Long Beach Museum of Art looks for a new director and a way out of debt
By Theo Douglas

When people talk nice about the Long Beach Museum of Art, they mention its location—in an historic 1912 Craftsman-style house and carriage house at Ocean Boulevard and Kennebec Avenue—or its spectacular oceanfront view of passing tankers, the Queen Mary and the cold, blue Pacific. Not its exhibits, which have inspired such newspaper headlines as “Artful blend of teapots, L.B. Museum of Art Exhibit a Tasty Brew,” (June 17, 2003, Press-Telegram); the succeeding “L.B. Museum to top teapot exhibit” (Dec. 14, 2003, Press-Telegram); or the more recent “Exhibit Explores 50 Years of Enameling” (Jan. 18 Grunion Gazette).

Surely, nobody doesn’t like 50 years of enameling? Apparently some of us don’t. And now, having fired its director of 17 and a half years on Nov. 27—and facing down a looming $3.1 million bill for a new gallery that could wind up costing it ownership of the building—2007 may be the year the Museum of Art finally answers for the disparity between its dreamy surroundings and what critics say have been years of less-than-gorgeous exhibitions.

“A couple of years ago, they were the premier video art venue. And they made great progress and developed a reputation. But unfortunately, they abandoned that. They gave most of their video collection to the Getty,” said Museum of Latin American Art Director Gregorio Luke. “Then, recently, they went more into the arts and crafts idea and they’ve developed some good shows. But . . . you can’t be changing, every time you have a new director, what your focus is going to be.”

Focusing on crafts—at the expense of arts—is exactly what got director Harold Nelson fired last November by the board of trustees for the foundation that has run the museum since taking control from the city in 1987. Board president Pamela Munzer did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The District. But another trustee, Harbor Commissioner and former Long Beach City Council member Doris Topsy-Elvord, says Nelson began with the board’s every confidence.

“You know how when you hire somebody, you have faith and trust in someone? And we did,” said Topsy-Elvord. “But then it got to a point where it almost became more craft than art. We have polls—people come to the museum every week—and they said they wanted to see more contemporary art.” So, while the museum isn’t turning its back on crafts—examples of which it continues to acquire—it has opened a new exhibit whose title, “Looking at Long Beach,” speaks volumes. (“Painting With Fire: Masters of Enameling in America, 1930-1980,” the final show curated by Harold Nelson, is up through August.)

“I certainly think that a canvas on a wall has significance, but a pot thrown by a master ceramicist does as well,” interim director Ron Nelson said recently, defending his predecessor (no relation). Later in the same conversation, he added, “There’s a world of intellectually ambitious adults out there with time on their hands, and I don’t think they’re coming here.”

The why is complicated. It’s partly the hand-off of the museum’s landmark, 3,000-piece video collection to the Getty. The collection included some of Long Beach video artist Bill Viola’s earliest works—and Viola is still the first name on the lips of some artists when they think of art in Long Beach. Ron Nelson says the museum gave the videos to the Getty—shifting its focus to arts and crafts—because it was unable to properly maintain and, in some cases, restore the collection.

But others in the Long Beach arts community say the people aren’t coming because the museum simply doesn’t reach—or properly represent—the hundreds of thousands who live outside its 90803 zip code.

“I have to be careful what I say,” said Dennis Lluy, president of Koo’s Art Center, which hosts art exhibits and classes in the city’s East Village Arts District but has come under fire from the city for excessive noise and for possibly being a nightclub cleverly disguised as an art gallery. “There’s a lot of value to the museum, but when it comes to being a contemporary art museum, I don’t think it’s a contemporary art museum.

“They’re serving a market of people on that side of town and that’s what they like. That’s their thing, cool, but they’re the Long Beach Museum of Art. Long Beach is much more diverse than that. And I think the museum has the potential to expand on that diversity and really capitalize on it, rather than just [serve] people who live in a three- to four-mile radius.”

Five months after Harold Nelson’s exit, the museum continues its search for a director. “I think it’s going to take a person who gets us—respects where we’ve been,” Ron Nelson said. “I think the community is going to get it, and we’re going to relate better to the community.”

The new director will also have to figure out how to pay for the museum’s most recent addition, its new gallery, which was finished in 2000 and boosted its total exhibition space to 12,000 square feet. Construction was financed with a $3 million bond guaranteed by the city. It comes due in 2009, meaning that the museum—which Ron Nelson says has been making $8,300-a-year interest-only payments—will owe a balloon payment of $3.1 million in less than two years.

One way to pay off the debt could be to just sign over the deed.

“The new building is owned by the foundation, and it’s on state land,” he said. “Ownership could be transferred to the city.”

The other option that’s being discussed is having the city purchase, then rent, seven large electronic billboards, which would be placed at strategic locations along local freeways. Proceeds would be split three ways, Ron Nelson said: between the city, the museum, and the Long Beach Arts Council—the museum’s portion going to the city to pay down its debt.

“It’s not the first thing you think of,” Ron Nelson said of this idea. “I agree.”