Top Official at Southwest Museum Quits : Art: Director Thomas H. Wilson cites family obligations in announcing his resignation, but also expresses frustration over the lack of community and civic support to help the 80-year-old institution.

Citing family commitments and professional frustrations, Thomas H. Wilson has resigned as director of the Southwest Museum. The surprise announcement was made at a board of trustees meeting Wednesday morning at the historic museum in Highland Park, which houses one of the world’s finest collections of Native American art in a beloved but woefully inadequate facility.

Wilson’s resignation is effective Jan. 2, but he will be retained as a consultant during a search for his successor, according to Thomas E. Holliday, president of the museum’s board of trustees.

Wilson, 46, has presided over the 80-year-old institution since July, 1992, during a troubled period when the trustees considered proposals to move the museum and its fragile and enormously valuable collections to a better-equipped, more modern facility in Southern California. Yielding to pressure from community groups and from Mayor Richard Riordan--who made a public promise in November, 1993 to help refurbish and expand the museum on its present site--the board decided to keep the museum at its historic home.

In a telephone interview, Wilson chided Riordan and community groups for failing to follow through with support. Wilson said that nothing has come of the mayor’s promise to appoint a Blue Ribbon committee to spearhead the renovation and expansion. The museum needs at least 25,000 square feet of additional space, he said, adding that problems of inadequate parking and access must also be addressed.

But he emphasized that personal reasons compelled his decision. “Whenever you make a major decision in life, it always involves a complex mix of causes and effects,” Wilson said, explaining that the primary reason for his departure is a desire to join his wife and two high-school-age children who have remained at his home in Westchester County, N.Y., during his 2 1/2-year sojourn in Los Angeles.

Despite these frustrations, Wilson said he is pleased with his accomplishments during a “transitional period.” In addition to considering 80 proposals to move the museum and deciding to expand on the present site, he has overseen several improvements. An effort to restore the museum’s old elevator and tunnel entrance is under way. An ethno-botanical garden opened over Thanksgiving weekend, and a simulated archeological site is under construction outside the museum. During his tenure, the museum has presented 25 exhibitions.

The exhibition spaces have been repainted and carpeted, Wilson noted. In addition, the staff has completed a survey of the museum’s holdings and drafted a conservation plan. With the help of the Ahmanson Foundation, the textile collection has been moved off-site for study and conservation.

While many of the Southwest’s problems are specifically related to its antiquated building and vast collections, the museum shares concerns of other arts institutions in Los Angeles, Wilson said. Attendance has fallen at many local museums and the Southwest is no exception, he said, noting a drop in attendance from 75,000 in the fiscal year of 1992-93 to 60,000 in 1993-94.

Public and private support of arts institutions has also decreased during the recession, he said. Noting that monies formerly earmarked for the arts have been shifted to such deserving causes as social services, he said, “It is time for some soul-searching about what arts institutions mean to the city and its quality of life.

“Museums are very fragile institutions,” Wilson said. “I hope that as the economy recovers in Los Angeles, corporate and foundation support will return in a high-profile way. Without these arts institutions, we may have people with healthy bodies but without healthy souls.”

Board president Holliday said he regrets Wilson’s resignation but that he is sympathetic to the departing director’s desire to return to his family. Trustee Daniel E. Wolfus will head the museum’s search committee for a new director. A managing committee of trustees, chaired by Richard Gilman, president emeritus of Occidental College, will fulfill the director’s day-to-day functions in the interim, Holliday said.

Wilson, an anthropologist who has held administrative positions at the Center of African Art in New York and the National Endowment for the Humanities, said he does not have another position lined up. “I will consider a variety of options,” he said, “but museums are my first love.”

The Southwest Museum becomes the second major institution locally to be without a director, joining the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where the top post has been vacant since August, 1993.