Irvine Fine Arts Center Director Is Transferred

Amy Aspell, director of the Irvine Fine Arts Center since 1987, has been transferred to Citizens Assistance (another division of Irvine Community Services) as part of a fresh wave of restructuring caused by city budget cuts.

Toni Pang, former superintendent of cultural affairs--a position that was eliminated in the reshuffling--will become director of the center when she returns from maternity leave in May. Tim Jahns, the center’s educational coordinator, is serving as provisional director. Last June, the City Council axed the position of cultural affairs manager, held by former Santa Monica Arts Commission director Henry Korn, as part of a streamlining that eliminated 33 city positions. The current reshuffling is not anticipated to affect programming, according to Jahns, one of three full-time program staff members at the center.

The others are Dorrit Fitzgerald Rawlins, curator of exhibitions, and Lisa Cone, resource development coordinator. The center’s 1993-94 operating budget is $600,000, the same as for the past few years.