Perfect Candidate for Laguna Museum May Not Be Easy to Find

From the perspective at 307 Cliff Drive in Laguna Beach, Mr. or Ms. Right should have the academic touch of a scholar, the administrative powers of a business executive, and lots of appeal to the wealthy.

The address belongs to the Laguna Art Museum. Someone with all those qualities, ideally, will be the museum’s next director. The museum has been searching for a successor to William Otton, who resigned in November to run a local art school.

On Wednesday, the museum’s search committee chose eight front-runners from 60 applicants, said board of trustees president Thomas Magill, who declined to name candidates. If museum officials find the well-rounded person they want, it will be a noteworthy bit of luck. For museums nationwide, finding Mr. or Ms. Right has become a frustrating process.

No fewer than 15 major museums around the country--most of them with annual budgets of $1 million or higher--are now looking for directors, according to the New York-based Assn. of Art Museum Directors. These days, the hunt takes an institution up to a year, and directors often do not last long in their jobs. “People used to become museum directors and stay for a lifetime,” said Louisa Kreisberg, a New York-based public relations consultant to many leading art museums. “But not anymore.”

The association, which has 150 major museums as members (the Laguna museum is not a member), did not even keep statistics on vacancies until about seven years ago. But there is a kind of crisis: trustees have become pickier, and there is something of a shortage of experienced directors who meet the magic profile. “Part of the problem is that the job of director and the expectations have changed,” said Millicent Gaudieri, who heads the association.

“Until about seven years ago, you still had people who were more involved as curators, as scholars of art, and now there is a lot more pressure to be everything. You have to put aside your curatorial interest to be an administrator and a fund-raiser. That discourages a lot of people (from continuing as directors).”

“A good director these days is a superstar, and there just aren’t many superstars,” said Kreisberg, noting that yearly operating budgets, fund-raising quotas, staff sizes and public expectations of programming all have increased in recent years. A typical problem, she added, is that many museums are constructing new buildings or wings and then find themselves under great pressure to fund operations. That will be the situation for the Laguna’s new director. The museum just completed a major, $1.6-million expansion. Officials envision another capital campaign for an endowment fund of as-yet-undetermined size. Said one museum official who asked not to be named: “Whoever comes here will have to hit the ground running. Fund-raising will be a top priority.”

Of 22 museums that have filled directorial vacancies around the nation in the past year, Gaudieri said, all but five have settled for former curators or specialists in other fields. That is not what the Laguna museum wants, Magill said. The museum, whose operating budget has grown from $140,000 in 1981 to $800,000 this year, wants someone who (unlike Otton when he was hired) has already directed a museum, he said.

Magill acknowledged that only some of the applicants have that sort of resume.

Museum officials said Otton was paid about $40,000. “We’re aware that we will have to go higher and we are willing to do it, if it means getting the kind of person we want,” said Magill. Where would the money come from? Magill and former board president Thomas Tierney said that board members already have discussed that question.

“I can tell you that there are enough trustees and supporters who have stepped forward to ask that specific question and they have volunteered to ensure that a qualified candidate is hired,” Tierney said.

Museum officials have consulted on the director search with Richard B. West, director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, who has given them management advice before. West believes the museum will be able to attract the highly qualified person Magill and his colleagues have in mind. “I feel good about how the museum is coming along,” West said last week. “It has made great strides in the past 10 years.

“No matter who they choose, the next 10 years are going to be rough. The new tax laws haven’t helped (with raising money), and there is not necessarily a growing pool of individual wealth and corporate growth in California. I predict a plateau in what people are willing to give. They will have to find somebody who can find more ways to get blood from a turnip.”