NEWPORT BEACH : Contemporary Art Museum Gets Deed to Old Library and $500,000

The Newport Harbor Art Museum is $500,000 and a deed richer, thanks to contributions announced Wednesday.

Officials of the contemporary art museum say the gifts will help bring about a long-sought expansion that would more than double gallery space.

Irvine Co. Chairman Donald L. Bren, a member of the museum board, presented to museum officials the deed to the former Newport Beach Public Library, next-door to the museum at Newport Center.

Plans, first announced two years ago, call for the museum’s administrative offices to be moved into the library while the 17-year-old museum building is transformed into 18,000 to 19,000 square feet of galleries.

The museum also received a $500,000 matching grant from supporters Joan and Donald Beall, which kicks off a $6-million, five-year capital campaign to pay for the expansion.

Museum Board President James V. Selna said $2 million in cash and pledges already have been lined up.

The expansion--which still must be approved by the Newport Beach Planning Commission--would close the museum next year from April to November but, Selna said, would solve a longstanding problem of insufficient space for the simultaneous presentation of temporary exhibits and art from the museum’s permanent collection.

A second phase of the expansion, for which no date has been set, would entail construction in the library space of a children’s gallery, a 150-seat auditorium and classrooms.

Officials say educational programs would benefit from the expansion by creating space to display earlier artworks that would help put the museum’s contemporary art in context.