Museum on solid financial footing

The Laguna Art Museum’s finances are firmly in the black for the first time in years.

Outgoing board treasurer Cathy Conway said at Tuesday’s annual membership meeting that the endowment has increased by almost $100,000 in the past two years and that the museum’s line of credit has been paid off.

“We did not have to use it [credit] this year, and we do not plan to use it next year,” she said.

The museum also received $169,000 from the city’s hotel bed tax.

“For the first time in several years, we are firmly in the black,” Conway said. She leaves the institution on good footing, with assets valued at $4 million.

“It’s so satisfying to know the museum is strong again,” Conway said. “But the museum can only stay strong if membership stays involved.”

Development Director Kelly Cornell said that the museum’s annual fund surpassed its goal of $175,000, exceeding expectations for the second year in a row; next year’s goal is slated to be $200,000.

The museum has experienced a decline in membership growth, despite a major public relations effort.

“I am hopeful that membership will expand as the community takes more notice of all the changes,” said outgoing Board President Igal Silber.

Membership spiked during the marketing campaign and has since declined, Museum Director Bolton Colburn said. The museum has a new database with which it can be more strategic in its direct-mail efforts; rather than soliciting every Laguna Beach resident, they will now target those in the Laguna Beach area who are members of other Orange County arts institutions, focusing on three campaigns — contemporary, American Impressionist and pop culture.

Colburn also noted that more of the museum’s support is “brick and mortar,” meaning slow but stable, rather than one-time grants.

A number of other marketing changes have been made.

LAM’s logo has been designed by a new marketing company to make it more “fresh and alive,” he said.

The company also created a new museum brochure, which Colburn said the museum never had before.

The museum’s number of major annual events was decreased from four to three, but they achieved more with fewer events, he said.

Colburn added that the learning lab in the museum’s downstairs Segerstrom Gallery has been reclaimed as exhibit space, as it had become a “dead space” when not in use.

The museum has also revamped its store, instituting “a lot of radical changes,” Colburn said. They’ve turned the volunteer store manager position into a paid full-time job and hired part-time employees, as they “burned out” their volunteer manager and were running in the red.

They also made changes in the amount and types of merchandise sold, eliminating items that can be found anywhere and focusing on products that are more LAM-centric.

Items related to the recent “Pervasion” show, with its emphasis on vinyl toys, proved to be a very lucrative seller.

“With ‘Pervasion,” we found a solution,” Colburn said.

A future exhibition of Orange County-based Harvey’s SeatBeltBags will use a similar technique, offering a limited-edition version of the popular handbag in the store.

The museum made a major recent acquisition — Joseph Kleitsch’s “The Artist,” which is being restored at the Balboa Art Conservation Center in San Diego prior to being exhibited.

It has also surpassed its deaccession goals, bringing in more funds, Colburn said.

Also slated for this fiscal year are “Kustum Kulture,” featuring the work of a prolific car pinstriper on less expected media, and OsCene 2006, which will be curated by a former intern in her curatorial debut.

In a show of repaired relations between LAM and the Orange County Museum of Art, the OsCene will coincide with the OCMA California Biannual.

The museum’s next major historical show will feature American impressionist Colin Campbell Cooper; the LAM-prepared show opens first in New York but will arrive in Laguna next year.

“We like to feel that we’re contributing to scholarship in the field,” Chief Curator Tyler Stallings said.

“Pervasion” and the current permanent collection exhibition will close Sept. 24.

The historical exhibition, “Artists and Continent’s End,” and “As I See It,” art by local youth shelter residents, will close Oct. 1.

Oct. 1 will also be “Free-For-All” day, in which all visitors will receive free general admission.