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Key Takeaways The Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio launched COVE in 2017.
COVE aims to lower workplace incidents and funnels revenue to the museum.
The business’s workshop model and modules contribute to ongoing growth.
What can a Fortune 500 company learn from an art museum? Quite a lot, it turns out.
The Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio (TMA) has spent the past decade building its business, the Center of Visual Expertise (COVE), which educates employees on visual literacy, allowing them to spot and avoid hazards on the job.
In 2024, employers reported roughly 2.5 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in private industry and more than 5,000 fatal work-related injuries across all sectors, according to the most recent available data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
COVE’s benefits are significant and twofold: Not only does the business help reduce workplace incidents, but it has also generated millions of dollars for TMA over the past several years, during a time when museums are facing financial pressures and decreased attendance.
“ We were attracted not just to the revenue potential, but to the idea that art historical expertise could be productized in a way that keeps people safer and saves lives,” TMA director Adam M. Levine says. “As art historians, we are helping people go home in the same position they come to work, [and that’s] sort of magic.”
Image Credit: Jennifer Beachy. COVE’s chairman and managing director Doug Pontsler, left, and TMA’s director Adam Levine, right.
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