LACMA Says Farewell to ‘the Powell Years’

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art held an open house Wednesday night to say goodby to the museum’s director of the past 12 years, Earl A. Powell III--better known as Rusty.

Powell will begin his new job as director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington on Sept. 1, but he and his wife Nancy were leaving Los Angeles early the next morning for their new home in Georgetown.

The faces in the crowd were a history of past and current museum donors, supporters and trustees, from Ahmanson to Zilkha. And before leaving town, Powell had a few final words for friends. “We will always consider ourselves Los Angelenos,” he said, to cheers from the crowd.

The museum was open for the occasion, but most guests stayed in the forecourt, sipping white wine, eating hors d’oeuvres, and offering endless greetings to the Powells.

If Nancy Powell was suffering from last-minute packing panic, she didn’t show it as she greeted the dozens of well-wishers who surrounded her. “It’s nice we’re not going to a totally different place,” said Nancy. Before coming to Los Angeles in 1980, her husband was an assistant curator at the National Gallery.

During what the museum’s press materials called “the Powell years,” Los Angeles’ stature as a world-class art center grew--even as funding for the arts was cut and, often, transformed into a political issue. Several speakers made reference to “these difficult years.”

LACMA has yet to name a replacement for Powell. Robert Maguire, president of the museum’s board of trustees, says the museum “would like to be back in business as soon as possible.” Maguire added, though, that “there is a 180-degree difference between this selection and the last time we had to make one. There’s no shortage of exciting candidates. We’re still doing very well here, especially compared to a lot of major institutions.”

Dan Belin, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees, and L.A. County Supervisor Deane Dana also offered tributes to Powell. Entertainment was provided by a six-man, one-woman jazz combo called the Night Blooming Jazzmen--headed by the museum’s head of conservation Pieter Myers and his wife Alida. Like a certain presidential candidate, Myers moonlights on the saxophone.