Chief at O.C. Arts Center Quits Abruptly

The president of Orange County’s Performing Arts Center has resigned, officials announced Tuesday, stunning the arts community.

Tom Tomlinson, who as chief operating officer introduced more adventuresome programming to the county’s most prominent cultural institution, declined to say why he had quit the post he took three years ago.

The resignation comes as the center’s yearlong 10th-anniversary celebration is coming to a climax.

Tomlinson cleaned out his desk Monday night and is not expected back in the office, sources said.

“All I’m saying is I’ve enjoyed my three years with the center and it was time for me to move on,” said Tomlinson, 46, interviewed on the doorstep of his home. He said his departure was not health-related.

Center officials released only a terse announcement of his departure, politely wishing him success, a sharp contrast to the pages of praise it showered on Tomlinson’s predecessor when he retired in 1992. The predecessor’s wife was named to replace Tomlinson on an interim basis.

Mark Chapin Johnson, the center’s board chairman, would not discuss whether the board and Tomlinson had been in conflict. Johnson said he learned of Tomlinson’s “decision” only Monday afternoon.

“Tom came to me for a private meeting in my office and tendered his resignation,” Johnson said. “At Tom’s request, I agreed not to discuss anything about his decision.”

Johnson said he was surprised by the abruptness of events and disappointed by the timing.

“The timing is certainly not one anybody would have preferred,” Johnson said, “which is not to say that we expected it at any particular time.”

But a highly placed source on the board said “it had to be done now or we would have gone ahead and had the 10th anniversary and [Tomlinson] would have been locked in.” The source would not elaborate.

Tomlinson oversaw a banner financial year for the center in 1995, when revenues soared to a record $19.4 million, and he initiated plans to expand the center’s facilities to retain its competitive edge.

He increased the number of pop concerts at the center, booking such acts as k.d. lang, an openly lesbian vocalist. Just last week, he brought in a hip-hop/percussion troupe called Stomp, signaling just how far he had ventured from the previous administration’s emphasis on Broadway shows, classical music, opera and ballet.

Under Tomlinson, the center also vastly expanded community outreach programs and increased its 1995 budget for educational programs by 30% to $631,600. In 1994, the center commissioned a children’s ballet with a Chinese immigrant theme for its “From the Center” outreach program.

“He was really quite wonderful to work with,” said Julie Bussell, executive director of the Pacific Chorale, one of several groups that regularly perform or present works at the center. “He had a clear vision . . . that the center was there to serve the community, as were the groups who performed there.”

Johnson expressed no regret over Tomlinson’s departure and other board members were restrained in their comments.

At a party for 200 arts patrons at Johnson’s home Tuesday night, board member and former chairman Thomas H. Nielsen would say only, “I wish [Tomlinson] the very best. He is a fine person, and I very much enjoyed working with him.”

Elaine Redfield, a founder of the center who went to local philanthropist Henry Segerstrom to request the land on which the center was built, said: “Perhaps it is his time to move on.”

Tomlinson will be replaced “on an interim basis” by Judy O’Dea Morr, wife of his predecessor, Thomas R. Kendrick. Performing arts center officials said Morr, who has been serving since March in the newly created post of programming director, has asked not to be considered as a permanent replacement.

Johnson said he would choose a search committee of four or five board members, not including Kendrick.

“We don’t want to send the wrong message,” he said. “We’re going to cast the net far and wide for someone with the temperament and personality to deal directly and enthusiastically with the board, the volunteers and the community.”

Tomlinson, who became president in 1995 after serving as executive director, has received credit for improving what had been fraying relations between the center and the local organizations that present events there.

He helped diminish turf wars between the center and other arts organizations by offering collaborative programming opportunities. He also made more space in the center’s heavily booked schedule for the smaller resident troupes.

In May 1994, Tomlinson put together a collaborative two-night engagement of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra conducted by James Levine. The orchestra’s only Southern California stop on a rare national tour, it added greatly to the center’s prestige but drew a disappointingly small audience.

Even before Tuesday’s announcement, recent changes in senior management at the center had prompted some speculation that Tomlinson’s job was in jeopardy.

When Morr was appointed four months ago as director of programming, she took over Tomlinson’s day-to-day programming operations so that he could focus on long-range strategy. Center officials maintained that Morr was hired at Tomlinson’s request, but one arts leader who asked not to be identified Tuesday said that is “highly doubtful.”

Philip Mosbo, an executive vice president at the center who worked with Tomlinson in booking programs, saw the focus of his job shifted to local programming only and strategic planning. Another senior official, marketing director Richard Bryant, left in May.

Tomlinson came to the center from the $70-million Alaska Center for the Performing Arts in Anchorage, where he was founding executive director. He also had managed a performing arts center in Tacoma, Wash. and theaters in Yakima, Wash., and Joliet, Ill.

During his five years at the mostly city-supported Anchorage facility, he firmly supported public funding of the arts. Though working in a conservative community and said to be personally fond of mainstream theater, he defended a local production of the play “Bent,” dealing with gays and the Holocaust, against some patrons’ complaints.

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Zan Dubin, Cathy Curtis and Ann Conway.

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Tomlinson’s Time

The resignation of Orange County Performing Arts Center president and chief operating officer Tom Tomlinson will set off a nationwide search for a replacement. A look at his tenure:

Appointed: October 1993

Accomplishments:

* Broadened scope of center’s programming

* Expanded community outreach and educational programming, increasing education budget by 30% in 1995

* Presided over banner year in 1995, when center earned a record $19.4 million

* Eased hard feelings from local performing arts groups’ turf battles by offering collaborative programming opportunities, freeing more nights for performances by smaller resident companies

* Guided center’s long-term planning process

Interim replacement: Director of programming Judith O’Dea Morr

Source: Times reports