Reversing Course, MOCA Will Look for New Chief Curator

By RANDY KENNEDY

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, stung by criticism of its leadership, has reversed course and decided to conduct a search for a new chief curator, after initially saying that it would leave the position unfilled.

Paul Schimmel, the museum's longtime chief curator, was forced out in June and the museum's director, Jeffrey Deitch, announced plans to take on that role himself, with the help of guest curators. But Bloomberg News reported last night that the museum's board has decided the institution needs a curatorial leader in addition to a director.

“In the past weeks we have witnessed considerable media attention and criticism directed at MOCA and its leadership, particularly at our director,” the board's executive committee said in a letter cited by Bloomberg that was sent Monday to all trustees. The hiring of a new chief curator “will enable us to continue to strengthen this institution with the res ources necessary for the director to succeed,” the letter continued, adding that the board continues to support Mr. Deitch's leadership of the museum.

In the last few weeks, all four of members of the museum's board who are artists have resigned in protest of the institution's turn toward a more pop-culture oriented program under Mr. Deitch, who was previously a successful commercial gallery owner in New York. The board has defended Mr. Deitch's vision for the museum, saying that a paradigm shift is happening in which “both art and its audience are changing, and that Mr. Deitch “came here to bring us into this new era.”