After years of workers complaints and excessive attrition, Gaëtane Verna is not the chief director on the Wexner Middle for the Arts, Ohio State College’s (OSU) up to date artwork establishment.
OSU despatched Hyperallergic Provost Ravi Bellamkonda’s e-mail to Wexner Middle workers, during which she states that Verna “was stepping away from her position” as of right this moment, October 29. The information got here lower than every week after the Columbus-based Dispatch reported that not solely had the establishment amassed a $1.1 million deficit in fiscal yr 2024, however over a dozen workers members had signed a letter expressing a vote of no confidence in Verna’s management to Bellamkonda on the finish of the summer season.
Hyperallergic has contacted Verna, OSU, and the Wexner Middle for remark.
Verna departed from the position shortly earlier than finishing her third yr. She was appointed to steer the Wexner in November 2022 after a decade because the director and creative director of the Energy Plant Modern Artwork Gallery in Toronto.
Talking underneath situation of anonymity final yr, 4 former and present workers gave interviews to Hyperallergic about their experiences with Verna in her position. Along with stories of “low workers morale” and “poor management,” a number of sources alleged that Verna had a observe document of screaming at or belittling workers in conferences, making impulsive monetary and curatorial selections with little to no warning or rationalization, and lashing out at anybody whose curatorial and operational opinions contrasted with hers.
Per college paperwork offered by one of many sources in 2024, there was a 28% workers turnover in lower than two years after Verna’s appointment. Staff with over 20 years of service underneath their belt resigned from the Wexner alongside those that accepted demotions in numerous fields, and others who give up with nothing lined up in any respect. The staff-signed letter to the college provost, which was initially publicized by Matter Information, states that as of August 2025, almost half of the Wexner Middle’s workers has departed from the middle since Verna’s appointment. Seven of 24 trustees are not on the board, the letter additionally said.
Issues concerning the Wexner’s monetary well being have skyrocketed internally as the middle accomplished Fiscal Yr 2024 brief roughly $2.5 million of its anticipated earnings, Dispatch reported, thus yielding a million-dollar deficit. The Dispatch reviewed the Wexner Middle Basis board’s monetary stories and noticed that the middle spent $365,000 on an internet site overhaul, $185,000 on a brand new projector, and $1 million on “unspecified capital expenditures.”
The Columbus information outlet additionally reported, as did the workers letter, that the college issued a “crimson card” to the middle round June of this yr as a result of its monetary instabilities.
Regardless of the financial issues afflicting the Wexner, some present workers members allege that Verna prioritizes initiatives that they imagine would dig the middle additional into its gap — together with a near-million greenback proposal to transform the museum’s retailer right into a multifunctional classroom and makerspace, and spending directing the usage of a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars} to develop exhibition catalogues from previous and offsite exhibits.
Verna was additionally accused of nixing different researched and accredited initiatives on the drop of a hat. Former worker Tammy Eckard, who labored as an accessibility specialist for the Wexner for 13 months, instructed Matter Information that her initiative to have the middle make sensory-inclusive kits accessible to guests was slated for ultimate approval till Verna “axe[d] it out of nowhere,” after which tried to have her reprimanded by her direct supervisor after she tried to arrange a gathering with Verna straight concerning the resolution. Hyperallergic has tried to contact Eckard for remark.
Forward of Verna’s departure, workers on the Wexner Middle have additionally alleged difficulties in having the college acknowledge and appropriately deal with their complaints.
These sentiments have been reiterated in August’s workers letter, which alleges that many workers had raised considerations “via conferences, emails, and nameless complaints by way of the net confidential reporting instrument,” and likewise “sought out psychological well being help from the Worker Help Program.”
“Regardless of these efforts, no passable decision has been reached,” the letter reads.
Particulars relating to interim management on the Wexner have but to be introduced. Bellamkonda wrote in his e-mail that he requested Senior Vice Provost for Tutorial Affairs Trevor Brown to “assist information this transition in shut collaboration with the middle’s management staff.”
