Countywide : Art Museum Boards to Vote on Merger

A decision on whether to merge the Newport Harbor Art Museum and Laguna Art Museum into a single institution is due Tuesday, when trustees of the institutions will vote separately on the issue.

James V. Selna, president of the Newport Harbor board, said Wednesday that the merger will be the single agenda item at his museum’s 5:30 p.m. board meeting. Before the vote, he said, there will be “full and fair opportunity for discussion of all viewpoints.”

Selna said the Laguna museum’s board also will meet on Tuesday “to consider the same issue.”

Officials at the Laguna museum did not return phone calls Wednesday.

A merger of the museums has been discussed off and on since 1989. Talks began again in earnest last September, and a panel of three board members from each museum has been meeting frequently since then.

Proponents of the plan say that a single high-profile entity would be better able to obtain funding from private and public sources and that merging would reduce administrative costs.