{"id":14044,"date":"2025-11-29T16:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T21:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/?p=14044"},"modified":"2025-12-01T11:13:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T16:13:23","slug":"the-good-and-bad-my-experience-at-the-dayton-art-institute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2025\/11\/the-good-and-bad-my-experience-at-the-dayton-art-institute\/","title":{"rendered":"The Good and Bad: My Experience at the Dayton Art Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time I visited the Dayton Art Institute<\/a> was an unpleasant experience. I grew up in Dayton and was intimate with its collection. I was disappointed upon discovering that the collection had been rearranged to reflect woke bromides. At bottom, woke means aligning with NGO-supported and government-mandated policies. In other words, it’s where the money is. Many people believe it’s the virtue signalling perk that attracts people to wokeism, but really, it’s the money. The virtue-signalling perk is the cherry on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My recent visit brought more bad news, but there is also good news, so let’s start with the latter. The thing most people know about Dayton is that it is the home of the Wright brothers. Dayton was the central hub of early aeronautical research, testing, and manufacturing. Dayton had money, and the Institute’s beautiful Italian Renaissance-inspired building reflects this. Dayton still has museum-donating funds, as evidenced by recent updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/span>Cleveland Museum of Art Opens Renovations<\/span><\/a><\/div>

They added new galleries to house Contemporary exhibitions and updated the lobby and museum store. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The permanent collection is once again organized by era and region, rather than by grievance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/span>In the Studio Oct. 14 2012<\/span><\/a><\/div>

Don’t get too excited about the Contemporary showcase, though. For Progressives, the past is a bad place only visited for ideological purposes. The amphorous “Contemporary times” begin roughly around the birth of mass media — the 1950s. If you’ve seen one “contemporary” exhibition, you’ve seen them all. I’m not exaggerating. The only differences between 2025 and 1985 are that the curators are hugely credentialed and the exhibitors are exclusively women, minorities, and other grievance groups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other bad news, the Institute’s website is still abysmal. If anything, it crashes more often than it did several years ago when I last visited. It still<\/em> has works that are not cataloged in the online reference. Worst of all is the shockingly amateurish quality of the artwork reproductions. Take a look at some of these out-of-focus and clumsy examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read more<\/span>Cleveland Museum of Art Staff Exhibition<\/span><\/a><\/div>

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Institute might be better off if it invested its budget in professional photographers rather than in the army of greeters and staff milling about the foyer during our visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/span>In the Studio—10\/28\/12<\/span><\/a><\/div>

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last time I visited the Dayton Art Institute was an unpleasant experience. I grew up in Dayton and was intimate with its collection. I was disappointed upon discovering that the collection had been rearranged to reflect woke bromides. At bottom, woke means aligning with NGO-supported and government-mandated policies. In other words, it’s where the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":14067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-museum","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/L3.2017.1.jpeg?fit=500%2C375&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":320,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2012\/11\/dayton-art-institute-fail\/","url_meta":{"origin":14044,"position":0},"title":"Dayton Art Institute\u2014Fail","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"November 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Dayton Art Institute is handsomely situated on a hill above the Great Miami River.\u00a0 The museum\u2019s beautiful Italianate main wing provides a remarkable view of the Dayton skyline.\u00a0 Travelers along I-75 passing beneath the museum\u2019s imposing\u00a0facade can't help but be intrigued by the marvelous piece of architecture. The museum\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art Museums"","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4473,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/robert-koepnick-sculptor\/","url_meta":{"origin":14044,"position":1},"title":"Robert Koepnick, sculptor","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"December 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was in high school, my regular habit was to take the bus downtown from my suburban home outside Dayton, Ohio. After rambling about, I always went to the library to read and study. Haunting libraries was a habit I developed from\u00a0my earliest days. Anyway, above the entrance to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art Museums"","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Kop-DAI.jpg?fit=427%2C479&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":307,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2012\/11\/robert-smith\/","url_meta":{"origin":14044,"position":2},"title":"Robert Smith","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"November 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Smith was an American artist who died in 1985.\u00a0 When I knew him, he already was an elderly man.\u00a0 He lived with his teenage son in Kettering, Ohio in a French chateau-type building that seemed the height of romance to a high school kid, which was what I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art Museums"","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"robert_smith","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/robert_smith.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":832,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/carl-gaertner\/","url_meta":{"origin":14044,"position":3},"title":"Carl Gaertner","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"January 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday was a lucky day--I discovered an artist new to me: Carl Gaertner\u00a0(1898-1952). \u00a0Gaertner's reputation is almost entirely local \u00a0to Cleveland, as \u00a0Robert Smith's is confined to\u00a0Dayton. Gaertner was born in Cleveland and lived in and around there until his death. \u00a0He taught for many years at the Cleveland Institute\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gaertner: oil","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/gaertner-winter.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/gaertner-winter.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/gaertner-winter.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":536,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2012\/12\/mother-nursing-infant\/","url_meta":{"origin":14044,"position":4},"title":"Painting: Mother Nursing Infant","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"December 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This is an older painting from the gallery. Working on a painting, I get it to a certain point then put it aside.\u00a0 I rarely finish a painting, even a small one, in a single sitting.\u00a0 The task is to remain objective without becoming over critical of oneself, which can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bio"","block_context":{"text":"Bio","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/bio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1052,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/gaertner-at-the-cleveland-museum-of-art\/","url_meta":{"origin":14044,"position":5},"title":"Gaertner at the Cleveland Museum of Art","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"February 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm an idiot, but you already knew that. After writing about discovering Frederick Gaertner in this post, I belatedly realized I had seen--on numerous\u00a0occasions, no less--one of his paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art. \u00a0For some reason, I never connected that Gaertner with my Gaertner discovered at the Bonfoey\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art Museums"","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Furnace by Gaertner ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/gaertner-cai.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/gaertner-cai.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/gaertner-cai.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gw6F-3Ew","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14044"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14078,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14044\/revisions\/14078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}