O.C. Artists’ Co-Op Hires First Paid Administrator

The Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, an artists’ cooperative founded in 1980, has hired its first full-time paid administrator. Anne Mattola, an artist facilitator with the Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego for the past three years, will do community outreach and development work for the center.

Her salary will be paid in part by a $10,000 grant from the city of Santa Ana, awarded last year for the administration of a visual art education program in city schools. The program will involve field trips, artist talks and in-school workshops.

Mattola received her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. She begins her new job June 1.

OCCCA has also appointed a new 12-member board of directors, drawn primarily from the business community. Board chairman is Richard Fair of Laguna Beach, owner of Encore Advertising in Long Beach. Vice chairman Bernard Simon is an accountant with Worth & Co. in Orange. Kathleen Kaplan, an OCCCA affiliate artist, has been appointed secretary, and the treasurer is artist Diana Frawley.

Four of the board members are artists who will act as liaisons among the membership, board and staff, which also includes nine unpaid members who choose and schedule exhibitions. Three board positions remain to be filled with more business community members. For more information, call (714) 549-4989.