UC Irvine takes over the Orange County Museum of Art: a new institution is born with over 9,000 works of art

Just three years after opening in its new $98 million building, the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) in Costa Mesa is becoming part of the University of California, Irvine, as Hyperallergic reports, referring to the university’s statement published on Monday, September 29. The merger creates a new institution, called the “UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art,” which brings OCMA together with the Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art (Langson IMCA). The university will take on fiduciary responsibility for the new organization, as well as curatorial and programmatic decision-making after a transition period, according to the announcement. The new collection reaches over 9,000 works of art — roughly 4,500 from each institution.

OCMA, founded in 1962 by a group of 13 women in Newport Beach and reopened in 2022 in the 53,000-square-foot building designed by the Morphosis studio, stood out under curator Paul Schimmel with works by artists such as John Baldessari, Chris Burden and Vija Celmins. Langson IMCA, for its part, was founded by the university in 2017 after the acquisition of two modern California art collections and is eventually expected to move into the OCMA building. The deal follows a turbulent period for OCMA: 14 board members left in the summer of 2024 amid what the Los Angeles Times described as an “atmosphere of turmoil,” while principal donor Mordechai “Moti” Ferder faced fraud and civil theft charges this year. OCMA’s board was dissolved as a result of the acquisition. According to the statement, both organizations will continue their planned programming through 2026 while the “unified identity” takes shape, and the national search for the director of the combined institution is hoped to conclude early next year.