LACMA at a Turning Point : The Search: Speculation simmers as the country’s top recruiter of art-museum directors screens possible successors.

In the final, rumor-filled days of the National Gallery of Art’s search for a new director, Los Angeles’ art community had two burning questions: Would Earl A. (Rusty) Powell III, director of the County Museum of Art, be tapped for the coveted post, and who would succeed Powell if he went to Washington?

The first question was answered affirmatively on April 28, but the second continues to simmer. Speculative conversations have suggested some likely prospects--Peter C. Marzio of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Richard Brettell of the Dallas Museum of Art, Marc F. Wilson of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Anne d’Harnoncourt of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and David W. Steadman of the Toledo Museum of Art, among others.

Some candidates have been interviewed, according to sources close to the museum, but an announcement of Powell’s successor does not appear to be imminent.

“We don’t have a short list of candidates, but we do have a sense of urgency,” said Robert F. Maguire, president of the museum and chair of the search committee. “Rusty is effectively gone now and he starts at the National Gallery on Sept. 1. We’ve got to be moving--for everyone’s benefit.”

Movement may be imperceptible outside the museum’s walls, but the search is well under way, Maguire said. The first step was to mobilize the search committee, which consists of former board presidents Daniel N. Belin, Julian Ganz Jr., Richard E. Sherwood, Camilla Frost and Franklin D. Murphy.

The committee immediately hired Russell Reynolds Associates, a New York-based executive placement firm. The choice wasn’t difficult because Malcolm MacKay, head of the company’s nonprofit division, has emerged as the nation’s leading recruiter of art-museum directors. In the past few years, MacKay has helped to place directors at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Phillips Collection and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Va., and he is currently seeking a director for the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Perhaps more to the point, MacKay served as the National Gallery’s consultant in the highly publicized quest that led to Powell’s appointment.

“Malcolm knows the field, and he serves on the board of trustees at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It would be difficult to duplicate his qualifications and experience,” Maguire said.

Indeed, MacKay may be the best qualified person to predict the identity of LACMA’s new director, but his job demands discretion. “The search is on course. We’re in the process of winnowing down,” MacKay said, declining to comment on how many applicants are under consideration.

MacKay defines his job as “assisting the search committee to find potential candidates and evaluate them” so that the board can make an informed decision.

A recruiter is “a helpful adjunct, but he doesn’t alter the responsibility of the board at all,” Maguire said. “We’re not delegating authority to someone else. This is a collaborative process, with names being generated both by the recruiter and the search committee.”

MacKay’s initial task was to determine what kind of director the museum wants. That entailed doing interviews with board members, senior administrative and curatorial staff, and friends of the museum.

The process doesn’t always yield a consensus, MacKay said, but he found “a unanimity of views” at LACMA. Rather than indicating a preference--or conflicting preferences--for the director’s curatorial specialty, those who were interviewed agreed that they want the best qualified director. “This is a museum that is very conscious of quality,” he said.

Round-table discussions at the museum prior to MacKay’s interviews helped to clarify the views of staff and trustees, Maguire said.

“We decided that we want someone with a museum background, although we debated about considering candidates from other fields, such as education,” he said. “The person must have a good track record in museums, a specific record of achievement. That’s key.”

A solid scholarly background is also a must, but the new director need not have a Ph.D. or be a specialist in any particular field, he said. However, serious candidates must “have made the transition from a curatorial position to a director’s position,” he said. The director’s role at LACMA is to “enable and encourage the curatorial staff to do their best work,” Maguire said.

In terms of personality and experience, the museum is looking for someone with “a sense of leadership, people skills and fund-raising ability,” he said.

It is also essential for LACMA’s new chief to have “a sense of vision of what a museum can contribute to the community,” Maguire said. “We have to keep in mind the traditional role of a museum . . . in terms of collecting, displaying and caring for the collection. But at the same time, the community the museum serves has changed. There are new people who want a voice, and legitimately so. It’s not like the old days. We have to look at our role and ask how we can present ourselves in the most useful and valuable way.”

The new director “must be enthusiastic about the challenges that face the museum,” he said. “We want someone with a catholic view toward art and an inclusive approach. I guess we need a Renaissance individual, to attach all these attributes to.”

“The job of directing a museum has become so complex and demanding that it’s important for museums to cast their nets as broadly as possible,” MacKay said. “In the old days, there was an old boys network. The problem was that it was too narrow. Art historical and curatorial qualifications--having an eye--was all that was required of a director in the past. That is still essential, but other qualities are needed now.”

Most large museums during the last decade have turned to professional recruiters when seeking directors, said Millicent Gaudieri, executive director of the Assn. of Art Museum Directors. “The reasons are that directors’ jobs are more complicated now, search firms provide broad exposure and a professional approach, and they relieve trustees of a very time-consuming process that they may not be able to handle,” she said.

Among the 160 museums of various sizes represented by the New York-based association, about 15 currently have openings for directors, Gaudieri said. That’s “a normal number” of openings in a field where people tend to move every five to seven years, she said.

The job at LACMA is daunting, particularly in light of Los Angeles County’s fiscal problems, which threaten to decrease support for the museum. (The county has traditionally provided about half of the museum’s annual operating budget, which now stands at about $30.5 million.) But Maguire and MacKay contend that budgetary problems are so endemic to the field that they are unlikely to scare away good candidates.

“It’s no secret in 1992 that the biggest problem facing museums is funding. Many museums are just dying. The issue of county support (for LACMA) is worrisome, but that worry is not unique. The County Museum of Art is in a better position than most museums,” MacKay said.

“The museum is very attractive, and the city is very attractive,” he said, noting that the recent riots and earthquakes haven’t deterred applicants. “Los Angeles is a big, vibrant city with a strong economic future, and that’s very attractive to potential candidates. The city is very cosmopolitan. Los Angeles is the major American city on the Pacific Ocean. I’m not finding that people shy away from it at all.”