Introduction from Akron Art Museum
The word museum brings to mind quiet galleries and esoteric artworks. While galleries are important, the Akron Art Museum understands that museums are also about our patrons.
In 2020, when the Museum closed to the public, our team stepped back to consider how the galleries meet the needs of our community. COVID-19 challenged many aspects of everyday life, making uncertainty the only constant. The need to limit in-person interactions impacted the Museum’s main ways of sharing art with our community. Works from the Akron Art Library could not be checked out. Visits to the Museum’s galleries could not happen.
The gift of art seemed the ideal antidote to the challenges facing our community. The team commissioned dozens of local artists and writers to produce small, postcard-sized artworks. These works added thought-provoking beauty to people’s lives. They could be mailed, so patrons could pass these gifts on to others. Community members were encouraged to create their own mail art to share with our on-site visitors once the Museum reopened.
Akron Art Mail exemplified the role of museums in our society. Museums are organizations that foster creativity, thought, beauty, and innovation. They are places that continue to engage, even when society transforms completely. Because, in the end, museums are about the people we serve.
Seema Rao
Deputy Director & Chief Experience Officer
Akron Art Museum
In 2020, when the Museum closed to the public, our team stepped back to consider how the galleries meet the needs of our community. COVID-19 challenged many aspects of everyday life, making uncertainty the only constant. The need to limit in-person interactions impacted the Museum’s main ways of sharing art with our community. Works from the Akron Art Library could not be checked out. Visits to the Museum’s galleries could not happen.
The gift of art seemed the ideal antidote to the challenges facing our community. The team commissioned dozens of local artists and writers to produce small, postcard-sized artworks. These works added thought-provoking beauty to people’s lives. They could be mailed, so patrons could pass these gifts on to others. Community members were encouraged to create their own mail art to share with our on-site visitors once the Museum reopened.
Akron Art Mail exemplified the role of museums in our society. Museums are organizations that foster creativity, thought, beauty, and innovation. They are places that continue to engage, even when society transforms completely. Because, in the end, museums are about the people we serve.
Seema Rao
Deputy Director & Chief Experience Officer
Akron Art Museum