Arab American National Museum Director Devon Akmon stands at the entrance of AANM’s permanent Coming To America exhibit which features the Adnan Charara sculpture (left) in 2013.
By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — Former Arab American National Museum Director Devon Akmon has taken a position as a senior consultant at the DeVos Institute of Arts Management in Washington, D.C.
According to the Associated Press, Akmon “is expected to focus on planning, fundraising and community engagement. He also will teach and consult through the organization’s national capacity building programs and Global Arts Management Fellowship.
Akmon served as director for five years, beginning in 2013 and spent a total of 13 years at the museum after stepping down May 31. He announced his resignation as director on April 3.
Straight after college he joined the museum as a curator of community history in 2005 and then was promoted to deputy director in 2009.
The 41-year-old earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Michigan State University and a master’s in historic preservation planning from Eastern Michigan University.
Since Akmon’s promotion to director in 2013, museum highlights over the last five years include exhibitions “Patriots & Peacemakers: Arab Americans in Service to Our Country,” which traveled to the State Department and the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.; and “Little Syria, N.Y: An Immigrant Community’s Life & Legacy,” which was shown at the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration.
The museum also opened a new 4,700-square-foot annex space next do the museum as part of its 10-year anniversary in 2015 to grow the museum’s reach.
In 2017, the AANM started its artists’ residency in partnership with Artspace City Hall Lofts across the street, providing a place for international artists to work and live.
The museum operates under the non-profit ACCESS which is looking for its next director as listed on its career page.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected].)