Arts Executive Hired for Irvine Cultural Affairs

Henry Korn, Santa Monica’s arts administrator for the past five years, will come to Irvine on May 7 to take charge of the city’s newly formed Cultural Affairs Division.

In his new job, Korn will oversee the Irvine Fine Arts Center and the city’s public arts program and will work with the city’s Cultural Affairs Commission (formed in January) to create a cultural plan for the community.

Korn, 44, announced his resignation from the Santa Monica job in March, telling reporters that he was taking a “similar post” in Irvine. But the Irvine offer was not formalized until last week, Korn and city officials said.

Leaving a thriving arts scene for Irvine--a young city with fledgling cultural aspirations--is a challenge that Korn said he found attractive. “That’s what’s exciting to me,” he said by phone Monday. “It was obvious to me that Irvine was serious about establishing a cultural-arts community.”

Irvine formed its Cultural Affairs Division on the recommendation of a report published last May by the Cambridge, Mass.-based Wolf Organization. Korn was chosen to manage the division from among nearly 80 applicants in a national search.

In Santa Monica, Korn oversaw the creation of a foundation to raise private arts funds and headed an active public arts program. Both areas will figure into his Irvine responsibilities, according to Patricia Fierro, the city’s Community Services manager.

Public art eventually will play a vital role in master-planned Irvine, Korn said. “Public art will have a real function, to create a sense of community.”

Before his Santa Monica job, Korn served as executive director of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Center, chief administrator of the Jewish Museum of Art in New York, public affairs officer for the Staten Island Institute and curator of the Brooklyn Museum. He has been a columnist for magazines and newspapers and has written six books.

Korn said he will continue to live in Los Angeles.