Dayton Art Institute to offer free admission to nurses on Sunday

The free admission days begin this Sunday, Sept. 20 and continue through August 2021.

Free admission days for the remainder of 2020 are:

Nurses working at the main campus locations of each hospital may show their hospital identification badge at DAI’s Guest Services Desk to receive one free regular adult admission on the designated days.

“Our healthcare professionals have been working tirelessly on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic over the past several months,” said Dayton Art Institute Director & CEO Michael R. Roediger in a news release. “This generous gift to underwrite free admission for area nurses give us a way of saying ‘thank you’ for the many long hours spent helping those affected by this pandemic.”

The gift was given in memory of Dayton resident and longtime registered nurse Sajona M. Weaver, who died in 2019. Weaver worked as a nursing instructor at schools in the Dayton area including Sinclair Community College. Many of her former students are employed at Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton Children’s Hospital and Kettering Medical Center.

Weaver also had a passion for art. She was an amateur painter and opened an art gallery during the revitalization of the historic Oregon district in the mid-1970s and frequented art museums throughout her life. She was also an avid gardener.

Her son, Chris Orndorff, came up with the idea to tie together her interests in art and gardening by sponsoring, in her honor, the exhibition Archiving Eden: Dornith Doherty Photographs, which is currently on view at the Dayton Art Institute.

Orndorff and his wife, Virginia, donated the funds to provide the free admission for nurses.

“We wanted to say ‘thank you’ to all the nurses at Miami Valley, Children’s and Kettering, who have done so much for the community,” Orndorff said in a news release. “My Mom was always proud of the accomplishments of her students. And she was proud of Dayton and the Art Institute. We are delighted to honor her in this way.”