OCMA Revises Goals to Lure Chief Curator

Capping off a rocky year of resignations that started with the unexpected departure of its chief curator, the Orange County Museum of Art looks to the future with an updated mission and a new curator in mind.

The former Newport Harbor Art Museum has taken aggressive steps--including hiring a recruitment firm--to end an arduous, 15-month search by early next year for an in-house curator to produce original shows. Separately, it also changed the scope of its mission statement, removing the emphasis on California art and “the Orange County community” to reflect a broader vision.

The new mission describes “innovation” and “independent thinking” as the museum’s driving forces.

“We want to produce first-rate, high-quality exhibitions that have substance and are significant to this community,” said OCMA director Naomi Vine, who added that the museum’s exhibition history before and after its controversial 1996 merger with the Laguna Art Museum was anything but provincial. Previous shows featured the art of Korea, Vietnam and renowned contemporary artists, such as Peter Alexander and Robert Rauschenberg.

“Although our mission was never intended to require an exclusive focus on California art, it typically has been interpreted that way,” Vine said. “I think that we live in a global art world in much the same way we live in a global economy. . . . We certainly have a commitment to the art produced here in Southern California. We always have and we always will. But the way we characterize it, I think, has to change.”

Changes in the mission statement were to bring it up to date, Vine said, not to prime the museum for blockbuster exhibitions.

“We’ve never discussed doing blockbusters,” she said. “It’s certainly not the reason we changed our mission statement. There are no plans right now to bring in blockbuster shows.”

Vine also said that the museum will not abandon California art, which makes up 90% of the permanent collection, and that a lineup of upcoming exhibitions will feature major California artists.

“We feel a sense of responsibility to the artists who are living and working right here in our own backyard,” Vine said. “I can’t imagine that California art will ever not be a focus of what we’re doing.”

The decision to change the mission statement earlier this month paves the way to court the nation’s top curator candidates, museum officials said. Efforts to replace Bruce Guenther, who unexpectedly resigned from the chief curator post in September 1999 after eight years, have lagged.

“Many of the top curator candidates we’ve seen have great ideas, themes and strategies for exhibitions they want to do, and limiting it just to California art makes it hard to get a fit,” said Charles Martin, OCMA board chairman emeritus.

“We realized we needed to provide more flexibility for the talented new people we want to join our team. The response from the candidates has been positive, and they seem excited about the new mission, which confirms our decision for the revised statement.”

Headhunters Scout Up Potential Candidates

Two months ago, the museum hired a headhunting firm to help finish the national search for a chief curator--and possibly for two associate curators, Martin said. At least five candidates have been interviewed and a short-list is close at hand.

“We have a number of very exciting candidates [who] we’re in the advanced stages of talking to,” Martin said. “We’re all anxious to bring this search to closure. This is a big bet on the future of the museum and these are decisions that will affect the quality of the museum for the next five to 10 years. We need the leadership in the contemporary art arena.”

The role of an in-house curator is vital for OCMA. Curators dictate what the public sees and how people view the art. A curator works closely on all aspects of an exhibition, from programming and education to public relations. The top curator produces show catalogs, oversees the museum’s collection and plans the installation of exhibits.

Open year-round, OCMA offers temporary and touring exhibits at its 15,000-square-foot, expanded gallery space. The museum also keeps a continuous display of works from its 6,000-piece permanent collection of California art, which is unique in the region.

Guenther, who is now curator of modern and contemporary art at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, guest-curated OCMA’s current retrospective show by Corona del Mar artist Tony DeLap.

Guenther is credited as instrumental in the museum’s creation in 1997 of the Installation Gallery--designed to feature one artist’s exhibit at a time.

“It’s not unusual for a curator search to go on for a year because of the unique needs of the museum, Guenther said. “OCMA has a small staff and everyone has to wear multiple hats.”

Private Sector Offers Tough Competition

The museum is at a critical juncture; development director Joan Van Hooten, education director Maxine Gaiber and operations director Brian Gray resigned within the last six months.

So far, facilities manager Randy Everett and installation designer Brian Boyer have been hired to replace the operations director. Also, assistant curator Sarah Vure, whose recent exhibition, “Circles of Influence,” was well received, was promoted to head the early-California art collection full time.

OCMA’s extended search reflects a common problem nonprofit art organizations experience in competing with the private sector. Salaries and the changing role of curators are issues affecting searches for top-notch talent.

“It comes down to money,” said John W. Nichols, director of museum services for New York-based American Federation of Arts and administrator for Curators Forum.

Annual salaries for curator positions around the country range from $19,000 to $155,000, Nichols said.

“There are talented people coming out of college who are getting paid lots of money from ‘dot-com’ companies, Wall Street, or the commercial sector in general, that are willing to pay a lot more than museums can,” Nichols said. “It’s difficult for most museums, which are nonprofit, to compete with salaries that are being offered by the commercial sector.”

Coveted curator posts tend to be stable at most institutions, industry experts say. The expectations for curators also are more demanding.

“Curators, in general, are having to develop other skills, such as in public education, marketing and management skills,” said Elisa Phelps, chairwoman of the Curators Committee of the American Assn. of Museums.