ART : It Takes a Jack-of-All-Arts-Trades to Be Curator : The Newport Harbor museum needs to replace Paul Schimmel. What qualifications should a curator possess? Powers of persuasion and the ability to wine and dine, among other things.

Newport Harbor Art Museum finally hired itself a director last month, but it still has a long list of Major Things To Do before it can focus entirely on day-to-day museum business. At the top of that list--according to new director Michael Botwinick--is hiring a new chief curator to replace Paul Schimmel, who left last year to assume the same post at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

So far, nobody seems to have heard gossip about potential candidates for the job, and the museum has no tidbits to offer. But that shouldn’t keep us from thinking aloud about what the job requires and who might best fill it.

First, though, what exactly does a curator do?

Well, the most visible--and prestigious--aspect of the job involves creating exhibitions originated by the museum and circulated to other institutions. A curator’s exhibit ideas tend to be based on art topics of personal interest and previous academic research that dovetail with the mission of the museum.

Another important part of a curator’s job is acquiring major works for the permanent collection. These are pieces the curator believes are significant in their own right and bridge gaps in the museum’s holdings.

But that’s not the whole story.

The Lunch Bunch role involves wining and dining socially prominent people. Owners of art are cajoled to lend their works to exhibits or donate them to the museum. Museum trustees are given discreet advice about their own collecting (often, in the hope that the art will wind up at the museum someday).

Curators must use honey-tongued powers of persuasion on museum supporters with big pocketbooks who are asked to support exhibits or acquisitions that may not be immediately appealing or understandable.

The Midnight Oil part of the job involves researching and writing a series of exhibit catalogues that expand on the concept of the shows and give them a historical and cultural framework.

The Busman’s Holiday (for a contemporary art curator) involves making visits to artists’ studios to see what’s cooking.

And the Excedrin Headache involves such time-consuming activities as scheduling shows created by other museums, locating works of art scattered in public or private collections around the globe, piecing together budgets and helping to raise funds--especially knotty during a recession and a period of conservative backlash--for the increasing costs of exhibitions.

The stress of juggling all these roles is not inconsequential. Increasingly, curators are finding far less time for research while they are obliged to spend far more time tangling with administrative details. In fact, during the past few years some prominent curators nationwide have opted to leave the low-paid museum world entirely to become art dealers.

Still, Newport Harbor’s mandate to collect post-World War II California art and exhibit modern and contemporary art with an international scope should be attractive to candidates, along with the delights of living in the only slightly tarnished Shangri-La that is Southern California.

The unknowns a candidate for the job are likely to inquire about include the cloud of controversy that surrounds Botwinick’s relations with some of his staff at other institutions, the level of commitment of the trustees to showing cutting-edge work, prospects for hiring more curators and increasing the budget, and the prognosis for the museum’s attempts to build itself a larger building--stalled since last spring.

In many ways, Schimmel is a tough act to follow. Previously a curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, he spent more than eight years at Newport Harbor. The depth and inventiveness of his exhibitions--such as “Action/Precision: The New Direction in New York, 1955-1960” and “Chris Burden: A Twenty-Year Survey”--really put the museum on the national art map. Shows he originated traveled to such prominent institutions as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, which added more feathers to Newport Harbor’s cap.

If the museum can’t clone Schimmel, it should still be able to find someone with first-class qualifications. From the peanut gallery, here’s a suggested list of what we should expect:

* Solid expertise in contemporary art. The art world is intensely specialized, and anyone who will program the art of our time needs proper credentials (at least a master’s degree) and evidence of increasing curatorial responsibility in well-regarded art institutions.

* A national profile in the museum world. In order to borrow works for exhibits from other institutions and private lenders, a curator needs the kind of clout that only comes from having a serious reputation. He or she also needs it to get home-grown shows circulated to significant museums elsewhere.

* Creativity and scholarly depth. This will be evident on the basis of previous exhibits and catalogues, the art world “buzz” and exhibit reviews.

* Good relations with the lay public. In still-developing Orange County, a curator naturally assumes a leadership role vis-a-vis the museum’s major membership committees, which are made up of collectors who are (with some exceptions) still getting their feet wet in the world of contemporary art. And no matter where a museum is located, the ability to talk charmingly about difficult art is prized more than rubies when a museum has to go begging for money.

* Graceful writing. Some good curators write tortuous essays, but no good curators write vacuous ones.

* The ability to select good staff (particularly, an associate curator to replace Lucinda Barnes, who left last fall) and inspire them without stepping on their toes.

* Relative youth. Contemporary art is a rambunctious, ever-shifting field that depends in great measure on knowledge of pop trends as well as art history. You need enough maturity to detach your “fanzine” impulses from your better judgments, but you don’t want to be so remote from the scene that you frankly don’t understand it.

In the next few months, the rumor mill should be working overtime with “news” of Schimmel’s replacement. So stay tuned.