On Thu, 21 Mar 1996, Hank Meyer wrote:

> Check out the brew-up over the merger of the Laguna Art Museum with
> the Newport Harbor Art Museum to form the Orange County Museum of
> Art at <http://www.coosville.com/lamp>. Watch the locals duke it out
> over issues of local control, the role of shrinking corporate dollars
> in the intense competition for resources, and the debate over the value of
> consolidation of smaller museums into regional art institutions.
>
> While there, enjoy the art of Roark Gourley and others, check out
> Coolsville, and preview the Festival of the Arts and the Sawdust
> Festival.
>
> Hank Meyer
> [log in to unmask]
> Executive Producer
> Chameleon Interactive Media
>

This is a very interesting controversy indeed. Laguna is also under fire
for a contested deaccession. Laguna and Newport Beach are two of the
wealthiest communities in the nation. The two museums in question have
collections of only about 2000 objects yet their boards and directors say
that money cannot be raised from their communities to support the
museums. They propose joining the museums into a county museum of art and
contend that this is the wave of the future for other museums. Some see
this as an utter and complete failure on the parts of the leaders. This
is the business model taking over the institution. Before any opinions
are made too quickly it should be remembered that the other
business-model in the county, the county government, went bankrupt last
year. Those who promote the downsizing and business transition of the
museum should take a strong look at this vision of the future of
museology. After the failure of the county board of supervisors, the very
"conservative" board is considering eliminating democractically elected
suprervisors in favor of an Executive Director, a Czar, for the county.
OC is an interesting place to watch as the seat of the new economic and
political right tries out its experiments at home.

Paul Apodaca