Las Vegas museum, curator part ways

Kimberley McGee

Thursday, Oct. 4, 2001 | 9:50 a.m.

The Las Vegas Art Museum has released curator James Mann from his contract because of what museum officials describe as artistic differences.

Museum President David Carver and Executive Director Marianne Lorenz informed Mann of the decision Friday.

"It's very difficult to talk about, because Jim is a very good friend of mine," Carver said Wednesday afternoon. "He's a scholar and he's good when it comes to art knowledge and a very good writer. It's hard to have this discussion without sounding like you did something wrong. That's not the case. He's not been eliminated. This is a refocus of what we can give this community."

Carver said the museum has decided to widen its focus to include more community-oriented art to appeal to Las Vegas' expanding population. Under Mann, the museum emphasized art after postmodernism, which is defined as works produced after the early part of the 20th century.

Mann was given a severance payment package and will remain with the museum through Dec. 31 in a limited capacity. Mann's duties as curator will be shifted to Lorenz, who replaced Joe Palermo in March.

"I still have a great deal of work to do in responding to inquiries about possible exhibitions," Mann said. "In general, my duties for the remainder of this year will not change from what they have been under the new director."

Mann opened the Las Vegas Art Museum at 9600 W. Sahara Ave. on Jan. 31, 1997. He was an independent curator in his home state of South Carolina for seven years before arriving at the Las Vegas museum.

The museum is in a position, Carver said, where it has to take the limited financial resources that it has and use them in a way that is going to reach the broadest number of people.

"We are switching from a small museum that's been run by very capable, but nonprofessional, people to a museum that is being run by a professional," Carver said.

The shift began in March with the addition of Lorenz, Carver said.

Palermo, a longtime Las Vegas artist, was an "extremely capable executive director," Carver said, who had a great love for the museum. He was not, however, what the museum needed to expand.

"He worked that job with no money, or very little money, for a long period of time," Carver said. "But Joe was an artist not a museum director. When he decided to leave, the board got together and decided to hire a big, executive, professional executive director."

Palermo, a local artist and owner of Gallery P in downtown Las Vegas, said education has always been the museum's mission.

"I don't know how they can improve on the direction we were going," Palermo said. "I haven't kept up with what's going on over there, but I know a new director will do different things and I know (Lorenz's) heart is in the right place."

Lorenz left her position as executive director of the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Mont., to join the Las Vegas museum. The museum plans to hire an education curator to concentrate on community outreach once it has gathered sufficient funds, Lorenz said.

"I'm very optimistic that will happen in the next 18 months," she said. The museum has been actively searching for a development director, a position created to help the museum in its new fund-raising focus.

"Quite frankly, we have to have money to operate the museum," Carver said. "It was operating very much on a shoestring before, and now we are working with a budget that has increased a great deal. We've become a regular organization that must have a development director and get membership up and do all the things that we have to do to operate."

Jerry Schefcik, director of the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, said that the museum's focus toward funding makes sense, considering the ambitious shows it has hosted.

"Their exhibits are high-profile, like Chihuly and Rodin," Schefcik said. "But high-profile exhibits cost a lot of money. Unless you have a $10 million endowment, it's difficult, especially for a museum as young as the Las Vegas Art Museum."

The large shows that the museum has brought in, by such artists as Salvador Dali and Marc Chagall, were possible in part because of board members' art connections.

In 1999 a friend of Carver's offered his own collection of original Chagall works to the museum free of charge, Carver said. Carver also donated $16,000 of his own money to print the glossy catalog to accompany the exhibit.

But that could only continue for so long, Carver said.

"The reality is that to get programming like that, you have to spend money," Carver said. "Because Marianne (Lorenz) has come in and can do the programming (and curating), we can reposition ourselves. We are going to have to really get out and start developing more leads for funds to operate the museum."