The museum highlighted the three members’ experience in philanthropy, contemporary art and business leadership.

TOLEDO, Ohio — The Toledo Museum of Art announced on Wednesday the appointment of three new members to its Board of Directors. 

In a press release, the museum named Susan Conda, Sheree Hovsepian and Sydney Williams, Ph.D. as its newest board members. The museum highlighted the three members’ experience in philanthropy, contemporary art and business leadership. 

“Our Board exists to be the voice of the community at the Museum,” TMA Board President Mike Thaman said in the press release. “Everything the Toledo Museum of Art has done is the result of the work of the board members who came before us. Susan, Sydney, and Sheree will now join us to carry that responsibility forward.”

TMA said Conda brings local volunteer and philanthropic experience from the Perrysburg/Maumee area, whose work across the Toledo area has strengthened mental health support and inclusive programming. Her experiences include founding the Hope and Recovery Pets Program with ProMedica, the co-founding of “Meet Me” at the Toledo Zoo and support of the integration of the arts with science, technology, engineering and math at the Mazza Museum of the University of Findlay. 

Conda’s previous TMA experience includes her membership at the Georgia Welles Apollo Society, service on the Museum’s Education Committee from 2021 to 2024, and her generous support of the museum’s accessibility initiatives – including the endowment of the Conda Family Manager of Access initiatives, TMA said. 

Hovsepian brings to the board a multidisciplinary art practice from New York City that includes photography, collage, drawing and sculpture that explores the human form and identity. Born in Iran, she also has local ties, having earned a dual BFA/BA at the University of Toledo. She also earned an MFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago and studied at the Glasgow School of Art. TMA said Hovsepian’s work has been exhibited internationally, including a permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. 

Williams also has local ties: she is the president of Designetics, Inc., a Toledo-area fluid application systems business with clients in more than 60 countries. She earned a Ph.D. and a Master of Science in Psychology from the University of Phoenix, and Executive MBA from the University of Toledo and dual BFAs in Art History and Ceramics from Ohio State University. She also serves on boards in northwest Ohio, including the Dana Open, Boys & Girls Clubs of Toledo and the University of Toledo Family Business Center. 

“Susan, Sydney, and Sheree bring distinct perspectives to the Toledo Museum of Art Board of Directors alongside a shared commitment to our community and this institution,” said Thaman in the release. “We are excited to join them and grateful for the time, insight, and energy they are choosing to invest in this institution.”

The appointments come as the museum continues work on its reinstallation project, a significant process that has necessitated the closing of most of its galleries. The upcoming reinstallation will provide a chronological journey through art history, according to a press release from TMA last year, adding that it aims to tell a more accurate and inclusive history. The museum is expected to fully reopen in 2027, TMA told WTOL 11 in 2025. Most galleries closed earlier this year, while the Glass Pavilion across the street from the main museum remains open. 

TMA said the reinstallation is the first of its kind in the last 40 years of the museum’s history. Galleries will be arranged chronologically and include more areas to “sit, linger and look while exploring art.” Better lighting will also be installed, and a new temporary exhibition space will be constructed, the museum said.