Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com December 21, 2015 • Hartford Business Journal 3 By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com B efore taking the job seven years ago managing Hartford's and the nation's oldest cultural museum, Susan L. Tal- bott recalls two episodes that gave her a raw taste of the scope of the task she was about to tackle. Arriving at Bradley International Airport for her interview, she directed a cab driver to take her to the Wadsworth Atheneum down- town. He didn't know where it was. The other occurred after she was hired but days before Talbott started work as its CEO and chief curator, during an unannounced visit to the 171-year-old museum. A volunteer at the front desk refused Talbott, who was dressed casually in blue jeans and insisting on using her reciprocal museum card, to enter free of charge, until a supervisor intervened. "I knew from that experience that two things needed to happen,'' said Talbott, 66, who will retire as the Atheneum's CEO on Dec. 31. "One, [public relations] and marketing were going to be a real issue I had to take seriously. Two, that the whole public face of the museum was going to have to undergo a transformation before we could attract the visitors we were targeting.'' Talbott says resolving those issues are her proudest accomplishments during her tenure. Several trustees also credit her with making the museum more inviting to inner-city residents, reopening to the public parts of its collection, and a "renewed appetite'' for enlarging its inventory. But most of all, Talbott says, launching and completing the five-year, $33 million expan- sion/renovation, that debuted on Nov. 19, is her grandest achievement. The expansion added nearly a third to the museum's footprint. "We've received incredible national, even international press, all praising our efforts,'' said the married Bloomfield resident, who will be replaced as CEO by Thomas J. Lough- man, from the Clark Art Institute in Massachu- setts. "And essentially, you'd have to ignore the media not to know where the Wadsworth Atheneum is." Talbott landed at the Atheneum May 1, 2008, just before the bottom fell out of the global and national economies, eventually pulling New England and Connecticut into the downdraft. The museum was struggling, too. Reliant mainly on a suburban pool of art visitors, the Wadsworth's sporadic traffic — and revenues — suffered, too, as patrons' wallets tightened. In addition, the museum's aging infrastruc- ture and unsettled finances forced it to close off some galleries, putting valuable paintings, sculptures, photos and textiles into storage. Against that backdrop, Talbott set to work. Her four goals: Continuing the Athene- um's artistic mission; providing fiscal stabil- ity; broadening community engagement, par- ticularly with Hartford's inner-city residents; and upgrading/expanding its facilities. To that end, all of the Atheneum's paid and volunteer staff were retrained in customer ser- vice. Those who couldn't adapt left, she said. Meantime, the museum's board of trustees finance committee and the finance staff collab- orated to conduct more frequent and rigorous reviews of the museum's monthly revenues and budget to avoid any yearend fiscal surprises. The Atheneum's budget in recent years has ranged from $7 million to $10 million, ending each in the black; this year, it is $7 million and is on track to finish in the black, she said. To save on energy and reduce the steep util- ity price increases, the Atheneum installed its own energy plant, the debt for which the muse- um is close to retiring. "I run the museum with a conservative fis- cal policy,'' Talbott said. Whenever the museum appears headed off the fiscal tracks, a cadre of "generous support- ers'' has stepped up to fill any holes, Talbott said. Farmington orthopedic surgeon Duffield Ashmead, who chairs the Atheneum's curato- rial committee, credits Talbott with restoring its roots and reinvigorating its acquisition of a wide spectrum of works. The museum's new additions had dwindled prior to her arrival, Ashmead said. "One of the Atheneum's claims to fame from the outset,'' he said, "is that it has collected the art of its times. It has always been on the cutting edge of what was considered new and ground- breaking. It's a core strength of the Atheneum.'' Ashmead said that on Talbott's watch some 600 pieces were acquired or gifted to the muse- um, among them contemporary works — Tal- bott's personal passion — from acclaimed art- ists Georgia O'Keefe and Trinity College alum Richard Tuttle, plus cinema and video art. Vito's By e Park Vito's Pizzaria Vito's by the Water Book your holiday party or catered event for 25 people or more and we'll hook you up with a $100 gift card to start your new year right. use promo code: HBJ Order Online or Make a Reservation at VitosCT.com Continued Retiring Talbott makes her last strokes as the Atheneum's chief curator P H O T O | A L L E N P H I L L I P S Susan L. Talbott is retiring on New Year's Eve after seven years as CEO of Hartford's and America's leading cultural gem, the Wadsworth Atheneum.

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