Laguna Board to Proceed With Museum Merger Vote

Over the objections of museum members, the Laguna Art Museum Board of Trustees will decide tonight whether to go ahead with plans to merge the institution with the Newport Harbor Art Museum of Newport Beach.

Members and local artists who met Sunday urged that the decision be postponed at least 60 days and threatened legal action to stop tonight’s vote. But board Chairman Gilbert LeVasseur said he would call for the vote as scheduled.

Any board vote to merge must be ratified by museum members, many of whom have said they want to study the issue further. Several noted that they hadn’t officially been notified of merger plans until late last week.

Still, LeVasseur said Monday that the trustees, who have been discussing the merger since last fall, “will recommend a course of action to the members . . . then our members are going to vote and determine whether or not this happens.”

LeVasseur said the members probably will have up to 30 days after the board votes to register their votes.

The process by which the membership will vote has not been outlined. The museum has about 1,500 members. Membership is given to anyone who sends the museum $25 or more annually.

Attorney Ken Kleinberg, a museum member who had been asked by those at Sunday’s meeting to help stop tonight’s vote through legal action, said Monday that he recommends against that “at this juncture,” because he agrees with LeVasseur that 30 days after a board vote “ought to be sufficient time [for members] to study the issue. The board of trustees is more than anxious to cooperate” and to help members fully understand the issue, Kleinberg said.

On Monday night, the Arts Commission, an advisory body to the City Council, voted unanimously to ask the city attorney this morning whether he would seek a court order to delay the vote or explore other legal steps to prevent a merger. Commissioners also voted to send a letter to the board today asking for a one-month delay in the vote.

About a dozen artists or museum members, distributing fliers urging people to attend the 5 p.m. meeting today, voiced strong concern about a merger and the possibility that the 78-year-old museum would move out of Laguna Beach.

“They don’t care about saving the Laguna Museum,” said Doris Shields, a museum member. “It seems they’re hell-bent on this merger no matter what.”

Newport Harbor trustees also plan to vote on the merger tonight. That museum’s members do not have to ratify a merger.

Proponents of a merger believe that a single, higher-profile institution would be more attractive to donors and could cut administrative costs.