MOCA curator is going to New York

Cornelia H. Butler, a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, will leave to become the Robert Lehman Foundation chief curator of drawings at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, effective Jan. 15.

Butler, who accepted the position last week, said Friday that she was “not looking” for a new job when she was offered the MoMA position. “It’s been an incredibly good run, but 10 years is a good amount of time to spend at MOCA,” she said.

Butler joined the Los Angeles museum in 1996 to oversee the Marcia Simon Weisman Collection of works on paper and the study center of the same name that opened in 1998.

“I look forward to working with MoMA’s unparalleled collection of drawings,” Butler said, but added that she would continue to be involved with MOCA. She is organizing the exhibition “WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution,” which will open in L.A. in spring 2007.

-- Diane Haithman