Meet Wayne Atherholt, a Pennsylvania native who has been a true, influential fixture in the vibrant Bay Area arts arena, having over 20 years of experience in the museum and attractions business in the State of Florida. Recently given the distinguished title of Executive Director of the Morean Arts Center, Atherholt previously served as Interim Director of the popular downtown St. Petersburg arts center since 2011. This entailed overseeing the operations of four arts facilities in the city: The Chihuly Collection, The Morean Arts Center, the Morean Glass Studio and Hot Shop as well as the Morean Center for Clay.
Atherholt’s journey to Tampa Bay began in 1985 when he uprooted himself from Washington, DC where he earned a Master of Arts in International Communication from American University, after earning a Bachelor of Humanities in Multi-Media Journalism from Pennsylvania State University. He also worked for Agence France-Presse in DC for two years, which was the fourth largest international news organization at the time. He also spent time teaching hospitality, tourism and marketing courses as an adjunct professor at Schiller International University in Dunedin, Florida, and he also served as an instructor for Wardair Canada, Ltd., in Tampa, Toronto and London. When Atherholt arrived in Tampa Bay, he began his first major professional endeavor at the Salvador Dali Museum as their first Director of Marketing. “My interest in the Dali was not necessarily from an arts perspective, it was from an international perspective,” says Atherholt. “The Dali was probably the most significant thing that there was in the Tampa Bay area at the time, and probably still is today. So, I came at it because it was very interesting from an international standpoint.” For eight years Atherholt served as the museum’s Director of Marketing, overseeing growth from 100,000 visitors annually to 250,000 visitors of which 45% were international. His next big move in the Bay Area was in 1997 when he began serving as Vice President at Florida International Museum in St. Petersburg.
Atherholt’s impressive role as Vice President of the Museum was to create and market the many blockbuster exhibitions that frequented the museum, including Empires of Mystery, John F. Kennedy: The Exhibition, The Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as the largest attended exhibition in Florida’s history, Titanic: The Exhibition, which was attended by 830,019 visitors in six months.
In 2001, after four years as Vice President at Florida International Museum in St. Pete, Atherholt took his talents over to Tampa to take on the crucial role of Vice President of the Museum of Science and Industry. He was responsible for overseeing a $5 million annual revenue budget in a range of departments.
“I went over to MOSI to head up their retail enterprises, and I helped build up their catering business, and the food service business, and the vending, which was a fairly large chunk of revenue there with a terrific team of staff,” says Atherholt. “I also personally recruited the Bay Area Renaissance Festival and brought them to Hillsborough County.
Atherholt spent four years at MOSI doing tremendous work and developing new revenue streams for the popular Tampa museum. In the spring of 2005, he relocated to Daytona Beach and served as the Executive Director for the Museum of Arts and Sciences where he was a huge asset.
“I built a children’s science center at the Museum of Arts and Sciences as well as a visible storage facility, went through re-accreditation with the American Alliance of Museums and hosted an Egyptian exhibition from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and did an Egyptian exhibit as well
as some other things there,” says Atherholt. “But then I got to a point in my life where I wanted to come back to St. Petersburg.”
That’s when Atherholt decided it was time to return to good old St. Pete. About two and a half years ago he moved back and started working as the Marketing Director for the Morean Arts Center, then Interim Director, and more recently he stepped into the important role of Executive Director. This entails overseeing the operations of the four arts facilities including the arts education classes in St. Pete and “trying to make [the arts center] a better place,” as Atherholt says.
With over 20 years experience in the museum and attractions business, Atherholt has been a major working part in so many awe-inspiring and educational exhibits, attractions and events, in not only the Bay Area, but the state. His new role as Executive Director will surely provide the community with much more stunning art and unforgettable attractions. “The joy [in being the
Executive Director] really is to be able to see a difference, with not just the kids but the adults too,” says Atherholt. “Something opens up to them and you don’t know how you’ve really touched or affected them.”
Story by Sarah Meitz • Photos by Renee Roos
Date: December 2, 2013