3 Quit State History Museum’s Board Over Shriver’s Proposal

Three members of the board that runs the state’s history museum have now resigned, unhappy with California First Lady Maria Shriver’s quiet push to scrap the museum’s broader mission and restrict the focus to women.

Some female legislators also said they were put off by Shriver’s efforts, objecting that there was no public debate in developing a plan that would do away with a museum devoted to the state in its entirety.

The Legislature approved the museum’s original charter in the late 1980s and must agree to any transformation, museum officials said. It may be given a bill to consider in December.

“I find it unfortunate that we’re giving up the focus on California history. I feel that was the reason the museum was built in the first place, with $10.6 million in bonds,” said Tom Stallard, a longtime member of the board overseeing the California State History Museum, located two blocks from the Capitol. “ ... History is now the subtext and women the major theme, and it should be the other way around.”

Stallard resigned Monday. The 16-member board of trustees is in no position to refuse the first lady, he said, even though she has no legal authority over the museum.

“How could we resist her?” asked Stallard, a founding member of the museum board and a former Yolo County supervisor. “She’s there by virtue of the public’s election of her husband and she makes a very compelling case for what she wants to do. But there’s nobody left to speak up for the original concept. They’re overpowered.”

Shriver did not return a call for comment. But her spokeswoman, Terri Carbaugh, who also works in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s press office, defended the change of focus.

“With the creation of a women’s history museum, this doesn’t mean California will no longer have a history museum in the state,” Carbaugh said. “There are many history museums.... What this means is we will have a history museum that is told through the eyes of women.”

She added: “A revitalized museum, featuring women, will enhance California’s existing network of museums and is bound to become a successful tourist attraction in the state’s capital city.”

Board member Karen Sinsheimer, who is curator of photography at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, said in a recent interview that she resigned in September both because she had served long enough and because of the new direction.

“This isn’t the kind of museum I signed on for,” she said, adding that she regrets the state would lose a museum “filled with many stories of California -- agriculture, logging, immigrants, the politics, the people.”

In a letter to the board president in August, Sinsheimer noted that there are already plans afoot to open a $120-million International Museum of Women in San Francisco in 2008.

That 120,000-square-foot facility, which would be underwritten with public and private money, would be nearly five times the size of the planned Sacramento women’s museum.

“I think it will be hard to compete, but more, I don’t think we need to,” Sinsheimer wrote.

Board member Charles G. Palm also stepped down last month, citing a preference that the museum hew to its original mandate.

Board members voted Sept. 13 to give the museum its new identity, after hearing a 15-minute presentation from Shriver that received no public notice. Museum Director Ross McGuire said he is not certain whether the board’s meetings are open to the public.

The museum is run by a nonprofit corporation and relies on private money, though some facilities and staff members’ salaries are underwritten with taxpayer funds. Part of the motivation to change course was a serious financial crunch that could have caused the museum to close in a matter of months, said Steven Merksamer, a board member and Sacramento attorney.

“If you’re sitting there as a board member and confronting the imminent fiscal collapse on the one hand and the extremely able, charming and talented first lady of California on the other, and she is saying she would help us make it a financial success ... what would you do?” he asked.

The facility would be renamed the California Women’s History Museum and its 25,000 square feet of exhibition space would be devoted to women’s roles in state history. Documents put out by the museum’s private consultant said the designer would be Edwin Schlossberg, husband of Shiver’s cousin, Caroline Kennedy.

Prodded by Shriver, the museum has already taken on a different hue.

In May, she presided over the opening of the Remarkable Women exhibit, which occupies part of the second floor. Displays include astronaut Sally Ride’s space suit, ice skater Peggy Fleming’s gold medal from the 1968 Olympics and the dress Shriver wore at her husband’s inauguration.

Members of the state’s Legislative Women’s Caucus said Monday they were skeptical of Shriver’s approach and the secrecy that has surrounded it. Details of the plan were first made public last week in newspaper accounts.

“Just because California’s first family are celebrities and have resources doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have a public process and reasoned debate about the best way to move forward,” said Assemblywoman Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park). “It’s my hope the first lady will give the public and lawmakers an opportunity to discuss the issue so that the entire history of California is not lost in competition with the history of women.”

Some wonder whether the new museum would have an appropriately serious tone. Schools use the existing facility to teach elementary students about California history, politics and geography. One of the displays in the current women’s exhibit features teen actresses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

Asked whether the new museum would serve an educational role, Stallard said: “My fear is it’s going to be more People magazine kind of stuff.”