Nancy Riordan elected LACMA chairwoman

Nancy Daly Riordan -- a philanthropist, children’s rights advocate and wife of former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan -- has been elected chairwoman of the board of trustees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She will succeed retiring Chairman Wally Weisman, a 20-year trustee who has led the board since 1998.

“I believe I can help lead the board and do it in a very collaborative way,” she said in an interview Friday. “Anything I ever take on, that’s how I do it.”

Weisman said he decided to step down because “I am just tired. I have been a trustee for 20 years and chairman for seven -- that’s three years longer than anyone has held that position. I hit my 70th birthday in May and thought maybe I’d like a life.” Weisman will remain as a Life Member of the board.

Weisman has worked closely with LACMA President and Director Andrea Rich, who will retire Nov. 7. Nancy Riordan has been closely associated with Eli Broad -- LACMA’s biggest donor and most powerful trustee -- since her husband’s rise in city politics. She joined the museum’s board in 2002 and is co-chair with Peter Norton of the director’s search committee, formed in April when Rich announced her retirement. Riordan will preside over a period of major expansion and renovation, including the construction of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum. Riordan said that although she joined the LACMA board because Broad had asked her to, their friendship was not responsible for her being named chairwoman.

“I’ve belonged to LACMA for many years, I am a collector (of American and California Impressionist art), I have worked with curators there for years,” she said. “I was chairman of the trustee committee for at least 18 months, and during that time we brought on 12 new trustees who represent the younger generation of philanthropists and community leaders; that as much as anything had a lot to do with it.”

Weisman agreed: “It isn’t a Broad question -- Nancy is there because the board and I felt individually that she was best suited for it. We are talking about energy and common sense and fairness, and I think she possesses these qualities in enormous amounts.”

Riordan is a founder of United Friends of the Children, formed in 1980 to support programs for foster children, and co-founder of the Children’s Action Network, a clearinghouse for the entertainment industry on children’s issues. She is on the board of Los Angeles Opera, the W.M. Keck Foundation, the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future and the Getty House Foundation.