and the continuity of kinship through time. Interactive displays used cross-cultural exchanges and storytelling to explore how families and communities have navigated war, gentrification, and displacement. Toledo’s local stories were interwoven with global narratives, emphasizing shared humanity and the power of collective memory.

Art and Intersectionality

At the center of the museum was the Intersectionality Atrium, where gender, race, and class converged in bold installations. One piece, Dreams of (In)Equality, juxtaposed images of feminist mythmaking with depictions of the labor industry, exploring how materiality and mythology shape identity. Another installation used vibrant fabrics and recycled materials to symbolize the intersection of climate, energy, and health within modern agricultural practices.

A nearby exhibit, Borders and Nations, deconstructed the politics of colonialism and its lingering effects on modern-day race and racism. Interactive timelines allowed visitors to explore how the concept of nationality evolved alongside trade, medicine, and cultural change.

Fantasy Meets Reality

One of the museum’s most popular exhibits, The Dreamscape of Humanity, blended fantasy and reality, reimagining the world through a child’s eyes. Using augmented reality technology, visitors could wander through vibrant environments filled with mythical creatures, industrial landscapes, and symbolic depictions of spiritual resilience. The exhibit challenged viewers to consider how mythology and childhood fantasies shape adult notions of identity and spirituality.

The Humanities of the Future

Dedicated to exploring the intersection of humanities and science, the Health and Humanities gallery highlighted advancements in medicine and disability studies. Visitors could engage in discussions about the ethics of healthcare, the politics of gender and race in medicine, and how global climate change impacts public health.

Another forward-thinking space, Art in the Age of Globalism, showcased works that addressed the environmental impact of modern industry and the need for sustainable energy systems. Pieces emphasized how art can drive social and political change, encouraging resistance against exploitative systems while imagining a more equitable future.

Kinship Across Time

The museum concluded with Kinship and Continuities, a celebration of family, community, and the timeless bonds that connect people across borders and generations. Visitors left with a sense of empowerment, their hearts and minds brimming with inspiration to enact change in their own lives.

The Museum of Continuities in Toledo stood as a beacon of hope and transformation—a place where the humanities collided with pressing global issues, reminding all who entered of the interconnectedness of humanity and the enduring power of art to inspire change.

###

I asked AI to tell a story about the downfall of the Museum of Continuities

The Downfall of the Museum of Continuities

The Museum of Continuities was born from an audacious vision: to connect humanity’s diverse histories, struggles, and dreams within a single, evolving institution. For years, it thrived as a beacon of progressive thought in Toledo, drawing acclaim for its interdisciplinary approach and global partnerships. Yet, the very ambition that defined its success also laid the groundwork for its downfall.

Overreach and Financial Instability

The museum’s expansive vision demanded equally expansive resources. Its commitment to addressing complex issues—intersectionality, globalism, climate change, and the politics of identity—required cutting-edge technology, an ever-growing staff, and a continuous influx of groundbreaking exhibitions. However, as operating costs soared, its reliance on grants and philanthropic donations exposed its vulnerability to economic systems beyond its control.

The 2030 global recession hit the museum hard. Several key donors redirected funds to more immediate humanitarian crises, and grant opportunities dwindled as governments prioritized basic infrastructure over cultural institutions. Efforts to stabilize finances by monetizing popular exhibits like The Dreamscape of Humanity alienated the museum’s core audience, who saw it as a betrayal of its egalitarian principles.

Internal Conflicts

As financial pressure mounted, the museum’s leadership fractured. The intersectionality-focused Equity and Inclusion Council clashed with the board of directors, who prioritized solvency over the museum’s social justice mission. Debates over whether to commercialize exhibits like Borders and Nations or cut staff from the Health and Humanities program led to resignations and public criticism. Accusations of racism, sexism, and colonialist attitudes among board members further eroded trust.

Gentrification Backlash

While the museum claimed to champion community and resistance to gentrification, its presence in Toledo’s urban core had unintended consequences. Real estate prices in surrounding neighborhoods skyrocketed, displacing many of the working-class families the museum sought to serve. Activists began protesting the museum, accusing it of hypocrisy and demanding reparative action. The Museum of Continuities found itself at odds with the very community it was meant to uplift.

Climate and Infrastructure Challenges

In a cruel twist of irony, the museum’s location became a liability as extreme weather events, exacerbated by climate change, took their toll. Persistent flooding damaged the building’s state-of-the-art technology, while the soaring cost of energy to maintain environmentally sensitive exhibits drained its dwindling budget. Efforts to secure emergency funding were hampered by political resistance, as critics labeled the museum a “vanity project” for elites.

A Fading Dream

By the late 2030s, the museum had become a shadow of its former self. Its once-thriving galleries stood empty, the vibrant voices of artists and activists replaced by silence. The Dreamscape of Humanity exhibit, once hailed as a masterpiece, was dismantled and sold to private collectors.

In its final days, the museum attempted one last exhibit: Memorials and Memory. It sought to reflect on its legacy, the challenges it faced, and the stories it told. The exhibit drew modest crowds, a poignant reminder of the museum’s impact, but it was too little, too late.

In 2040, the Museum of Continuities officially closed its doors. Its downfall became a cautionary tale about the challenges of sustaining ambitious cultural institutions in a world grappling with economic inequality, political division, and environmental catastrophe. Yet, in its absence, its mission lived on in the hearts of those it inspired, proving that even in failure, art and ideas have the power to endure.

###

How much of the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art today would be irrelevant in this Museum of Continuities, tell a story about how it fits in and how it doesn’t

ChatGPT said:

The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) holds a diverse collection spanning centuries, from ancient artifacts to contemporary works. While the Museum of Continuities would embrace much of TMA’s art for its emphasis on interconnected histories and global perspectives, certain pieces and categories might face challenges in fitting into its highly thematic, activist mission.

How TMA’s Collection Fits

  1. Global Art and Cross-Cultural Exchange:
    • TMA’s ancient Greek and Roman artifacts, as well as its Asian, African, and Islamic art collections, would align well with the Museum of Continuities‘ focus on cross-cultural exchange and globalism. These works illustrate the blending of traditions and ideas across borders, a central theme for the Museum of Continuities.
    • The museum’s contemporary art, which often addresses issues like identity, gender, and politics, would also resonate. Pieces from feminist artists or works tackling themes of race and colonialism could easily find a home in exhibits addressing intersectionality and resilience.
  2. Glass Collection as Environmental and Industry Commentary:
    • TMA’s renowned glass collection could anchor exhibits on materiality, industry, and climate. Glass, as a material tied to both ancient craftsmanship and modern industrial processes, serves as a symbol of the intersection between art, technology, and economic systems.
  3. Mythology and Spirituality:
    • The museum’s paintings and sculptures inspired by mythology, including works from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, would fit into exhibits exploring how mythology shapes cultural identity and spirituality.

What Might Not Fit

  1. Purely Aesthetic Works:
    • Many works in TMA’s collection, particularly those from the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist eras, might struggle to find a place. While beautiful, these works were often created with less explicit attention to the social and political themes central to the Museum of Continuities. For example, Monet’s landscapes or Renoir’s portraits, while masterpieces, may be seen as disconnected from pressing narratives of intersectionality, trauma, or globalism.
  2. Western-Centric Historical Narratives:
    • Works that reinforce colonial or Eurocentric perspectives might face reinterpretation—or exclusion. For instance, depictions of “exotic” subjects painted by European artists during imperial eras could be criticized for perpetuating stereotypes. The Museum of Continuities would likely demand a critical lens to reframe these works within broader discussions of racism and colonialism.
  3. Decorative Arts without Context:
    • Decorative arts like ornate furniture or purely ornamental pieces may not align with the museum’s activist mission unless contextualized within broader discussions of class, labor, or material economies.
Toledo Museum facebook post dated January 1, 2025. (behold, the museum’s transformative power with art) And what to do with this post-colonial Tiffany lamp? Let’s paste it on the European painting, which must be the most creativity Diane Wright could muster, being true to who she is as a museum professional and as the Curator of Glass and Decorative Arts.
Story: A Place for Reinterpretation

In the Museum of Continuities, an exhibition titled Glass: From Industry to Ecosystems prominently features TMA’s glass collection. One piece, an 18th-century Venetian goblet, is juxtaposed with a modern glass installation addressing climate change. The exhibit explores the journey of glass as a material shaped by the hands of artisans and mass industrialization, linking it to themes of labor, environment, and resilience.

Meanwhile, a small gallery is devoted to The Shadow of Mythology, reframing classical works like TMA’s Greco-Roman sculptures. These pieces are displayed alongside modern reinterpretations by feminist and indigenous artists, creating dialogue about how mythology is co-opted and reshaped by different cultures.

In contrast, a corner of the museum’s Impressionist works lies largely unvisited. A Renoir portrait hangs with a new caption: “The Absence of Intersectionality: Aesthetic Beauty in Isolation.” The lack of critical social engagement in these works leaves them at odds with the museum’s thematic priorities, relegating them to an exhibit of “historical artifacts of an era of artistic privilege.”

The Absence of Intersectionality: Aesthetic Beauty in Isolation. Historical artifacts of an era of artistic privilege: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Green Jardinière
Conclusion

While much of the Toledo Museum of Art’s collection would thrive in the Museum of Continuities due to its historical depth and global scope, certain works would require reframing or risk irrelevance. This recontextualization challenges traditional narratives of art, pushing visitors to consider the deeper social and political implications of the works they admire, according to the current art museum authorities.

—————

what is the estimated worth of the artwork that won’t thrive?

ChatGPT said:

The estimated worth of the artwork in the Toledo Museum of Art collection that might not align with the thematic focus of the Museum of Continuities—particularly Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works—can be substantial. For example:

  • In 2022, the museum deaccessioned three significant Impressionist works by Cézanne, Renoir, and Matisse. The sale of these paintings alone fetched around $60 million. These works included:
    • Henri Matisse’s Fleurs ou Fleurs devant un portrait (estimated $15–$20 million).
    • Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Nu s’essuyant (The Bather) (estimated $3–$4 million).
    • Paul Cézanne’s Clairière (The Glade) (estimated $30 million)【259】【260】【262】.

While these specific pieces have been sold, they reflect the general high market value of similar works in the collection. The value of other Impressionist works that might not thrive in a socially critical institution like the Museum of Continuities could potentially exceed this amount, particularly if more iconic or highly coveted pieces are included.

This highlights a tension between preserving traditional aesthetics and reconfiguring collections to align with contemporary sociopolitical themes, a challenge many museums face today.

You said:

how about their 20th century paintings, abstract to 1970’s

ChatGPT said:

The Toledo Museum of Art’s 20th-century paintings, especially those in abstract and modernist styles up to the 1970s, hold significant value, both culturally and financially. Their worth depends on specific artists, pieces, and market trends. For example:

  • Significant Works: The collection includes pieces by renowned artists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Wayne Thiebaud, whose works often fetch millions at auction. For instance, works by Pollock can sell for tens of millions depending on their size and historical importance【268】【270】.
  • Cultural Context: These paintings are central to understanding mid-20th-century art movements like Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism. However, if the Museum of Continuities focuses heavily on sociopolitical themes and intersectionality, abstract works that are seen as apolitical or rooted in Western traditions might be considered less relevant.
  • Value: If sold, mid-century masterpieces could generate substantial revenue. Similar auctions of high-profile 20th-century works have fetched between $10 million and $50 million for single pieces, depending on the artist and the artwork’s historical significance【269】【270】.

The value of these artworks lies not only in their monetary worth but also in their ability to provoke thought about the artistic and cultural shifts of their time. The Museum of Continuities would likely retain pieces that align with its themes, such as those exploring identity, trauma, or the interplay of technology and art, while others may face reinterpretation or deaccessioning.

You said:

how many painting does the TMA have from about 1850 to 2000?

ChatGPT said:

The Toledo Museum of Art has over 30,000 works of art in its collection, with many falling within the time period of 1850 to 2000. While a specific count for paintings in this range isn’t explicitly provided, the museum holds significant works from key movements, including Impressionism, Modernism, and Abstract Expressionism. These include notable pieces by artists such as Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Jackson Pollock, all housed within their vast 40-gallery campus【276】【269】. For a detailed breakdown, their eMuseum database offers insights.

You said:

would these paintings fit in at the Museum of Continuity?

ChatGPT said:

Whether the Toledo Museum of Art’s paintings from 1850 to 2000 would fit into the Museum of Continuities depends on how they are interpreted and contextualized.

  • Works That Could Fit: Many Modernist and Abstract Expressionist paintings explore identity, emotion, and social upheaval, aligning well with the Museum of Continuities‘ focus on intersectionality, resilience, and political change. Artists like Picasso or Pollock often addressed universal themes that resonate with the museum’s mission.
  • Challenges: Paintings emphasizing pure aesthetics or Eurocentric narratives without broader social context might require reinterpretation to align with the new museum’s activist and thematic framework.

Would you like detailed examples or a specific exploration of their alignment?

You said:

yes

ChatGPT said:

Paintings That Could Fit Well:

  1. Modernist Works: Artists like Picasso or Joan Miró often challenged traditional norms, explored identity, and addressed social change. These themes align with the Museum of Continuities’ focus on intersectionality, resistance, and globalism.
  2. Abstract Expressionism: Paintings by Jackson Pollock or Mark Rothko evoke themes of trauma, emotion, and the human condition, which could be framed as responses to war or cultural shifts.
  3. Surrealism: Works by Salvador Dalí or similar artists could fit into exhibits on dreamscapes or fantasy, connecting to psychological and spiritual exploration.

Paintings That Might Need Reinterpretation:

  1. Impressionist Pieces: While aesthetically significant, works by artists like Claude Monet or Renoir may be viewed as disconnected from the social and political narratives central to the Museum of Continuities.
  2. Eurocentric or Colonialist Narratives: Paintings reflecting imperial ideologies or purely decorative works might require critical reframing within contexts of colonialism or global inequality.

How They Could Be Reframed:

  • Impressionist Landscapes: Positioned as reflections of industrial change and environmental impact.
  • Portraits: Interpreted through the lens of race, gender, and societal hierarchies.
  • Abstraction: Framed as universal expressions of resilience or the effects of trauma.

In this way, the Museum of Continuities could adapt TMA’s collection, retaining works that contribute to its mission and critically engaging with those that don’t naturally align. Would you like specific examples of paintings from TMA’s collection analyzed?

yes

ChatGPT said:

The Toledo Museum of Art’s collection includes numerous significant works from 1850 to 2000, ranging from Impressionist paintings by artists like Monet and Renoir to powerful American modernist pieces by artists such as Thomas Cole and George Bellows. Additionally, there are modern and abstract works, including masterpieces by Pollock, Rothko, and others, that reflect the evolving art movements of the 20th century.

Fit with the Museum of Continuities

  • Perfect Fits: Many of the museum’s paintings would align well with the Museum of Continuities. Works like Thomas Cole’s The Architect’s Dream (1840) could be reframed within themes of mythmaking and the interplay between industry, environment, and time. Similarly, American works from the Harlem Renaissance or Abstract Expressionism could highlight intersections of race, resilience, and identity.
  • Needs Reinterpretation: Impressionist pieces, while aesthetically important, might require new narratives to align with the Museum of Continuities’ emphasis on social and political themes. For example, Monet’s Water Lilies could be integrated into an exhibit on climate change and the environment.

Value and Potential Issues

Pieces that do not align thematically, such as more decorative works or purely aesthetic landscapes, might be relegated to secondary roles or considered for deaccessioning to fund more relevant acquisitions. However, with Impressionist and Modernist works from TMA having fetched tens of millions at auction in the past, the financial implications of these choices would be significant.

###

Wow. What a gold mine. If it weren’t for the fiduciary duty of the museum staff and board of directors to care for the art for future generations, they could sell whatever art they deemed to be politically “irrelevant” and cash in BILLIONS of dollars…. but I wonder who is going to stop them?

A question for another session.

Behold, The Dismantling of The Toledo Museum of Art

Categories
Artists of Toledo

Behold, The Dismantling of The Toledo Museum of Art

The art museum is renovating. Glass art will be interspersed amongst other artwork in the main building, arranged chronologically. They have already relocated, one year ago, the impressionist paintings to the Glass Pavilion. UPDATE: Feb. 7, 2025 — they are lending 57 of the impressionist and 20th century core art collection to New Zealand, and according to New Zealand, they say it’s because the museum is renovating! But they already had moved these paintings to the Glass Pavilion, built in 2006 — are they also renovating THAT building?

Why don’t they just build their own museum?

“Our visitors will see their histories on display,” so says the new director Adam Levine, who is from New York, as he and the former director John Stanley, also of New York, have their way with Toledo’s once and future

Toledo Museum of Art.

Famous Impressionist paintings thrown out the door.

The museum conducted surveys of all the people living in the two-mile radius of the museum. They want to get them to come. They are trying everything. They must completely redo the museum.

They rebranded at great expense, creating a $200K operating deficit for 2023 (they spent much more than that). The redesigned logo looks like a gun scoping you out. It’s animated and dominating and goes back and forth tracking everything you look at. Don’t get in the way because it’s about to kill the artwork. Especially the American and European artwork because it’s not politically correct.

Enough with the European paintings that the Libbeys and others donated. That kind of art, that the museum was built on, does not speak to the people. They don’t like that kind of culture even if it is great art. The amazing thing about a museum is that it has this amazing ability to say whatever the museum puts up on the walls – it’s instantly going to be great art. This is what the new director says after previous directors really did collect great art, which is what really made the Toledo Museum of Art so great. But the new guy replaced the connoisseurs with culture workers and lowered the bar. Because the museum sets the canon. Boom!

Instead of adding to the collection to create more diversity, he is subtracting from it, and the money’s good. They sold three French Impressionist paintings for 59 million dollars! They can get billions for all the irrelevant art they can subtract from the collection. Boom!

The new Glass Pavilion was designed by the famed Tokyo-based architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa specifically for the glass art collection in 2006 for $30 million 18 years ago. But in hindsight that was a mistake and they will correct that — the fixers have arrived.

They are taking the glass collection out of the Glass Pavilion and it will be spread around the 2-D art in the main building, arranged chronologically. The Glass Pavilion will be for special exhibitions and to serve as the graveyard for Impressionist paintings, which have already been removed.

In place of the prominent Impressionist gallery that showed Impressionist art, they will install a display showing Toledo’s glass industry history and the history of the Museum. 

The museum’s campus-wide reinstallation is mostly led by employees and consultants who are brand new. The museum doesn’t bother to mention it in the five-year plan, nor in the 2023 annual report. That’s because they just thought of it. Spending as much money as they can, they hire numerous firms, consulting curators and simpatico fellows to help them, making sure that they are all from out of town.

The Chairman of the Board of the Museum, Sara Jane DeHoff, is thrilled that such noteworthy architects competed for the job, commenting to The Blade in the November 22 article, “I can’t tell you how many international designers applied for this project.” Who wouldn’t want the cushy job of an ambitious renovation and reinstallation from an ambitious museum with supposed unlimited funds?

According to the new architectural renderings, the redone museum will look like a hospital with a bad facelift. The walls are white and devoid of art, and on the floor are curvy glass display tables mazed throughout what looks to be the Great Gallery. People are not happy about it.

Imagine, The Crowning of Saint Catherine, considered to be the best painting by Peter Paul Rubens that is in America, the two paintings called Lot and His Daughters, one by Guercino and one by Artemisia Gentileschi, along with many others being taken off the walls of the Great Gallery. Oh yes they will.

They advanced the rumor that they were getting rid of the Cloisters, only to let it leak that they are just moving the Cloisters.  To a smaller area behind the the ancient art. Imagine the dismantling the ancient tile floor and the taking apart of the delicate and very old four walls of columns, all related in history, that form the Cloister gallery. It will never look or be the same.

To find a spot for the Cloisters, they will dismantle the 12-year old Frederic and Mary Wolfe Gallery that was built for contemporary art.  It too was a mistake made by previous museum directors that the new people are going to fix now. Two million dollars towards the renovation of the former glass gallery that was made into a contemporary art gallery (mistakenly) was donated (stupidly) by Mary and Fritz Wolfe, who are both dead now.

Fritz Wolfe served 27 years on the Museum board and Mary Wolfe co-chaired the 100th anniversary celebration in 2001.

The new museum people don’t care about respecting donors. They get their money from the government now.

Museum floor plan in 2014, note the purple + bright blue will be moved to the orange galleries — the museum’s greatest paintings, European, Renaissance now hanging in the Great Gallery and adjacent galleries getting shoved aside, in a much smaller area. The Cloisters to be moved to where the new two-story Wolfe Contemporary gallery is now.

Sketch presented by the museum to other museums at the symposium they sponsored in the summer of 2023.So much for the “stewards” of the “art museum” and their “fiduciary duty” to “care for the art” so that it is “passed on” to “future generations” of “Toledoans.” Adam Levine, a “financial” “crypto” “specialist,” sees the future of museums as being “screen-based.” He is not the best person to be put in charge of caring for and keeping the art and the art museum, let alone to be given the right to remodel it.

It is very risky as well. Remember the disastrous fire of Notre Dame was caused by a mistake made during a renovation.

For Toledoans, including the Toledo Museum Board of Directors, if they don’t stop this disastrous dismantling of the museum we love, the history being made now will leave them with a pathetic legacy, and will leave the city with the loss of what made it so good.

Contact the board members of the Toledo Museum of Art if you agree with me.

This is a photo of the Libbey grave on Easter 2023 showing that the museum left it in tatters in spite of the directive of the Libbey Endowment. The Libbeys are the founders of the museum.

Why are Toledoans letting this happen to the museum that was meant for them?

See, here, for detailed research on the Cloisters move.
Categories
Artists of Toledo

Art. Think about it.

If the museum needs to make repairs to its HVAC system, and it doesn’t have the money in its own operating funds, why doesn’t it take more money from the Libbey endowment? If the museum can’t find enough money in the Libbey endowment because the Endowment requires that 50% needs to be spent on art, why not do a fundraiser? If the museum can’t raise enough money from a fundraiser, why doesn’t it apply for grants? If the museum still can’t raise enough money to repair the HVAC system from the endowment, fundraisers and grants and its own operating funds, why doesn’t the museum apply for a loan from a bank?

These are fair questions. Instead, the museum went to the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, asking them to install Port Authority Facilities into the museum in the form of an HVAC system. The port authority eagerly agreed and posted a bond for the museum as a part of their .4 mill operating levy that was passed by voters on November 5. More money came from the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority and the Columbus-Franklin County Finance Authority for the total of $24.89 million for a new HVAC system. Pretty slick.

The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority owns and operates “port authority facilities” such as the Port of Toledo, Toledo Shipyard, Toledo Express Airport, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza train station, ParkSmart Parking Facilities, General Cargo Terminals. And now the port authority is adding one more “port authority facility” to this governmentally controlled list — the HVAC system at the Toledo Museum of Art. The port authority approved a $25 million bond, together with the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority and the Columbus-Franklin County Finance Authority, then approved by taxpayers, the constructing, developing, equipping, improving, and installing “port authority facilities” across the 328,568 square foot museum.

Interestingly, the Secretary of the Toledo Museum of Art Board of Directors, Thomas Winston, is also the President and CEO of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. The Vice Chair of the Toledo Museum of Art Board of Directors, Sharon Speyer, is on the Board of Directors of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, among other interested parties, including a banker.

Now the big question is, where is the money coming from for the rest of the “improvements,” “remodeling” and “reinstallation” for the newly planned “facelift” of the Toledo Museum of Art, as every gallery gets remodeled and painted white, and the recently renovated Cloister gallery gets disassembled and moved to the east, and new technologies get installed in every gallery, and all of the art gets shifted around and arranged chronologically? The Glass Pavilion, which cost $30 million to build in 2006, will be repurposed as the glass gets removed and scattered among the art in the main building arranged by date. What is it going to cost, and what will the museum have to do for that? Are they going to sell their soul, as they have already let the port authority claim “port authority facility” ownership to infiltrate the very air they breath? Do people need or want this radical change?

And the even bigger question is, how much great art that the public loves will fall through the cracks during this seismic shift?

Remember the sale of the three French Impressionist paintings for $62 million in 2022, and the promise for new art, which never happened. And then the removal of all the rest of the Impressionist paintings to a back room of the glass museum.

Art. think about it. Is it inevitable that the last bastion of freedom and independence and great wealth in Toledo, the freedom of art, will get gobbled up by the turkeys?

They just can’t seem to get enough.

Categories
Artists of Toledo

This Facebook post went viral before it was banned

I have a quiet little Facebook page titled “Toledo Now.”  Lately I’ve been posting about the doings of the Toledo art museum. My posts don’t go around that much, but I noticed a lot of activity on this post that I put up on November 16, going around many thousands of times! I saw that it had been shared on November 19 around 5pm (not by me) on a Facebook group called “Toledo Then and Now” which has 32,000 followers. This page states that it is run by AI. Apparently it stops the commenting after a period of time or activity, and when I first saw it, two hours after it was shared, the commenting had been stopped. But during that short time the post was shared many times and had inspired dozens of comments — each one expressed disappointment in the direction of the museum.

The photo is an architectural rendering provided by the museum to publicize their announcement of their selection of design partners for a major reinstallation project.

Two hours after it was posted, commenting has been turned off for this post.

Here are a few comments I was able to document  —

  • Horrible! We have one of the finest museums in the world. Keep it in the classic Grecian style.  (7 likes)
  • I agree. Don’t mess with perfection. 
  • THAT is hideous.
  • The museum was designed to mimic the Louvre in Paris. I hope this is a joke, it looks ugly and uninviting. The building itself is a work of art. If this is true, it could lead to a decline in visits and threaten the uniqueness of our museum.
  • Do you ever read about art restorations and upgrades and say, “What were they thinking?” We’re living in one of those.
  • No!
  • Apple store
  • Leave it alone keep it like it is don’t destroy the museum
  • Nooooo!
  • Cold and stark. Why the need to mess with the beautiful, classic style?
  • It looks like a mall.
  • It sure does.
  • Why???? Horrible. Feels like a hospital.
  • (crying emojis)
  • (mad face emoji)

The public comments on the shares remain on the Facebook pages of those who shared the post, with the actual post removed and the group’s banner replacing it, leaving all their comments out of context, but here are some of those comments —

  • Please god no
  • Wow, that is history they are messing with…how disappointing they would do that
  • man toledo be really pissing me the f— off
  • That’s terrible! A museum should reflect and honor the past.
  • It literally doesn’t need to change. That modern white is so ugly. They’re about to ruin one of my favorite places.
  • I hate the new design, will not go back, they are going to ruin the museum.
  • Wow I love when historical legacies with real beauty get removed to have a museum that looks like an apple store.

  • Use this money to fix the roads/schools, the art museum is beautiful the way it is

  • It looks so minimal eww

  • I’m pissed!

  • asf, ruins the whole vibe

  • Lookit this garbage they are tryna do to our art museum

  • They better not smh

  • Yeah they better not

  • NOT a fan (of the changes)!
  • Disgusting

  • if they do this will never go back fal@ don’t make the art museum look like a damn hospital plsss

  • Maaan
  • What the hell

  • It literally doesn’t need to change. That modern white is so ugly. They’re about to ruin one of my favorite places

  • Stupid

  • Ts take the history out the museum??

  • That’s terrible! A museum should reflect and honor the past.

  • I will actually sob uncontrollably

  • That looks so boring why would they want that??

The Blade asked me what I thought of the museum’s reinstallation plan, to include a quote for their news article, Toledo Museum of Art furthers reinstallation plans, which was published on November 21. I was looking forward to sharing the link with the group, but I wasn’t allowed to share it or anything else, and then I noticed that my post was removed! And I was censored!

Many people went to the trouble of posting their displeasure with the direction of the museum. Their voices were censored too.

Here’s my quote in the article that was published in The Blade:

And just to make my feelings perfectly clear

It should disgust the community that the museum sells its great paintings and diminishes its collection, after stopping its decades-long Saturday classes that brought together 2500 children from all over the city. It’s disgusting that the museum brands itself with the “community” buzzword after killing the Toledo Area Artists Exhibition. How patronizing it is to use the 2-mile radius of the museum as an excuse to rip apart the museum as if to make it more appealing to the neighborhood…… When all Adam Levine wants is attention from other museums so he can have a way out of Toledo, after spending a fortune giving the museum the wrecking ball. The museum never had to worry about its reputation before, because they truly were great, and now they are just running on fumes.

Adam Levine believes that the future of museums is screen-based. Should he really be at the helm of our museum today? Hmmm….
Categories
Artists of Toledo

The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition of 2024

Pondering prospects of the Toledo Area Artists Exhibition that was shamefully taken away from local artists in 2014

The irony is striking: over the past three years, the Toledo Museum of Art has introduced layers of new bureaucracy—hiring a “chief people officer,” a “belonging and community engagement” czar, and even establishing a “branding” department. Add to this a new position perpetually funded by the Conda family to ensure that a “director of access initiatives” is always on payroll. All these changes are made under the guise of fostering a caring, inclusive community museum.

Yet, just a decade ago, this same museum abruptly canceled the Toledo Area Artists Exhibition, a long-standing tradition that enriched the city’s cultural landscape for nearly 100 years. The exhibition not only helped launch local artists’ careers but also provided a valuable platform for Toledo’s artistic community. Former museum director Brian Kennedy axed the tradition before he himself left town, and his successor, Adam Levine, appears more interested in making a name for himself nationally with his phony belonging mantra than in doing something real by restoring this local cultural treasure.

For a museum that once prided itself on being a national example of excellence, this shift in priorities to the director’s self-interest is despicable.

Reinstating the Toledo Area Artists Exhibition would genuinely foster the sense of belonging that the museum now claims to value. If the Brooklyn Museum’s recent revival of its local artist show after 20 years is any indication, perhaps Toledo will see the value in embracing its local talent once again. Until then, one can only hope that Toledo’s art community doesn’t have to wait another decade for its rightful place in the museum to be restored.

(For more background on the demise of the Toledo Area Artists Exhibition, feel free to explore my numerous blog posts detailing its history and the museum’s decline.)

This weekend the Brooklyn Museum local artists show, which began in 1980 and ended in 2004, was revived with the opening of The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition, of 2024.

Exuding community energy and a sense of belonging, the Brooklyn Artists Exhibition was pretty great. This piece, a beautiful sculptural dress made out of packets of hair weave, was created by Tinuade Oyelowo. It would make a great addition to the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art — because the museum likes artwork to talk to each other, and I can see this artwork in conversation with the 1893 Libbey glass-spun dress, or of course in the contemporary galleries.

Incidentally, along with adding all of the above-mentioned bureaucrats, the Toledo Museum carved out a new position for a contemporary art curator in 2021 hiring Jessica Hong, who is leaving already! Has the contemporary art curator position been eliminated? Will this institution in transition (hard to call it a museum anymore after they moved out the Impressionist paintings) hire a general “cultural worker” instead – that is, a worker who is merely “accountable to the idea of culture” with no art history degree necessary? After all, you don’t need a PhD to buy a burnt American flag to hang in the American gallery, as did Jessica Hong. Perhaps these days a genuinely educated art historian/art expert is passé, even superfluous for whatever it is that this bloated bureaucracy is trying to achieve.

Speaking of the bloated bureaucracy, it is interesting to note that Rhonda Sewell, who was initially hired in 2021 for the new post of “Belonging and Community Engagement Director” transitioned to another new bureaucratic museum post, that of “Director of Advocacy and External Affairs” in June 2023. This role is described as “forming and maintaining key relationships with legislators and policy makers at the local, state and federal levels.” Fascinating, since it was only a month before that the Ohio Attorney General embarked on an investigation of the Toledo Museum of Art regarding the circumstances surrounding the sale of three famous Impressionist paintings for $62 million in 2022 and the apparent breach of fiduciary duty by the trustees of the Edward Drummond Libbey and Florence Scott Libbey endowments – the Libbeys being the museum founders. Ms. Sewell must have her work cut out for her.

Curiously, but not surprisingly, the short-lived position of “Belonging and Community Engagement Director” at the Toledo Museum of Art has been abandoned.

Stuffed with bureaucracy, but no meat on the bones.
Categories
Artists of Toledo

Toledo’s Unmuseum

The Glass Pavilion was built in 2006 to display the glass collection.
New at TMA: The Glass Pavilion as Dumping Ground

Toledo Museum of Art’s outstanding collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings have been moved to a back room gallery at the Glass Pavilion.

The Glass Pavilion, with its curved glass walls was built in 2006 to display the museum’s glass collection.

But since then, the leadership of the museum has completely changed. The new people, not from Toledo and with little if any experience running a museum, are having a field day “rebranding” the museum and selling off valuable paintings from the Impressionist collection. They act with no regard for the museum!

The Impressionist paintings hung in two front galleries of the museum — they were often the first galleries a visitor would go to. The famous French paintings, made by white men, had to go, regardless of how important they are to the history of art, and to the museum’s collection.

Islamic and Asian art, regardless of the importance of this collection to the museum, will occupy the former Impressionist galleries —  contemporary Asian art all the way back to ancient Asian art. Visitors can now contemplate the politics of looted art (which is also on view in the African collection in the opposite front gallery).

It was just last year that they took the American art from the American Galleries in the west wing that had been thusly funded by the Barbers, and moved it all to the back of the museum, shaming the art with controversial wall text.

The relocation of the popular paintings from the museum to the Glass Pavilion makes it hard for visitors with mobility issues to have equal access to artwork. Visitors must go down 26 steps to get to Monroe Street, then cross the four-lane busy street without a traffic light to follow a long curvy sidewalk leading to the Glass Pavilion. The  relocation contradicts the principles of the newly formed Access Initiatives Department. This issue exists, in spite of the new Conda Family Manager of Access Initiatives (the department manager’s salary being perpetually funded by an endowment from the Conda family).  How does the manager of Access Initiatives, Katie Shelley, justify her salary after she let that happen? She starred in a video, describing the long trek over to the Glass Pavilion, and blaming the historic museum for its lack of access – this – after the museum purposefully moved the paintings out of reach.

It seems that nobody running the museum these days cares about art, least of all the new donors like the Condas, and also the Savages (the namesake of the new “community gallery” which has proven to be an insult to local artists.) Donors of the past as well as board members used to be great art aficionados — check them out — but today’s museum board’s appreciation of art is questionable to say the least. The museum’s stellar reputation for being a great art museum is running on fumes.

How long before the Toledo Museum of Art is entirely dismantled? They work fast!

art is not mentioned in the museum’s new mission statement

The museum can’t stop spending money on surveys and branding and rebranding. Here are some quotes from the design firm, Scorpion Rose Studio, who designed the museum’s new spyglass logo, about how the museum came to them for branding because they wanted to look modern and inclusive.

We answered with a total rebrand, including strategy and a holistic design system, that will help TMA continue its journey toward the kind of modern museum they strive to be – one that has its doors open to all.

We grounded the rebrand on a strategic platform: The transformative power of art is for all of Toledo.

TMA’s previous brand voice – academic, critical, elite – created a barrier to expanding its audience to those who felt historically excluded.

B.S.!!

I took art classes at the museum for years. Everyone was included, no one felt unwelcome. Then two years ago, they hired a Brand Manager from Colorado for a new branding department who branded the museum “academic, critical, elite” to justify the “new” branding of being inclusive and welcoming – the very qualities the museum possessed from the beginning.

THE MUSEUM IS FREE FOR EVERYONE, THANKS TO THE FOUNDERS.

The Toledo Museum of Art was built on the principle of community.

November 1919 in front of the art museum: looks like inclusion to me.

a wicked opportunity

Adam Levine, who is from New York, came to our democratic museum in 2020 as the new director. He made a huge blunder right away by saying the museum should remain neutral during the George Floyd crisis. Ever since then he’s been bending over backwards, blaming the museum for being racist. He condescendingly reduced the standards of the museum, as if it is morally necessary to lower the quality to what he perceives to be the lowest common denominator. Is Adam Levine an opportunist?  Read this blog post from April 2022:

Covering the director’s memo mistake

Could all of this be a smokescreen for selling off our famous Impressionist paintings by Cezanne, Renoir and Matisse to private collectors — making $61 million on the three paintings in 2022? The woke quote floated by museum insiders in 2022 was, “Who cares about a few old white men?”

Three famous French Impressionist paintings – a Matisse, Renoir and Cezanne – thrown out the door of the white marble pillared museum and sold to the highest bidder, grossing $61 Million, on May 17, 2022.
“Museum-goers want to see themselves on the walls!”
In 2012 the museum came up with the bright idea to invite Toledoans to pose for a community portrait that would be a part of an exhibit in Gallery 1. Since then, most of the community has been crossed out, along with the Impressionist paintings.

With an engorged staff having been added for a new department for “Belonging” and another for “People” and another for “Access Initiatives” as well as for the “Branding” department, the museum started concentrating on the nearby black community exclusively, actually going personally to their doors to get them to come to the new woke museum, all redone to what Adam Levine condescendingly thought would be to their liking. Now, what to do with those paintings by old white men? They have to go! Conveniently, the paintings are so valuable as well…

about being a good steward and having a fiduciary duty

Soon after the Ohio Attorney General’s investigation commenced, Adam Levine moved the Impressionist paintings across the street to the unlikely room in the Glass Pavilion. How very arrogant to appear so untouchably righteous.

Edward Drummond and Florence Libbey, the museum’s founders, would wonder, who are these people entrusted with their generous gift to the people of Toledo, and what do they think they are doing? And that is why the museum is being investigated by the Charitable Law Section of the Ohio Attorney General’s office.

“The superpower that an art museum has is when something goes up on the wall, it’s considered good. We set the cannon,” told the new Director of the Toledo Museum of Art, Adam Levine, to Forbes.com in 2022.

The Toledo Museum of Art makes their own art now.

Edward and Florence’s Wills