Newport Harbor Museum Associate Curator Resigns : Art: Lucinda Barnes’ departure will be the third by a key staff member since November. It will leave the exhibition and collections department without a top-ranking official.

Newport Harbor Art Museum associate curator Lucinda Barnes has submitted her resignation, citing personal reasons, effective in mid-October. Barnes will be the third key staff member to leave the museum since November, when director Kevin Consey resigned to become director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

Chief curator Paul Schimmel left last month to become chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Barnes, who has been only seven months, is the only associate curator; her departure would leave the exhibitions and collections department with no top-ranking staff member. However, a museum spokeswoman said exhibitions are confirmed through August of next year.

All three resignations have come in the midst of a museum drive to raise $50 million to build and endow a new building. Board president Thomas H. Nielsen could not be reached to comment on how the resignations might affect the building program or its ability to attract a new director.

Barnes, 39, will move to upstate New York to work on independent projects and on her dissertation for a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.

Reached Wednesday in Albany, N.Y., Barnes said her decision “wasn’t prompted by Paul’s leaving, wasn’t prompted by Kevin’s leaving. It wasn’t prompted by anything other than my own personal circumstances. . . . I love the institution and the programs we’re doing there.”

Barnes said she will stay at the museum through the Oct. 14 opening of “Tony Cragg: Investigations Into Chaos,” an exhibition of work by the British sculptor that Barnes is co-curating with Schimmel and assistant curator Marilu Knode.

Barnes’ other projects at the museum have included “New California Artist XVII: Buzz Spector,” on view earlier this spring, and “Charles Ray,” the first one-person exhibit by a Los Angeles sculptor whose work encompasses installation art and performance, opening July 15. Barnes came to the museum in October, having served as curator of exhibitions at the University Art Museum, Cal State Long Beach, since 1985.

Newport Harbor public relations officer Maxine Gaiber said the museum’s exhibition schedule has been confirmed through Aug. 18, 1991, and should not be affected by Barnes’ departure. “We have curators or guest curators assigned to each of the exhibitions” through then, Gaiber said.

“Our exhibition program hasn’t diminished in the slightest and our education programs are going full bore. We’re very busy and active. But we’re very sorry to see Lucinda go,” Gaiber added. “She was a valuable resource for the museum.”

Ellen Breitman, the museum’s curator of education, will oversee both education and curatorial departments after Barnes’ departure. Karin Schnell, assistant curator of education, will become acting head of education.

Barnes’ position will not be filled until a new director and new chief curator are hired, Gaiber said. The search for a director is being handled by Korn-Ferry International, which has refused to speculate on how long it will take.