Museum Director Seems Perfect Fit

Is Orange County society ready for Michael Botwinick, the new director of the Newport Harbor Art Museum?

You decide. He loves openings, likes to schmooze, doesn’t abhor dinner jackets, adores California wine, loves theater, likes to dine out and looks forward to entertaining at home.

Museum supporters got their first glimpse of the sophisticated Chicagoan on Thursday night when members of the Century Club welcomed him to an opening for California artist Robert Millar.

On Friday, Botwinick donned black tie to mingle with museum patrons at the opening of the Edward Hopper exhibit, on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

“I brought my dinner jacket here from Chicago,” Botwinick said on Thursday. “And I’m going to leave it here.” (Botwinick plans to commute from the Windy City for the next six months. “I have a son who needs to graduate from high school,” he explained.)

Proving he has wit-- de rigueur for members of the social set--Botwinick said: “A dinner jacket is really an argument between a husband and a wife. While I’m putting mine on, Harriet is always looking in the closet and saying: ‘Why is it so easy for you ?’ ”

Botwinick understands the philosophy of elbow-rubbing. “The business of running a museum is a serious business,” he said. “That’s what I’m here for, to tend to that with the staff and the board. But, there’s a larger community that should participate with some level of pleasure.”

For Botwinick, that usually means museum openings. “Opening an exhibit is like opening a Broadway show,” he said. “It’s an occasion for pleasure and joy. You like to celebrate because it represents the work of people over a long period of time.”

The Botwinicks--who have two sons, Jonathan (who attends the London School of Economics) and Daniel, a high school senior--haven’t gone house-hunting yet. But when they do, they’ll be looking for digs in Newport Beach. “I love to run along the bluffs there,” he said. “In the morning it’s just the coyotes and me.” (Maybe Harriet will be able to help. She’s a real estate broker.)

When the couple gets settled, Botwinick looks forward to entertaining in his new home. Often. “The museum community is a broad and interesting community,” he said. “It’s great to put those people together with other people.”

But enough cross-examination of Botwinick. What has he heard about Orange County? “That it’s a new place, that the people are open and welcoming and not a place with layers and layers of stuffiness. That it admires people who are good at what they do and accepts people on that basis as opposed to who they are.”

Talk about passing the test.