BOWERS EXHIBITION HERALDS NEW ERA

The “Bowers 36/86” exhibition that opens Saturday for a three-month run at the Santa Ana museum is more than a show of municipal pride.

True, the exhibition--a 400-piece display of paintings, sculptures and artifacts from Bowers’ own collection--has been mounted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the city-owned institution.

But city officials also view “Bowers 36/86” as symbolic of the ending of one Bowers era and the beginning--they hope--of another. After 50 years of being a relatively modest institution, officials now seek to expand Bowers into one of Southern California’s major cultural centers.

In fact, city officials like to say 1986 may prove to be the turnaround for Bowers.

“We believe we’re on the right course for the museum. This is the year, we feel, that Bowers will be becoming of age,” Mayor Daniel E. Griset said at a 50th-anniversary luncheon at the museum Wednesday.

The city is certainly giving the golden-anniversary exhibition a big send-off.

Tonight at 7:30, the museum will host a $100-a-person preview benefit, with actor-art collector Vincent Price as master of ceremonies. The monies will go toward the museum’s acquisition fund.

The “Bowers 36/86” exhibition underscores Bowers’ historical and archeological bent and its emphasis on California, the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific Rim. According to museum registrar Margaret Key, many public favorites from previous exhibits will be shown, plus some items never before displayed.

The exhibition will run through May 18. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Among the works to be seen: an 18th-Century San Antonio de Padua sculpture; North American Indian basketry; pre-Columbian pottery; Japanese silver and Chinese court robes; antique American dolls, and a montage honoring Orange County orange growers.

The most striking attraction is still the graceful, mission-styled museum structure itself, which was formally opened Feb. 15, 1936, as a memorial to Santa Ana’s pioneer Bowers family.

The four-acre parcel at 20th and Main streets had been the site of the Bowers family home since the turn of the century. But in 1924, Charles Wesley Bowers announced that the site would be turned over to the city for the construction of a museum after his death (Bowers died in 1929. His wife, Ada, died in 1931).

The family home was razed in 1932 and a 12,000-square-foot museum was built at a cost of $54,000 that same year. But the Depression and fiscal problems involving the interior furnishings delayed the opening for three years.

It was not until the late 1960s that the first of several proposals for major expansion was made. But Bowers to date has been actually expanded but once: a 12,000-square-foot wing added in 1973. And more recent, far bigger proposals--including a $17-million plan to triple the size of the museum--have all remained dormant, along with efforts for an all-out community fund drive.

The reason for such expansion lags, city officials say, is that Bowers is still in a troubled transition. They say Bowers has to first streamline its governing structure, embark on more aggressive marketing and promote exhibits and other programs with stronger regional appeal.

(At the same time, attendance has been slipping since 1979-80, when the overall total--which includes people served by community-outreach projects--was a record 179,530. The total in 1984-85 was 97,323.)

Because of these lags, city officials contend, Bowers has failed twice--1977 and 1981--to win accreditation from the American Assn. of Museums, the national service organization. (The Newport Harbor Art Museum, the only Orange County museum to win such national accreditation, received this recognition in 1982.)

With this in mind, the City Council last summer created a nonprofit organization, the Charles W. Bowers Museum Corp., to operate the museum and to supervise fund raising. (The Bowers Museum Foundation, which had been the chief fund-raiser for decades, was dissolved last summer as part of this city-backed reorganization plan.)

Meanwhile, key decisions on Bowers are on hold because of two events.

One is the search for a new museum director. The present director, William Lee, has announced that he is leaving June 30 to return to university research work. Lee has held the Bowers post since April, 1982.

The council is expected to employ an executive recruitment firm in March to conduct a national search not only to hire a new director but also to fill the new position of assistant director.

And the City Council has appointed a 10-member citizens’ study committee to make recommendations on structural and program expansion. Committee Chairman Hector R. Godinez said his panel will be studying other museums, such as those in San Diego, Santa Barbara and San Francisco.

“We expect to give them (city officials) our report by around November. We’re just now getting really organized,” Godinez said. “But there’s one thing all of us agree on, and that’s the goal of bringing Bowers Museum to the forefront of arts in this county. That is where Bowers belongs.”