Another Resignation From Newport Harbor Museum

The Newport Harbor Art Museum’s No. 2 staff member has resigned effective today. Jane Piasecki, associate director of the museum for seven years, is going to be assistant museum director at the Institute of American Arts Museum in Santa Fe, N.M.

Museum officials refused to discuss her departure, the third this year from the 19-member staff. Indeed, the museum’s press release announcing her replacement, Edward E. Prohaska, fails even to mention Piasecki’s name.

Piasecki declined comment except to fax a statement that she is “very excited” about her move to Santa Fe and has “never been comfortable speaking to the press.”

Her departure follows those of Margie M. Shackelford, who left last month as director of development after 8 1/2 years, citing personal reasons; and Marilyn Kaun, longtime manager of the museum’s cafe, who retired earlier this month.

Last year, nine employees--more than two-thirds of the staff--were laid off in two waves of cuts announced as a means of reducing an accumulated deficit of more than $650,000. Longtime employees who lost their jobs included Marilu Knode, assistant curator; Sue Henger, museum editor; Katherine D. Costello, associate director of development; and Karen Ables, the museum accountant.

Piasecki was hired as museum administrator in 1984 by then-museum director Kevin Consey, who promoted her two years later. Before coming to California, she held managerial positions at the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts & Sciences and the New York Hall of Science.

Prohaska , whose formal title will be “director of finance and administration,” has been working as a vice president in the Dallas regional office of Chicago-based Continental Bank N.A. Previously, he was senior accountant in the audit division of Arthur Andersen and Co. in Kansas City, Mo. He has served as a board member of the Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin, Tex., secretary of the Texas Fine Arts Assn., and was a founding board member of Texans for the Arts.

His starting date at Newport Harbor has not been determined, a spokeswoman said.