‘A Window of Opportunity Right Now’

Question: Did it seem odd that a worldwide search for the center’s new president ended up with an insider so close to home, who also sits on the center’s board?

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Answer: Since most of us involved in the search process are not entirely naive or stupid, we recognized that there was some potential for conflict in a number of areas. The last thing we wanted to do was cause discord between the center and UCI. So that was the first thing we thought of. The second, even more obvious was: Gosh, we’re talking about a world-class arts institution with a world-class search by a firm with the largest executive recruiting program on the planet, and we’re going to bring in one of our board members? We could see the potential problems.

But the beauty of the process was this: By finding this type of candidate in Jerry in our own community, it forced us to do a longer, more thorough search than I think we ever imagined. We were constantly looking over our shoulder to ensure that we left no stone unturned. So all I can say [is], it was a many- months-long process of intense thoughtfulness that brought us to this place. Which is why, at least from this moment on, all of us who were involved in the process can breathe a sigh of relief that we did everything that people could do to find the right candidate. It was a brilliant test and, I think, very healthy for the organization too.

Q: How do you explain hiring someone who has neither run a major performing arts center nor been an arts programmer?

A: In Jerry we were looking for his managerial skills. We’re also looking at the second decade of where we go and what we need. We’re no longer in a staff-building mode. We now have a much more mature staff. We’re an in-place institution. And to some extent we’ve become, God forbid, a bureaucracy. So now we need a manager, an operating executive, not necessarily a focused programming person. We already have a full-time, fully focused, world-class director of programming in Judy Morr. If you have your president running the programming full time, obviously you have about five other things not getting done, supervised or managed appropriately.

Jerry’s understanding of our community will also be a key asset in shaping its future and what the role of the performing arts center should be. Together with the senior staff, Jerry is the right person to develop long-term strategy for the organization on all fronts: expansion, fund-raising, programming and policy.

Q: How important was his fund-raising expertise?

A: Extremely. This center has needed, for an extended length of time, a world-class vice president of development who can actually go out and raise money year in and year out. There are probably less than 10 really very good, highly successful executive fund-raisers in this state. So in our collegial conversations on the board, all of us knew Jerry and his efforts at UCI and his obviously being a stellar fund-raiser. We sort of asked, “What do you think it would take to get Jerry from the university to be our vice president for development?”

We passed that by him, and what he said was that he had the best development job in the county already. He said he loved the university. He said, “I love you guys, too, but it wouldn’t make sense for me to make a lateral move like that.” In the course of those conversations he started to make some comments about his passion for the arts and his arts background, and we slowly began to think, hmmm.

Q: How do you see the center’s expansion plans?

A: The process, in my experience, is a three-dimensional chess game, “Star Trek” chess. It’s not just moving forward, sideways and back. It’s up and down. The board has agreed with the staff; the staff has agreed with the regional arts organizations, and they are in large agreement with their donors that the center needs to be expanded. But to bring all of these constituencies together and then coordinate that need with the Segerstrom family to gain the gift of the land across the street from the center is unfathomably complex. The process is ongoing, and it has been very intense over the last several months.

Q: Assuming you will get the land, how soon will that be?

A: We’re not in a position to publicly announce where we’re at on that, not out of any desire to withhold anything from the press or the public. It’s just that in building a consensus among all the participants, we don’t want to prematurely suggest that the Segerstrom family is prepared to do anything prior to them being able to say it in their own right.

Q: What is your vision of an expanded center?

A: What it comes down to is that Orange County will have a performing arts complex that will be inclusive of a variety of different art forms that will rival Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and anyplace else in this country. And it can only be done here.

Q: Do you think the county itself is large enough to support such a grand vision?

A: Absolutely. The county has grown so dramatically since the center has opened, not only in terms of population but [also] in terms of sophistication, interest in the arts and so on, I think it can. If we had another hall and doubled our number of seats today, we could fill them both.

My view is that in the seasons of life there are certain windows of opportunity. It’s my sense and our sense as an organization that as we look at this community and where it is in its economy, in its growth, in its maturation and sophistication, that there’s a window of opportunity right now to create an arts complex of a world-class nature. That has not been the case up until now.

The exciting dynamics and economics of building the center in the first place obviously were arrested by 1990 and 1991, with the economy being in so much trouble. Now, with the economy stronger and the stars aligning, as it were, in terms of corporate sponsorship and philanthropy, it appears that this is the time that window of opportunity has opened. . . . If we don’t take advantage of it decisively, it will be a missed opportunity.