Departing MOCA Director to Be Art Center’s President

Richard Koshalek, who will end his 16-year tenure as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art on June 30, has been appointed president of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Effective Sept. 7, Koshalek will succeed retiring President David R. Brown, the college announced late Monday.

In taking charge of the prestigious art and design school, Koshalek is expected to oversee a period of facilities expansion and curriculum development. “The board has its eye on the future,” Koshalek said.

Declining to detail plans and goals, he said changes are only in early talking stages. But sources close to the school indicated that Art Center--which cannot expand on its current hillside site in a residential area--is likely to erect a large building elsewhere in Pasadena or downtown Los Angeles.

An energetic, visionary administrator who joined the staff of the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1980, a year after it was founded, Koshalek, 57, is credited with building one of the world’s leading showcases for contemporary art almost from scratch. He announced plans to step down from his position at MOCA more than a year ago, stating that he wanted to remain in Los Angeles and expressing an interest in possibly becoming a cultural advocate and facilitator for the city’s downtown district.

“This came as a surprise,” Koshalek said of the Art Center position. “But for me, at this stage of my life, I think it’s a wonderful opportunity. Now that I have helped to build MOCA and its collection, creating something that did not exist, I can be part of the educational process in the arts.

“I believe that artists will be the problem solvers of the future,” he said, “and I am very impressed with the faculty and the students at Art Center. What appeals to me most about this new position is that I can be part of a creative environment at a school that is very vital and progressive.”

With an enrollment of 1,400 full-time students, the college employs about 350 instructors, including many practicing artists and designers who teach part time.

Koshalek was selected from a slate of seven finalists in a nationwide search conducted by Korn/Ferry International. Brown, who has presided over the college since 1985, announced in September 1998 that he intended to leave Art Center by 2000. The board of trustees selected Koshalek in April, but his contract was not signed until Monday, following a period of negotiation.

Koshalek will be the fourth president in the college’s history, following Edward A. Adams, Don Kubly and Brown. At MOCA, Koshalek will be succeeded by Jeremy Strick, curator of 20th century painting and sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Art Center is a private, nonprofit institution founded in 1930 as Art Center School. Originally located in downtown Los Angeles, it moved to Hancock Park in 1946. Thirty years later, the college opened its present facility, a sleek steel and glass building designed by architect Craig Ellwood on a 175-acre site in Pasadena. The name of the school was changed to Art Center College of Design in 1973.