Q&A; -- State of art

A lot has happened in the six years since Naomi Vine took over as

executive director of what is now the Orange County Museum of Art. In

1997, she helped open the museum on San Clemente Drive, which was formed

when the Laguna and Newport Harbor art museums merged. Combining the two

collections and dealing with the acrimony and lawsuits that followed was

not an easy task, but Vine persevered.

Now, with a collection of between 6,500 and 7,000 works of art, the

museum is doing quite well. “American Modern,” a partnership with the

Metropolitan Museum of Art, has brought in large, diverse crowds. Its

educational programs are going strong. Its docent program was given

$750,000 through a bequest. And in the last year it has filled several

key curatorial spots.

Features Editor Jennifer K Mahal spoke to Vine about the state of the

museum prior to news that the museum is looking at a vacant parcel across

from the Orange County Performing Arts Center as a possible new site.

Vine said last week that the museum has not yet made any decision

about moving, but is looking at “a number of appealing sites, the

Performing Arts Center, of which, is one.”

How did you first get involved with the art world?

Oh gosh, I think it was probably my first art history class when I was

in college. I fell in love with gothic cathedrals and wanted to just

learn as much about everything I could. And I just kept going, went on

and got a Ph.D. and started working in museums shortly after that.

What has been your biggest challenge since you became the executive

director of the museum?

Probably the merger that we did four or five years ago. That was a

difficult time. But that’s in the past. It’s done and it was very

successful. It turned out to be exactly the right thing that was needed

and I’m delighted at the results of it.

The docent program came into some money from a donor this year --

about $750,000 from an estate bequest. How important are the docents to

the well being of the museum?

The docents are extremely important. At this point we have I believe

over 120 docents. They’re all volunteers. They give an incredible amount

of time and spend a lot of time and energy learning about each new

exhibition that we bring. And that in itself is quite a feat since we

have sometimes up to 20 exhibitions a year. And they don’t learn a little

bit about each show, they learn a lot. They become true experts. And then

they also give their time to take our visitors on tours through the

exhibitions and give them wonderful background and wonderful experience

with the works of art and answer all the questions that people have.

There’s been some talk of the museum moving locations. Will the

museum move and is there any kind of timeline?

I expect that at sometime we will move. We don’t have any definite

plans at the moment, so no, there’s no timeline.

What would cause a move like that?

We are growing. We’ve already outgrown this space. And there is a

possibility that we could expand here on this space, or we might have to

move somewhere else. I really don’t know what’s going to happen.

The Orange County Museum of Art is partnering with the Metropolitan

Museum of Art on the “American Modern” exhibit. How successful has that

partnership been?

It’s been very successful. We have worked with the Metropolitan Museum

of Art in the past on similar kinds of projects and have a great

relationship with them. And this exhibition in particular has brought in

a wonderful audience for us, a very large attendance. Many, many people

are interested in decorative arts and design, and the kinds of history

and issues that this exhibition raises. And this is a particularly

delightful show because so many people find things in the gallery that

they grew up with -- an Electrolux vacuum cleaner or a Kodak camera that

they had from the ‘40s or ‘50s.

In terms of future partnerships, do you have any planned with

collections coming through here?

Oh sure, we are doing a lot of things with other museums and other

organizations. We have a huge joint project with the Philharmonic Society

in October, doing a couple of different exhibitions that will be part of

the Eclectic Orange Festival. And we are bringing an exhibition in

February from the San Jose Museum of Art.

What is your favorite piece in the museum?

Oh, I’m not allowed to have favorites.

Are there artists you particularly enjoy, whether they be from

modern art or from classical, which this museum doesn’t display much of?

We really concentrate on the last 150 years. Our mission begins, we

don’t have a very specific starting date, but sometime around the middle

of the 19th century and continues to the present day -- and the present

day of course is a moving target. But, a single work of art that would be

my favorite -- oh, there’s no way. I couldn’t possibly single out.

How about a genre of art?

I suppose there was a time, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, when it would

have been very easy for me to answer that, and I would have told you that

minimal art would always be my favorite. And I still love the clean

lines, the elegance, the purity of color, the clarity of form in minimal

art. But recently I have come to a much deeper appreciation of far more

expressionistic works of art and things that are far more gestural and

passionate in their presentation. And it’s very, very difficult to single

out a particular artist or style or genre or work. I couldn’t do that.

How does the South Coast Plaza satellite gallery fit into the

museum? What is it’s role?

They’re simply an extension of what we do here and the exhibitions

that we put on view at South Coast Plaza are always in some way related

to this facility. Right now, we have an exhibition that was drawn largely

from our permanent collection, an exhibition of artists’ portraits.

We also do children’s programs in our South Coast Plaza gallery, and

one of the things I like about that is that people going to South Coast

Plaza are not necessarily going there for the purpose of seeing a museum

exhibition. They’re probably going to do some errands and some shopping

and other things. So we try to present a full range of different kinds of

works of art there and attract people who come in who may not otherwise

be interested in seeing an exhibition, who may not have gone out of their

way to do that. And very often we find that people then want to come to

this facility and see more.

BIO

Name: Naomi Vine

Age: 51

Occupation: Executive director, Orange County Museum of Art

Birthplace: Seattle

Residence: Long Beach

Family: Married, has 11-year-old son’ Education: Has doctorate in art history and master’s in business

administration from University of Chicago