The county’s two biggest art collectors – UC Irvine and the Orange County Museum of Art – are talking merger.
Officials at UC Irvine said Tuesday, June 10, that the school and the museum have signed a “nonbinding, exploratory letter of intent” that could eventually result in UCI’s Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art being housed in the same 53,000-square-foot gallery at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts that currently houses the Orange County Museum of Art.
But school officials indicated the merger would be about much more than shared space. Everything from a new director to a new museum name are on the table.
“It’s only just now getting started. And a lot of things are being discussed, but nothing is final,” said Mike Uhlenkamp, UCI’s assistant vice chancellor of communications and media relations.
For local art lovers, a merged museum could create a venue with more than 9,000 permanent pieces, including about 4,500 paintings and other works controlled by UC Irvine that are considered prime examples of California art.
A merged museum also could create new resources for UC Irvine’s fine arts program, which currently has about 250 undergraduate and graduate students. The Orange County Museum of Art’s home, opened in 2022, includes studios and other workspaces as well as galleries. And museums, generally, are viewed as key resources for aspiring artists.
Also, any mashup of UC Irvine and OCMA almost certainly would produce future programs and shows that could boost the county’s art scene. Mergers of local universities and museums in Chicago and Baltimore, among other cities, have been viewed as positive for both artists and art patrons.
But, for now, all of those outcomes are just theories. Talks are expected to conclude in the fall, and final approval for any deal will have to come from the University of California Board of Regents.
Also, the discussion announced Tuesday is just a formal version of talks that UC Irvine and the Orange County Museum of Art – both of which were started in the early 1960s – have held informally, on and off, for decades. Different leaders of both institutions have, at times, viewed a combination as mutually beneficial, but timing or finances or land use questions have always gotten in the way.
If the new talks result in a merger, it’s likely that UC Irvine would become the combined entity’s lead partner. The school has vast resources and expertise. And, for decades, its fine arts program has been viewed as a West Coast hub for everything from performance art, in the early 1970s, to digital art in the early 2000s.
The school also been raising money to build or acquire a museum – either on campus or nearby – for several years. A $2 billion fundraising program launched in 2019, Bright Future, included an art museum as one of the key projects to be financed. That program is expected to end this year, and UC Irvine officials could not say Tuesday how much money has been raised specifically for a new museum. Uhlenkamp said the school has started to talk with museum donors to alert them about any possible merger.
But it’s not clear what role money might play in any potential deal.
The Orange County Museum of Art – founded by 13 women, on Balboa Peninsula, in 1962 – has found seemingly secure footing since 2022, when it moved from Newport Beach to its current home. The move ended years of space-hopping and speculation about the museum, which has long focused on artists from California and the Pacific Rim. The new home also helped boost museum attendance. Since the start of 2023, about 250,000 people a year (who can get free admission through at least 2032 courtesy of a $2.5 million gift from Moti Ferder, chief executive of Lugano Diamonds) have been visiting the galleries.
Still, a merger with UC Irvine could solidify Orange County Museum of Art’s long-term role in the county. Earlier this year, the current director, Heidi Zuckerman, said she plans to leave when her contract expires in December, and it’s not known if there’s a candidate in line to take her place. Calls to the Orange County Museum of Art were not returned Tuesday.
It happens that UC Irvine also is seeking a new full-time director for the Museum of California Art, a decision that was made months before talks about a merger became public. Uhlenkamp said candidates for the job are being contacted about what might be in the works, a move that could change their employment plans.
“It’s not like they’d get to be building something from the ground floor. So it would be different in that regard,” he said. “But it’s both a different challenge and a different kind of opportunity.”
It’s unclear what UC Irvine or OCMA would do, or if either entity would change, if the merger doesn’t happen. The school is currently showing art at a temporary gallery in the Airport Tower building near John Wayne Airport. The current show – “California Kinship: Painting Homelife in the Golden State Before 1940” – is a 47-piece exhibit. The school owns more than 4,000 paintings – most of which are kept off campus – and the temporary space near the airport includes about 15,000 square feet of galleries. Uhlenkamp said if a merger isn’t approved, the school would continue to seek a permanent museum, but it has no specific place in mind.
Instead, a blocked merger with Orange County Museum of Art could serve as a speedbump, however small, in the school’s effort to be more closely integrated with the broader community of Orange County.
Though UC Irvine has a long history as a strong academic institution, it has stepped up its efforts in recent years to play a bigger role in county life. Political polling on Orange County, a revived baseball program, a soon-to-open public hospital – all are some of the ways the school has pushed to connect with the county.
Art could be next.
“A partnership with (Orange County Museum of Art) would be part of our effort to be a public resource,” Uhlenkamp said. “It’s a natural.”
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