Jon Cook, founding executive director of the McConnell Arts Center, retired at the end of December. Mary Gray, director of the Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery, followed him out the metaphorical door at the end of January.
It so happens that Cook and Gray have been friends for years. Both have had a profound effect on the arts in central Ohio, and though neither is likely to use those words about himself or herself, each will readily apply those compliments and more to the other.
Photos courtesy of McConnell Arts Center and Ronald Hoehn
Jon Cook
When Cook took the reins at the McConnell, it was still in the process of transforming from an annex building to Thomas Worthington High School.
It’s appropriate, then, that Cook was brought in as executive director, because heading up an arts organization was a transformation for him, too. He had friends in the central Ohio arts community, but had not worked in it himself, at the time working at the Mortar Board national honor society.
Still, when he found out the volunteer group heading up the McConnell project needed someone at the helm – he mentions former Ohio Arts Council Executive Director Wayne Lawson as a key influence – he began a successful pursuit that would result in nine years of leadership. Cook lauds that initial group of volunteers’ vision, innovation and fundraising acumen for getting the endeavor off the ground.
Cook worked to make certain that all classes were of high quality, with well-qualified instructors, and began identifying potential candidates, starting out with BalletMet and its dance studio.
“I knew that there was a plethora of talent, and started to look at how we would fill that space with it,” Cook says.
Cook works on outreach with visitors to the McConnell’s gallery space.
As difficult as that early work was, these days, the McConnell has the opposite problem: a vast array of great programming opportunities, with a limited amount of time and space.
Then there’s the center’s 213-seat performing arts space. Over the years, it’s hosted solo musicians, first-run films, bands, dance troupes, theater troupes and – now in its sixth season – the McConnell Arts Center Chamber Orchestra.
Finally, there’s the center’s visual arts galleries. For those, Cook worked to focus on connections to central Ohio, as well as on oversight – ensuring every exhibition makes sense for the facility, and offers an experience that visitors couldn’t find elsewhere. The galleries also opted into an overall philosophy of having as much open space as possible for visitors.
“Having the building open, free to the public … is important for us as a community arts center,” says Cook.
One of Cook’s go-to points of pride over his term at the McConnell is the exchange exhibition with Worthington’s sister city – Sayama, Japan – that brought Japanese artists to Worthington and central Ohio artists to Sayama in 2012-13.
“(About) a million people saw this exhibit,” Cook says. “For our local art community to be involved in that was super cool.”
Cook hopes part of the McConnell’s legacy will be the influence its success has on other central Ohio communities. He’s been approached by groups in Grove City, Westerville, Gahanna, Hilliard and more as they have tried to take steps toward growing their own community art centers.
Cook’s immediate post-retirement plans have focused on travel – he and his husband, Eric Boardson, went to Curacao in February – but beyond that, he’s considering getting on the creative end of art, having put so much time into the administrative end.
An arrangement between the McConnell Arts Center Chamber Orchestra and Glass Axis led to this collaboration – one of Cook’s favorites – featuring a glassblowing demonstration and a performance by the orchestra.
Photos courtesy of Ohio Arts Council and Terry Gilliam
Mary Gray
Gray has been director of the Riffe Gallery since 2001, but she started with the gallery as the assistant coordinator – its first full-time employee – in 1993.
One might think of a long list of adjectives to describe someone who has been such an influential part of the OAC’s official gallery for a quarter-century, but Gray can only think of one that truly fits.
“I’ve been very, very lucky to be part of so many artists’ lives over the last 26 years,” she says.
In contrast to Cook, Gray has spent the majority of her adult life in arts administration, going from Players Theatre Columbus to the OAC grants office in 1993, then quickly moving to the gallery after realizing that sitting behind a desk wasn’t for her.
“I really wanted to have a job with a little more physical activity and dealing with more people face to face,” she says.
She became director when her then-boss, Beth Fisher, left OAC and told Gray – per Gray herself – that she “needed to be called a director to be taken seriously.”
Art workshops such as this one are among Gray’s favorite memories of her time as Riffe Gallery director.
One of the major highlights of her time at the gallery was being part of OAC’s one-time international program, which allowed her to work on exhibitions traveling to and from Israel, Chile, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic and more.
She also fondly remembers three exhibitions organized in conjunction with the University of Findlay’s Mazza Museum, the premier gallery for the work of children’s book illustrators, which were not only visually stunning but drew some very fun crowds of young people.
Gray has worked hard to ensure the gallery features artists representing a diverse picture of Ohio, making a point in recent years to never focus on one specific corner of the state. Working with local-level arts organizations has broadened horizons for patrons and artists alike; Gray loves hearing, after an exhibition has closed, that some of the artists featured in it have decided to collaborate with each other, or that people in one part of the state have been fascinated by the arts scene in another.
“I think we’ve helped stimulate interest in what’s happening across the state due to our exhibits,” she says.
Gray is also proud of the understanding the gallery has fostered among patrons through artist lectures, talks, workshops and classes.
“We’ve given people the opportunity to try metal sculpture or glass mosaic or quiltmaking,” she says. “Not only are they surrounded by it, they actually get to try it with their own two hands.”
Now that she’s retired, Gray plans to get involved in more live theater, a longtime passion that she didn’t have as much time for when she was at the gallery. In fact, on the encouragement of Producing Director Steven Anderson, she’ll be part of CATCO’s Life Sucks., running March 20-April 7 at Studio One in the Riffe Center. Her husband, Dan, will be doing scenic design.
She also briefly joined Cook in Curacao in February.
Gray (front left corner) poses with artists and organizers connected to the Riffe Gallery’s 2017 After Hours exhibition, featuring the work of state government employees.
Garth Bishop is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
