Long Beach : New Curator’s Background Is in Contemporary Art

The Long Beach Museum of Art will have a new curator when Noriko Gamblin, recently of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, joins the staff Monday.

Praising her experience with contemporary art, her training as an art historian and a commitment to community involvement, museum director Harold Nelson said she was chosen for the job from a field of 39 candidates. “She worked on two extremely varied projects, 19th Century photography at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the installation of recent acquisitions to the permanent collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art,” Nelson said. “With her interest in education, I liked the combination a lot.”

Sixty percent of the Long Beach museum’s permanent collection is contemporary art, the third-largest in the nation, according to Nelson. Gamblin will be responsible for further developing the collection and making selections to coordinate with visiting exhibitions.

Gamblin, 31, replaces Josine Ianco-Starrels, who resigned in June to pursue independent curatorial projects and work with the Los Angeles Arts Festival.