A long line of people standing in the late afternoon sun for an art opening is probably not the image that springs to mind when you think of Orange County, L.A.’s southern neighbor, better known for surfing, shopping and Disneyland. But the 24-hour weekend opening of the new home of the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) in Costa Mesa in October drew more than 10,000 people, including some who stopped by around 4 a.m.
I’ve been to a lot of art openings, but not any running over the course of two days, with visitors coming throughout the night. By the time I arrived on Sunday, at the tail end of the weekend artfest, the line still stretched across the museum’s front plaza and down the sidewalk. I saw mothers pushing strollers, 20-somethings on dates, middle-age solo visitors, crowds of teens, and an older man in a motorized wheelchair, all waiting for their free art fix.
The outpouring of interest and of largely local financial support — more than 28 individual donors gave at least $1 million each — suggests a lot of pent-up desire to see fine art without the frustration of the increasingly pricey commute to L.A. It also suggests a growing capacity for serious regional arts philanthropy in places where you might not necessarily expect it.
“Who knew that so many people needed art in their lives?” said Heidi Zuckerman, the relatively new CEO and director of OCMA. “I was hoping that would be the case, but the 24-hour opening really made clear that we are filling a need.”
So much art, so little wall space in the big city
Smaller cities are teeming with art aficionados, as it turns out, and arts-focused funders are stepping in to meet the demand. As we’ve written before, there are several factors driving the regional arts boom: increased, dispersed wealth creation and the subsequent rise in regional giving, a desire to enjoy culture near one’s own home, and the frustration of donors who give prized works of art that remain shuttered in the stacks of major big-city museums.
Add to that the utterly unrealistic cost of housing for many in these same metropolises (I’m looking at you L.A., NYC and San Fran), the pandemic’s forced experiment in hyper-local living, and the continued reality of remote working, and you have a recipe for a real desire to relocate to easier, more affordable locales. Yet many of these former urbanites, and plenty of others, still want big-city culture. The new, stunning OCMA building is an example of how regional philanthropy is bringing world-class art to people formerly left languishing in this nation’s heretofore cultural deserts.
OCMA is not actually a new museum but rather a new home. Still, the new building doubles the gallery space of the 60-year-old OCMA, which most recently had been operating from a temporary space in a shopping plaza, after selling its former home in Newport Beach.
The building, designed by Morphosis Architects, under the direction of Pritzker prize-winner Thom Mayne and partner-in-charge Brandon Welling, is an exciting, three-level, terracotta structure that is a work of art itself. It features a glass-fronted modified peak, a peek-a-boo window facing the street, and a big, open-air rooftop on which stands a newly commissioned black metal sculpture by artist Sanford Biggers, the honoree of the OCMA’s opening gala.
The building sits on land donated by philanthropist Henry Segerstrom before his death in 2015, on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Segerstrom made his money in malls — specifically South Coast Plaza, the largest shopping mall in California, which sprawls out across the road from the arts campus. Segerstrom founded and funded the adjacent art center’s two concert halls, theaters, sculpture garden and educational center.
OCMA got the land, but still needed money for an endowment and to construct the new building, which cost $94 million. The Segerstrom Family Foundation gave $1.2 million, and Segerstrom’s son, Anton, gave a separate gift of an undisclosed amount. But beyond that, raising money for the creation and operation of the new OCMA fell on Zuckerman and capital campaign co-chairs Anton Segerstrom and David Emmes.
The art of boutique fundraising for the arts
Zuckerman came to OC after successfully establishing and running the Aspen Art Museum, another show-stopping structure known in part for its woven, wooden screen-like façade. In Aspen, Zuckerman also helped raise a couple dozen seven-figure-or-more gifts, taking what she called a “boutique, rather than institutional” approach to fundraising. “I think fundraising is about the right person making the right ask at the right time. For me, every ask should be personalized,” she said.
So far in OC, this bespoke approach has netted not only the 28 individual donors giving $1 million or more each, but also other gifts. These include $1 million raised from the 2021 gala and $2.1 million from this year’s opening week gala, raised in conjunction with gala chair Jennifer Segerstrom (Anton’s wife) and co-chair Lisa Merage. One of the two main gallery spaces is named for Anton and Jennifer Segerstrom; the other for the Muzzy Family. A mezzanine-level gallery is named for donors James B. and Rosalyn L. Pick. Newport Beach’s Lugano Diamonds donated funds to cover free general admission for all visitors for the first 10 years.
There are non-financial benefits of Zuckerman’s high-touch, high-end crowdsourcing style, she said. “We have a whole group of ambassadors and people who are invested in the success of the institution. We have a lot of people telling our story and a lot of people committed to the long-term sustainability of the organization.”
No one has yet stepped forward with an eight-figure, building-naming gift, the museum’s next fundraising goal. Zuckerman seems excited, rather than daunted by the task. “For me, fundraising — and I like to emphasize the first three letters, the ‘fun’ in fundraising — is about giving people an opportunity to be part of something that I think matters. It’s a chance to be involved in something that matters.”
At the end of the weekend event, it took me more than two hours to drive the 48 miles from OCMA back to my home in Los Angeles, partly due to traffic (and partly to taking a wrong turn while trying to make a quick run to IKEA, another popular attraction that has long capitalized on the benefit of a hinterland location). The calmer, quieter, easier-to-access OC arts campus definitely lingered in my mind as a compelling reason to consider a move south.
