Community tribute for Museum Director and CEO Mitchell Kahan
The community is invited to celebrate the accomplishments of Dr. Mitchell D. Kahan as Director and CEO of the Akron Art Museum.
After serving one of the longest tenures of any art museum leader in the country, Dr. Kahan will leave at the end of this year and assume the title of Director Emeritus.
On Sunday, November 11, 2012, museum admission will be free in honor of Dr. Kahan’s 26 years of service. He will be greeting well-wishers in the museum’s Beatrice Knapp McDowell Grand Lobby from 1-3 pm.
Dr. Kahan’s commitment to the cultural arts and the community will have a lasting impact in Akron and Northeast Ohio. Under his direction, the Akron Art Museum enjoyed significant institutional growth: from a 25,000 square foot facility to 83,000 square feet; from an endowment of just over $2 million to well over $20 million following three endowment campaigns; from a collection of 2,000 objects to over 5,000; and a capital campaign that surpassed its goal to raise $44.8 million. Most significantly for future generations, Dr. Kahan raised almost $5 million in permanent endowment funds for purchases of art; there were no funds for art purchases when he arrived in1986.
In addition to the collection, four exhibitions will be on view in the galleries. The Adolph Gottlieb exhibition is the third exhibition Dr. Kahan has brought to the museum to feature one of the leading American Abstract Expressionists; viewers previously enjoyed Lee Krasner and Hans Hofmann exhibitions. Dr. Kahan says that viewers will be surprised to learn that Adolph Gottlieb, foremost 20th century abstract expressionist painter, also made sculpture. Adolph Gottlieb: Sculptor pairs the artist’s late-career paintings with his three-dimensional work, which share an interest in gravity, motion and suspension.
Featuring artists at the forefront of contemporary glass, New Artifacts: Works by Brent Kee Young and Sungsoo Kim pays tribute to the 50th anniversary of the studio class movement , which began in 1962 with the Toledo Glass Workshops. Robert Stivers: Veiled Image , drawn from the museum’s impressive photography collection, elicits deep emotions through shadowy images of mysterious worlds. The Anniversary Show: Commemorative Art through the Years , also on view, is part of the museum’s ongoing 90th anniversary celebration. It features work commissioned from artists over several decades to commemorate museum milestones and special events.