Art Center seeks new president

Richard Koshalek has stepped down as president of Art Center College of Design, where he became a lame duck in June after trustees of the elite Pasadena school refused his request for a four-year contract extension. They also suspended fundraising and development for an expansion program Koshalek had championed, including a $50-million Frank Gehry-designed high-tech design center and library.

Art Center’s board announced Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with Koshalek to let him depart now instead of serving until his contract expired in December 2009. Trustees are “moving swiftly” to decide on an interim president, Chairman John Puerner said in a statement.

Koshalek, 67, had been Art Center’s president since 1999, hired with a mandate to raise money and spearhead expansion. Previously, he was director of L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

-- Mike Boehm