Don Drumm Retrospective Celebrates 55 Years of Akron Artist’s Far-Ranging Oeuvre of Eye-Catching Artworks

Sixty years ago, Don Drumm found himself wearing a hard hat and clambering around precariously ten stories above the Bowling Green State University (BGSU) campus.

As the university’s first artist-in-residence from 1965 to 1971, Don had been tasked with creating an eight-story and a ten-story sandblasted concrete mural on the east and west sides, respectively, of the university library–which would later be named for Wm. T. Jerome, who was  BGSU’s president at that time.

“The challenge of doing the work is what drives me to be creative,” says Drumm, now 91.

In addition to the large-scale library panoramas, Don also designed murals for the Saddlemire Student Services, Psychology, and Education buildings.

His goal, Don said later, was to create “a stimulating environment in which to learn…. What I did on campus is educational, broadening, enriching and deepening to the lives of the students.”

Last year, Bowling Green spent $1 million restoring the magnificent and vivid Jerome Library structures visible from miles away.

At the ceremony for the completion of the project, a woman who had been a gym teacher at the university in 1966 told Don’s daughter Leandra that she would watch her father at work every day. “I wasn’t looking at the art,” she said. “I was looking at the sheer athleticism of that man creating on that building.”

“I was much younger then,” Don dryly comments.

His late wife Lisa had warned him that he would fear being ten stories high, so he started on the fifth floor. After a while he got so comfortable scampering around on the scaffolding along the library walls that he even accidentally dropped his hard hat and watched it bounce and bong all the way down to the ground.

“That’s when I knew I had overcome my fear,” he recalls.

This fall, sans the BGSU library murals, the Don Drumm Studios and Gallery in Akron will hold a special exhibit representing a lifetime of the iconic Akron artist’s sculptures and artworks: Reflections: A Drumm Retrospective from September 26 to October 24.

The exhibition will showcase a diverse range of Don’s early works, highlighting his role as a pioneer in cast aluminum and contemporary building materials and techniques for the creation of arts and crafts.

“The main thing I so appreciate in Don’s work is the breadth of his career and the ability he’s had to bring fine art to a broad public and make art that’s affordable,” says Jeff Katzin, PhD, senior curator, Akron Art Museum, where he curated an exhibit of Don’s work in 2022.

The museum owns four Drumm sculptures that range in size from 10 and three-quarter inches to eight feet tall.

“Given that Don has such a stature and a following around the city of Akron, I’m glad his work is represented in the Akron Art Museum’s collection,” Katzin says.

According to Leandra, her father’s early work is primarily recognized for its non-objective, mid-century Modern Brutalism—a style defined by raw metals with exposed welding marks, heavy geometric forms, and textured surfaces. Brutalism emerged from modernism and rose to prominence in the 1950s following World War II.

“I’m interested in nonobjective art, which is art without subject matter,” Don explains. “It’s an art form I’ve held to most strongly most of my career. It’s a direction that allows me freedom of shape and form without having to tell a story.”

As part of the retrospective, the gallery will rerelease a limited number of pieces from this significant time period.

Additionally, Don and Leandra are currently collaborating on a new project. Together, they are revisiting and reimagining classic designs to create a unique collection that blends a brutalist aesthetic with a whimsical twist. These exclusive new creations will debut and be featured during the Reflections show.

The exhibit will also feature a selection of pieces from the family’s private collection, although those works will not be for sale.

Throughout their partnership, Don and Lisa, who died at 89 last July, collaborated on numerous projects, including unique cast aluminum pieces adorned with macrame textile art and beadwork. Lisa was also well-known for her soft sculptures, which, Leandra says, were always infused with her gift for storytelling.

In 1971, after Don left his position at BGSU, he and Lisa started what became the rambling multi-structure facility today.

Initially, the young couple purchased an auto body shop, which Don converted to a foundry to cast his sculptures. It also had great personal significance to him, since he learned at his father’s side while growing up in Warren. His father ran an auto body shop and taught Don how to weld, cut, and shape metal, skills he later employed to produce his artworks.

“My dad was a genius auto mechanic,” Don says. “The place reminded me of his garage, so I had a good feeling.”

According to Toni Billick (gallery co-manager, aluminum manager and artist), Lisa taught art during the day and managed the bookkeeping at night, which provided Don with the freedom to focus on his creative work. Lisa also cared for their three daughters.

As the daughter of acclaimed Erie, Pennsylvania artist Joseph Plavcan, Lisa was well-prepared for this partnership.

In 1978, she left her teaching position to become the full-time gallery manager. In 1980, the Drumms purchased and renovated an old neighborhood grocery store, which became the Different Drummer.

Today, the Different Drummer is one of two of the eight buildings on the residential campus that enclose visitors in a warm and most welcoming ambiance. The spaces overflow with artworks and crafts from more than 600 American artists, and friendly, knowledgeable employees passionate about the Drumm family’s works assist customers.

The other buildings furnish office and staff space, along with studios where Leandra can create her glass and metal artworks. Don has a separate studio in a home across the street from the gallery and shops.

“I come every day and work, and when I get tired, I go home, usually around 5:30 pm,” Don says.

In a 1968 interview with Bowling Green Today, Don discussed his signature intense work ethic that went on to enable him to fashion thousands of pieces large and small: “I always tell myself after each job is completed that I will take a few days off. I tell myself that I have earned a mental rest. But I always wind up going to the studio the day after the job is done, even if it’s only to sweep the floor.”

Early on, before they were able to hire staff, Don would run both the studio and gallery.

“I would work in the foundry in back,” Don recalls. “Then somebody would come in, and I would go and open the gallery for them to look around, so that’s how the gallery got going.”

Today, the gallery complex is co-owned by Leandra and her husband, Tim Benninghoff. They use an off-site foundry to cast any larger works.

“Hopefully, we’re doing a good job,” Leandra says. “But what makes my dad happy is having the ability and the space and time to create. We bring him food so he can keep working. The staff is constantly bringing in treats from their sharing table.”

When asked if he thinks the rambling studio space replete with shop tools, benches and various pieces under construction where he works every day is organized, Don responds with a twinkle in his eyes: “Does it look organized? There’s stuff here. I know where it is. That’s it.”

In his shirt pocket, he always carries a small notebook to jot ideas for new pieces.

“That’s my tool shed there,” he adds, indicating hand tools hanging on custom-made pegs on the wall within easy reach of his workbench. Everything has a coating of white powder. One of his stunning cast aluminum crucifixes hangs behind him on the wall.

Good friend and collector since the 1980s, Judge John R. Adams of the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Akron, says he loves the uniqueness of Don’s artworks.

“He is a prolific artist, always creating something new,” says the Akron jurist and art aficionado. “There’s some consistency to the material that he uses and some of his repetitive themes, but if you look at his body of work, he’s transformed himself in different ways over the years. He probably has thousands of pieces that he’s created.”

Judge Adams displays his collection of Drumm works in his chambers, courtroom, jury room, conference room and hallways leading to his courtroom.

“Don’s artwork creates a sense of calmness for the jurors, and it gives them something to look at,” he says. “Sometimes in stressful moments when they are deliberating a case or deciding someone’s verdict, it adds to a sense of calmness for the jurors.”

One of his favorites is a Great Seal of the United States that Don crafted for him in 2008.

“It is up behind my bench, and in the ribbon he has weaved ‘America, I am your bird,’ which obviously is not part of the original Great Seal, but Don is expressing his sense of humor,” Judge Adams says. “It’s a beautiful piece that I share smaller copies of as a gift to retirees and other employees to honor them on significant events.”

Don still enjoys telling the story of how he initially made the turn to a career in art after  pursuing pre-med studies at Hiram College in the early 50s and finding he lacked an affinity for calculus. When he took a shot at signing up for an arts class,  professor Mayo Johnson at first told him the class was full. When the dejected young Drumm told her he would have to drop out, she made room for him in the graphic design class. The rest is Akron art history.

In 1954, Drumm transferred to Kent State University, where he earned his BFA in 1956. Don then designed commercial products for Vinyl Mold Development. There he created the Arabesque line, which featured designs made from cast aluminum. This line was showcased at Raymour in both New York City and Chicago, a venue with a world-renowned reputation among modern art collectors.

Following the closure of Vinyl Mold Development in the 1960s, Don partnered with John Mazzola to establish Galleries 10. Together, they produced various pieces, most notably table designs crafted from cast aluminum and steel that were also featured at Raymour.

In 1965, after completing his Master of Fine Arts degree at KSU, Don was approached by the industrial arts department to participate in a campus project. In 1967, he received a grant from the National Defense Education Act to create a sculpture, resulting in Solar Totem #1. This fifteen-foot COR-TEN steel sculpture is located in front of Taylor Hall on campus.

On May 4, 1970, Solar Totem #1, was pierced by one of the 67 bullets shot during the infamous events in which four students were killed by Army National Guardsmen. While students were initially accused of being the shooters, Don later had a friend with a similar type of rifle reproduce the gunshot through a scrap piece of steel, providing evidence that the shot originated from the National Guardsmen rather than the students.

“As I looked around, I thought to myself, this is my school. This is my piece of sculpture that was fired into and there is blood all around it. That was a strong emotional experience for me personally,” Don remembered. “I asked that that bullet hole never be covered, that it remain as part of that sculpture as its own memorial.”

Those seeking to experience Don Drumm sculptures have ample opportunities.

Recently Don worked with the Quaker Square Redevelopment Group to restore some of his murals in the complex, including a locomotive with the number 308 emblazoned on the engine in honor of the police officer who guarded the buildings when he was creating the mural in the restaurant.

“At one main entrance I sculpted one head on the left side looking at five heads that I did with some realism on the other side that were built out of foam and carved in cement,” he says, adding with a slight smile, “somebody asked ‘what’s it stand for?’ I said ‘Well, that’s me looking at the five guys that said I wasn’t able to do the artwork down here.’”

Rising nineteen feet above the Valley View Area of Cascade Valley Metro Park, Don’s Sun Tracker sculpture is a stainless-steel piece featuring his iconic sun faces and mechanical parts that pay homage to the land’s farming history.

Solar images loom large in Don’s artworks for a foundational reason.

“A long time ago, somebody told me in art school that it was very difficult to design with circles, so I took that as a personal challenge that led me to take on the sunburst as my logo,” he once explained in an interview. “Sunbursts are really a spiritual thing for me because all life comes from the Sun, and the Sun image appears in every culture of the world.”

In 2018, Don partnered with another famous Akron resident to create a new sculpture that was installed outside the LeBron James Family Foundation’s I Promise School, at 400 West Market Street, just in time for the school’s dedication and opening on July 30, 2018.

The soaring fifteen-foot-tall Tree of Life sculpture stands as an inspiration to the Akron students who attend the all-time NBA great’s institution meant to keep them on track to a tuition-free education at the University of Akron after high school.

Or inquisitive admirers of his creations can simply peruse his artworks at Don Drumm Studios and Gallery, especially for their 55th anniversary retrospective this fall.

Be prepared to spend several hours browsing and studying Don’s beautifully designed and crafted works, along with the gallery’s carefully curated selection by various artists and craftworkers. Especially around the holidays.