(bright music) - Welcome to "Forum 360," I'm Stephanie York, your host today.

Thank you for joining us for a global outlook with a local view.

Today we're talking to Mr. Jon Fiume, interim executive director and CEO of the Akron Art Museum, an institution dedicated to enriching lives through modern and contemporary art.

And did you know the Akron Art Museum has been enriching our lives since 1850?

No doubt, the pandemic has affected everything and everybody.

People just aren't doing the things they were doing before the pandemic.

Concerts and performances have been canceled, stores have been shuttered, and organizations have had to reinvent themselves.

This is especially true of those in the arts and culture environment.

These organizations, like others, have been forced to weave, dodge, and morph to provide a different product in a different manner to its valued enthusiasts.

I'm excited today to be here with Jon so we can see how one popular Akron institution has discovered unique avenues of engagement to thrive in this very new environment.

Welcome, Jon, and thank you for joining me today!

- Thank you, Stephanie, I'm glad to be here.

- Yes, so can you, let's start by telling me a little bit about yourself, your background, where you grew up, and things like that.

- Oh, okay, wow.

(Stephanie laughs) So I grew up in Cuyahoga Falls.

I just surpassed the 50 mark, I'm actually 52, but.

(Stephanie chuckles) And grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, went to Cuyahoga Falls High School, graduated from there, found myself at John Carroll University.

- Oh, good.

- And then I sort of remained in the area with my first full-time professional career job at SeaWorld of Ohio.

So if any of the viewers remember good old SeaWorld times.

- [Stephanie] I do!

(chuckles) - And I was there for 11 years.

- Wow.

- And I did a lot of store design, the layouts, and worked on the retail side.

At the same time, I became involved in natural health products, started working for a local health food store part-time while working full-time at SeaWorld, and really got into wellness.

Went back to school to get my degree in massage therapy, which I continue to hold, don't practice, but continue to hold my Ohio State Medical Board license.

And then, I decided to jump into that work full time, and then Ritzman Pharmacies, which is another past pharmacy chain.

- Yes!

- Decided to become Natural Health Pharmacies.

And so they sought me out to help them build their niche into the natural markets.

And so I was fortunate enough to help grow them from 11 to 26 locations at the time.

- Wow!

- Served 17 years with them as the vice president of Retail Operations, and I also oversaw the pharmacies.

And so that was a really unique experience, especially not being a pharmacist.

- [Stephanie] Right.

And then, from there, I decided to jump back into the wellness full-time and became the chief operating officer for Mustard Seed Markets.

- Which is where I met you at, pretty much, yes.

- Which is, yep, yep.

- Through there and also through Leadership Akron, I believe.

- Right!

- And I really enjoyed my experience there, I was highly involved with the opening of the Highland Square store, served that organization for six years, helping them with the shutdown of their Solon location.

- Right.

- And then I decided it was really about living purpose.

It probably had something to do with hitting the 50s or what have you, (Stephanie chuckles) but really making sure that the work that I was doing had a impact on others.

I've always had a desire to assist others in their own personal growth as well as organizations, and really being able to help improve an organization and also just make sure that everybody has the best experience as possible.

So last May, I actually finished up Mustard Seed in January, and I thought it's good to take a few months and just relax, and then COVID forced that.

- Absolutely, yes.

- And then, this opportunity at the Akron Art Museum became available, and a few people in the community highly suggested to the board president that he have a conversation with me, and would I consider coming on board to help turn things around there, so.

- Great, great.

So why don't you tell us about the Akron Art Museum?

- Sure!

- Just generally, maybe its history and mission and things like that.

- Sure, so the mission as you sort of indicated was to provide a modern and contemporary art experience, that's exactly where our focus is.

So the entire collection, which is over six thous, 6,000, 6,000 objects, excuse me, everything is from 1850.

The museum itself started out as the Akron Art Institute with a focus on education, and that began in 1822, so we are just getting prepared to celebrate our centennial, so we're really excited.

- Awesome!

- We got a lot of plans that are in the works.

And then certainly, you know, a good majority of the collection or what I should say, a highlight of the collection is our photography, but we also have some pretty well-known pieces that people that would come in would say, "Oh yeah, I've seen that at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City or where have you."

Certainly, the building itself is well-recognized.

- [Stephanie] So unique.

- (chuckles) So unique.

- Really, with the cantilevers and the- - Exactly.

- Yeah.

- So, and so it is in and of itself is well-known.

- And when were those added?

The cantilevers, around.

- I'ma say that was 2004.

- 'Cause I remember when that was going on.

- Big project, so Coop Himmelb(l)au's the architectural firm, Viennese.

There's only a few other of their designs in the country, so- - And it attaches to that old building.

- Yes, so- - So it's so, I mean, when you drive by, you're just not, I mean, seriously, you're just not quite sure what to make of it.

- Exactly.

- Like, what is this thing?

- Yes, yeah, so it's a nice surprise for downtown.

- And of course, it's the Akron Art Museum.

(chuckles) - Yeah, it's attached to what we term the 1899 building, which was once an old post office as well.

- Nice!

- So it's a really unique combination, and now, you know, so we have, of course, all the galleries, but it certainly is a space for events and so on and so forth.

And then we- - Absolutely, I've been to a few events there.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Very nicely done.

- Exactly, and then we also have our Bud and Susie Rogers Garden.

- Yes.

- Which was once the parking lot, and we have some great, we have a wonderful installation plan for the summer for there.

- [Stephanie] Good, we'll get to all that today.

- Yeah, yeah!

- So, the museum is in the midst of a transformation right now, and there's actually a transformation plan, can you tell me about that, how it came about, and where you are in that process?

- Sure, so the transformation plan, it came about certainly due to what I call the opportunities around the museum that started roughly two and a half years ago, but certainly really came to everyone's attention right around last March and April when COVID hit.

Unfortunately, the museum had experienced some layoffs as most organizations, and then it really brought to light some opportunities.

And when I say opportunities, I say opportunities, numerous ones, but certainly opportunities around leadership.

And so, as I mentioned to you, I came in to help bring some stability to the organization, but mainly to bring leadership and help foster a healthy work environment.

So in order to accomplish that, we created a transformation plan working with an outside consultant, Janus Small and Associates, and we started to implement the transformation plan last August.

It was approved by the board last July, and its major components is all around diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, so certainly- - Good, things that are hot topics right now, and every organization is trying to expand and do better in those areas.

- That's exactly it, and ironically, you know, I arrived in May, June came the, what I'm gonna call the cultural uprising around Black Lives Matter, and you know, the killing of George Floyd and countless others.

And I remember, and you sort of add to COVID, and you add the political tension that we all experienced.

- Right.

- And I remember saying to the board, this is a perfect storm opportunity.

This is absolutely where we need to be, and this is the work that we need to be doing.

- Right.

- So it could not be, it just couldn't be, again, the most perfect opportunity for this organization, and so, the transformation plan has started with training around those areas, we call it DEAI for short.

- Sure.

- And- - Diversity, equity... - Accessibility and inclusion.

- Accessibility and inclusion, got it.

- And yep.

- Just for our viewers.

- Yeah, exactly.

(Stephanie laughs) Yep, exactly.

- And again, we started with training, but then we also developed a board transformation task force, which was to examine or has examined, I should say, how the board was operating, everything from financial requirements, which have now been removed, the length of term of a board member, which has been reduced.

So it used to be two four-year terms, now it's two three-year terms.

And then as well, and most importantly, really looking at the creation of a diverse board, but not just in the ways that most of us would consider in regards to race, that's certainly important, but also looked at age, religion, zip code, and then also made sure that we were looking at what is it that the museum needs, what are the areas of expertise that we need some support.

- Right.

- And so that has been an ongoing process, and then the uniqueness with that as well is we developed what I like to term a pipeline of potential board members, but we did it in a way of contacting what we call connectors in the community who gave us names.

- Sure.

- So quite often, or it wasn't unusual, I should say, for a board member to say, oh, this is my friend so-and-so, they would also be a great candidate for the board.

- Sure.

- And that's usually how in some art museums that people would receive a position on the board.

Now, by talking to other people in the community, it's opening up our eyes of people that we never would have considered otherwise.

- [Stephanie] Right.

- So that's been phenomenal.

And then most importantly, we also changed what's expected out of board members, and that's been very important.

So it's all with a movement toward more collaboration between the board and the staff and the organization, which is incredible.

- Good.

- And then the other very important component of the transformation plan has to do with what we call the DEAI Working Group, which is really being driven by the staff of the organization.

- That's great, yes.

- And so there's a representative of each of the departments, and what they've been able to do is they've been able to survey every department to say where do we have opportunities under DEAI, and then they've come together as a group to rank those opportunities, some of which the museum had already started, which is wonderful, but some of which are brand new, so it's everything from eventually we'd like to get to the point where we could have automatic doors that open to the galleries, for example.

- Oh, right.

- Or we can get to the point where people at our Visitor Services Counter can communicate in sign language, or even more importantly, we can have a day where we actually have a room or what have you for those with autism.

- Wow.

- So we can, you know, understand their sensitivities, things of that sort.

- Sure.

- So there's a variety of things, but it also includes some internal things, from HR policies and things of that sort.

So we have reworded are our job applications, we have instituted the use of gender-neutral pronouns by choice.

- Sure.

- We've also added a floating holiday that anyone can use for any reason.

So for instance, you might celebrate Hanukkah, I might celebrate Christmas, someone else might celebrate Kwanzaa, but somebody else may not celebrate any of those three.

- Right.

- And they choose a different holiday, they have the option of being able to celebrate that.

- So how's the morale?

- (laughs) There's a lot!

- With all of this going on.

- Yeah, so.

- There's a lot of change, and change is uncomfortable sometimes.

- Right.

- But these seem like good, positive changes, and so how's the morale?

- Yeah.

So, I don't take it for granted, but I would say the morale has greatly improved.

- [Stephanie] Good.

- As you can understand, it's a challenge to try to measure morale during COVID.

- [Stephanie] Oh, for sure.

- We just reopened two weeks ago, and we're only opened three days a week.

And so it's been a little bit of a challenge, and the best, I guess, way to get a good gauge on that is just to keep those communication lines open.

So myself and my team, we really make sure that we're making ourselves available.

- Right.

- But at the same time, we're getting ready to measure that morale externally so that, just to get a good pulse check, so I'm not taking it for granted.

- [Stephanie] Right.

- You know, that is one of the thing, and you should never take it for granted in any organization under any conditions, right?

So you always have to do some sort of checks and things of that sort, but I would say- - But like you said, it's even more challenging now with the pandemic.

- Yeah, right.

- Because you're not there all the time, every day, well, you might be, but your staff isn't there every day.

- Right.

- Now it's just three days a week, and even some of those are probably working from home still.

- Right, right.

- Right.

- So it takes effort.

Sometimes, I'll just contact a staff member to say, "Hey, how you doing?"

Or if I know somebody else is in the building for a given reason, I will make sure I stop what I'm doing and go find them to say hello.

- Right.

- Just things of that sort, which have really made a difference.

- Right.

So I'd like to remind our viewers and those who may have joined late that we are here with Jon Fiume, executive director and CEO of the Akron Art Museum in the heart of Downtown Akron.

We are learning about how this particular organization, which is focused on arts and culture, has had to reinvent itself in order to stay relevant during the pandemic, and we're actually gonna turn to that right now.

- Okay.

- So during the pandemic, tell me what happened to the art museum during that time, did you have to close?

Did you have to, what happened?

- Yeah, we actually had to close twice, so we closed, I wanna say back in March.

So when I arrived in May, we were still closed.

Just like everybody else, you watch the COVID, COVID report daily.

- The numbers!

- 2 o'clock, every day!

- What's happening.

- We reopened last July.

(Stephanie chuckles) - Okay.

- And then, just for three days a week, and we continue to watch it.

So if you kinda remember, almost, you saw a lot of things reopened last summer.

- Sure.

- So we were able to participate in that, and then November hit, and numbers started climbing again.

That's when the county issued their stay-at-home advisory.

- Sure.

- So we thought we'd do our part as well.

And then of course, like most of us, we're watching what color's the county, that type of thing.

- Right.

- And then, I participate on a lot of other, I guess, network groups with other art museum directors across the state, and so just through that, we thought it the most safe to close again.

The staff felt very comfortable with that as well, of course, all of us experience a certain level of anxiety with COVID.

And so we closed in November, and then we remained closed until this past February 18th.

I'm happy to say, so when we closed the first time, indeed, layoffs occurred.

- Right.

- And then when we closed the second time, we were able to repurpose everyone.

- Oh, good.

So cross-train, and so we were able to keep everybody what I call whole through that process, which was wonderful.

- That's great.

- Yeah.

- What steps, you just opened two weeks ago, so what steps did you have to take to reopen?

- Correct.

(Stephanie chuckles) - It was easier the second time around.

- Sure.

- The first time around, we're gathering all this information, we're looking at what's the zoo doing, what's other organizations doing?

- Right.

- This time was a lot easier.

Certainly, you know, we do require a mask.

You can register online or you need to register online at Eventbrite for tickets.

- Okay.

- Of course, you can still walk up.

We have what we call an art path, which is a path you follow, and I think we're seeing these in grocery stores and everywhere else.

- Oh, sure, yeah.

- This is the direction.

- One-way aisles, things like that.

- This is the way, so it's one path, this is how you walk.

- Nice.

- Maneuver through the galleries or navigate through the galleries, six feet, social distancing, and of course, we have our hand sanitizer all around.

- Of course.

- And of course, the staff is wiping things down on the hour and things of that sort.

- Yeah.

- Honestly, it's been written up numerous times that art museums are one of the safest places to be during this time, so we're pretty excited that- - [Stephanie] That's good, are visitors returning?

- They are returning in a huge way.

- In droves?

- In droves!

- (claps) Good!

- I was there Saturday, and they said we may have to pace the amount of people coming in.

- Wow, that's great news!

- Which for us, is sort, yeah, especially in February.

- Yeah, well, I think people just really want to get out.

- They are.

- They do.

- I mean, I gotta tell you, now, I'm not comfortable going out in public places yet.

- (chuckles) Yeah, yeah.

- But everybody has their own comfort level.

Many people have been vaccinated, and they're okay with going out or they're okay with the safety measures.

So, I'm just happy to hear that people are attending those types of things like the Akron Art Museum.

- Yeah, we're very excited with the numbers.

And admission is free right now, so we're happy to be able to offer that as well.

- So what's the current exhibit?

What's hot right now?

- Okay, there's a lot of different things.

- Yeah.

- So we actually have what I call an 80s Show, which I think you and I are like.

(chuckles) - I am totally about the 80s!

- Totally, right?

Totally.

- Yeah, totally!

So I'm so excited about that.

- Yeah, so, so it's actually two exhibits.

It's "Totally Rad," which is all about bold color in the 80s.

So the artists that were chosen to exhibit, everything's from our collection, so some of those, some of the pieces have never graced the walls of the galleries, which is pretty cool.

- Wow, yeah!

- So if you're a regular visitor to the museum, it's gonna be some new things that you haven't seen.

But it's all about the color and the pop of color and the boldness and how they got very creative with using that color.

- Sure, I remember!

- Yeah, and if you walk, so when you walk the galleries, it's not only that you enjoy the artwork, but it's gonna bring you, you know, if you grew up during the 80s, it's gonna bring to your mind, oh my gosh, look at those colors.

- Right.

- And when you see them grouped together and things of that sort, it's really fun.

And then the other side of it has to do with 80s Radical, which was everything political that was happening during that decade.

- Oh, yeah, sure.

- But there, the artists chosen are using different formats, such as advertising to get their art, the point of the art across.

- Okay.

- Or they're also using photography, and so there's a wonderful exhibit with a famous photographer who did the AIDS Project from New York City during the time, and if you remember the Reagan era and all that type of stuff.

- Sure.

- Or there's some artists that have brought some other images to people's attention during that time, so it's a really good, brief, but really good walk through what was happening historically.

- That's really.

- So I'm really excited about that.

I have to mention our Akron Art Mail, which is something- - Yeah, next on my list, you're ahead of me!

- Okay, good!

- Good, Akron Art Mail!

- Yeah.

- Tell me about that.

- Which we actually launched that during the summer.

- Okay, so while you were.... - While we were open.

- Yeah.

- And it's a collaboration with the Akron-Summit County Public Libraries.

Postcards were distributed throughout the community.

You take home a postcard, you create your own artwork or poetry or whatever you like on the postcard, you send it back into the museum.

And at the time, we were showing it up in a gallery.

- Okay.

- Being the fact that we closed, we really wanted to extend that.

So we've extended it to Memorial Day, and now we moved everything into the lobby, so when you come into the lobby, you can see what the community has created.

- That's really... - Which is really wonderful, especially given, again, this past year, and to have- - And I'm sure there's kids that come in and they're looking for their postcard.

- They, yeah, yep, kids and adults, absolutely.

- Yeah, and adults.

- So that's, yeah.

- I can just see, yeah.

- So that's fun.

And then we're also extended.

We had started an exhibit called "Making Your Mark," which is with regional artists.

- Oh!

- So local artists.

And it's really neat because it's not just, it's their artwork along with a tool that they used to create that artwork, so it's a wonderful learning experience.

So you get to see the tool that they used to create it and make the connections and things of that sort, so that's wonderful, it's gonna have a part two coming up later in the year.

- Nice.

- But that's in our- - So when you were shut down, did you do anything different to keep people engaged?

- Oh.

- Did you move stuff online?

Tell us about some of those things.

- Yeah, so there was a huge turn to digital, where we call pivot to digital, which I'm really proud of the team.

I'm blown away by what they've been able to create.

So we have, you know, if you're familiar with Downtown at Dusk, which is the outdoor concerts during the summer.

- Sure.

- That is a good example, so all of that moved to online.

Although this year, we're hoping, we're planning that we can do it in person in a safe way.

- (chuckles) Oh!

- So I have a meeting this afternoon about that.

But we also did a lot of educational programming online.

- Okay.

- And we have everything from Lunchtime Five, which is a quick five minutes of video presentation, could be on the 80s Show, it could be on a piece of artwork or what have you.

We have other, it's called Akron Arts At Home, which is a whole different series of different learning opportunities, some of which are longer in length.

Video games have been created.

There's just a plethora of opportunities online, which are on our website.

- Yeah, so the Lunchtime Five, is that every work day at lunchtime?

Or is it- - It's not every workday, details are on the website.

- Okay.

- So certain days have been designated.

- Just curious.

- I mean, fives minutes.

- Yeah, I actually marked my calendar.

- Yeah, 'cause five minutes is definitely doable in our time.

- It's very digestible, yeah.

- 'Cause sometimes I get invited to these hour-long, you know, everything's an hour long on Zoom, and these little five-minute things could really just give you that break in the day and something different, and I think that's really unusual to see, so that's good.

- Yeah, so.

- Are you having an annual auction event this year?

- We are!

- Online or- - No.

- In person?

- So typically, that would be held in June.

- Okay.

- And the auction committee was very concerned about where we would be with people's desire to mass gather and the vaccine and things of that sort, so we have moved that to August 28th at the museum.

- Good!

- So we are still planning, of course, for contingency plans, because nowadays you plan for plan A, plan B, that type of thing.

- Right.

- But we're really excited, so- - You might be one of the first in-person events back.

- We may be.

- You may be.

- I've talked to a lot of other community partners and I think- - I mean, I think people are gonna start dabbling in that, but I have not seen a commitment to going back in person yet.

- Right, right.

So we're still working through all the details and making sure that again, we can have an event that's safe.

- That's exciting.

(chuckles) That's really exciting.

- Yeah.

- So let's see, what's this "Afterimages"?

- So that is an upcoming show this fall.

That is a geometric abstraction and perception show, just to kind of give the viewers a little hint of what's to come.

- Right.

- So we will, that will be, most of the works will be from our own collection, but we do have a piece of artwork coming in, and so it's all gonna be geometric.

- Ooh, yeah.

- So that is one thing, I don't know, probably about a year and a half to two years ago, we did a survey of what a lot of our visitors would like to see.

- Right.

- And geometric art came up to one of the top.

- Really, okay!

- So really, we're trying to make sure that we can show that.

- Well, I'll have to come see that because I'm not sure what to expect with that.

(laughs) - Yeah, it's fun!

It'll be fun.

- So, if you could tell our audiences about the culture of your organization as it is today, what would you like to talk about?

- Much more positive, rewarding, I can go and on, inspiring, empowering.

I am so fortunate and so amazed at what the staff does.

And I'm not just talking about in the artistic side, I'm talking about the dedication to maintaining the building.

You know, it takes a lot to operate that building from a maintenance standpoint.

- Well, there's lot of, it's a lot of space!

- (chuckles) There's a lot of space.

And everybody's- - You take up a whole city block, pretty much?

- Ah, at least half.

- It's pretty big, yeah.

- Yeah.

Yeah, so, it's a different place, and I wanna continue to make sure that we can maintain that.

- That's great, now, coming from outside the art world, has this been like, what have you learned?

Is it so different?

(Jon chuckles) - Yeah.

- Is it different than being, you know, not in the art world or is it pretty much the same, you have the same lessons, same, just apply it to art.

- So, it's the operate, so I did sit on the board for 10 years.

- Okay, okay.

- I finished up in 2015.

So I always tell people it's completely different on the other side of the boardroom table.

- [Stephanie] Sure.

- And learning about what it takes to operate an art museum has been a great experience for me.

The gift shop, the cafe, I've done those things in my career.

- Right, right.

- But the actual, you know, like right now, while we were closed, and we're still doing this, is we've been taking an inventory of the collection.

That's a big deal.

- Sure.

- To make sure every piece is cataloged correctly into our system.

And at the same time, making sure that the website is gonna be up to date, but what it takes also to restore a given object.

- Right, right.

- Because over time, they'll have opportunities to restore.

- So if it, go ahead.

- Or to just move a piece from point A to point B.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I just can't go down to art storage and say, "Oh, let me just grab this one, I'm gonna put it up on this wall.

- (laughs) Can't just re-shelve it somewhere, right?

- Yeah, and so to really hear, again, the staff expertise on that is incredible.

- So venture to say, you've learned a lot.

- I've learned a lot.

(Stephanie laughs) - So this was fun, and our time has come to an end.

- It has, wow.

- Can you believe it?

I told you it goes really quick.

(Jon laughs) So there's no question that the Akron Art Museum is one of Northeast Ohio's crown jewels, and we are excited to see the new programs, platforms, and outlets that the museum, under the leadership of Jon Fiume, has developed in order to bring art and culture to us wherever we reside in Northeast Ohio and beyond.

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