Bowers Museum Hires a New Director : Head of Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Recruited for Post

Paul Piazza, director of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center for the past seven years, has been hired as the new director of Santa Ana’s Bowers Museum, it was disclosed Monday.

He will assume the top staff post in late November, sources close to the museum said, adding that Piazza’s annual salary will be in the $70,000 range.

The Bowers post has been vacant since June 30, when William Lee, who had held the job for four years, resigned to return to university research. Lee’s salary was $52,000 a year.

“Of course, I’m excited by the challenge of the (Bowers) job. The potential for growth, for regional development is tremendous. You have the chance to be very creative,” Piazza said in a telephone interview Monday from Colorado Springs.

Offer Made Friday

Piazza, 45, accepted the offer made last Friday by the Charles W. Bowers Museum Corp.’s nine-member operating board. He had been interviewed by a panel that included Santa Ana City Manager David Ream and Hector R. Godinez, chairman of the museum board.

Like the Bowers, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center was opened 50 years ago and is a local architectural landmark.

Piazza will be joining the Bowers as expansion plans are under way to make the museum an important regional cultural center.

Last August, the Santa Ana City Council approved an $8.8-million construction plan to expand the 24,000-square-foot museum by 19,000 square feet. The proposed new annex would include a 350-seat multipurpose hall and a 100-seat restaurant, as well as new galleries.

The council also has agreed to finance construction of the annex with municipal funds, mostly with tax monies generated under the city’s redevelopment program. Construction could begin in late 1987, city officials said.

Subsidy of $1.2 Million

The city has owned Bowers--and provided operating subsidies--since 1936, when the museum was opened. The city subsidy is about $1.2 million for the museum, which specializes in art and historical exhibitions on California and the countries within the Pacific Rim.

Bowers has failed to win accreditation from the Assn. of American Museums, the national service organization, in large part because of delays in reorganization and the shelving of previous expansion plans. Bowers also has failed to attract support for countywide private fund-raising drives.

But the privately owned, 90,000-square-foot Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center--which has national accreditation--recently raised $1.6 million to renovate the center’s 450-seat performing arts theater.

(The theater has booked noted dance and other performing troupes. Martha Graham and her dance company are scheduled to appear Oct. 30 at the theater.)

In addition to collections that focus on Southwest Hispanic and Native American art, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center has a separate facility for the center’s nationally known Bemis Art School for Children. The center’s annual operating budget is now $1.8 million.

Before his move to Colorado Springs, Piazza was director of the Tucson Museum of Art. Previously, he was assistant director of the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, N.Y., and education curator for the city-supported New Orleans Museum of Art.