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Newport Harbor Seeks Endowment

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While trying to raise $3 to $4 million for its planned expansion into the Newport Beach Public Library next door, the Newport Harbor Art Museum also will be looking to raise an unspecified amount in endowment funds.

Museum director Michael Botwinick will not say how much he is looking for but said he hopes the endowment would be sufficient to operate the expanded museum at “earlier staff levels.” During the past two years, Newport Harbor has lost one-third of its staff in a series of layoffs blamed on the lagging economy.

The expansion plans, announced this week, would double gallery space by moving offices and certain aspects of the museum operation into the library. The library is moving to a new home on Avocado Avenue.

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Meanwhile, the museum has hired Louise C. Cummings as director of advancement, to be responsible for all aspects of its fund-raising programs. Cummings has been director of development at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa for three years. In 1989 and ‘90, she was annual fund director at the La Jolla Playhouse.

Her prior positions, in Washington state, include director of development and community relations at Forest Ridge School, administrative manager of A Contemporary Theatre and communications coordinator for Friends of Youth.

She lives in Aliso Viejo, holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from San Francisco State (1965) and a Certificate in Fund Raising from UC Irvine (1983), and is a member of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives. She replaces Margie M. Shackelford who left last summer and since has become director of development at the Ansel Adams Center for Photography in San Francisco.

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ANOTHER NEW HOME: The Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Ana will more than triple its space when it moves--probably sometime next fall--from an industrial park on MacArthur Boulevard to a new downtown location, the former Parker Garage building on the southeast corner of 2nd Street and Sycamore Avenue.

A $283,000 community development block grant from the city of Santa Ana is financing the purchase and renovation of the 6,300-square-foot building, which OCCCA plans to equip with gallery and classroom space; an auditorium for performance art, film, video, music and poetry readings; a small bookstore; a kitchen, and an office.

On MacArthur, the 13-year-old, artist-run gallery has been holding regular exhibitions for its members in a 1,400-square-foot space.

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OCCCA raised about $10,000 at its annual benefit auction and party Sunday, a “fairly good markup” from last year’s $8,200, according to organizer Pat Merrill. About $8,000 of this year’s take came from the sale of 59 artworks; the rest was from admission charges. “It was standing-room only again,” Merrill said. “There were people lining the walls.”

Times correspondent Rick VanderKnyff contributed to this report.

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