By Jondi Gumz
On Jan. 6, Ginger Shulick Porcella will become executive director at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History known as MAH.
As a 34-year-old from New York becoming director of the Institute for Contemporary Art San Diego, she made that institution a place everybody talked about. Then she was an agent of change as executive director of Franconia Sculpture Park. As executive director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson, she secured grants focusing on the work of female LGBTQIA’s and doubled attendance. Mostly recently she spent a year as executive director at the nonprofit Creative Growth with 34 staff supporting artists with disabilities in Oakland where workers voted to unionize.
On Instagram, she describes herself as “Devil-may-care rebel cowgirl. Art instigator.”
According to the MAH announcement, “in all of her roles she has helped organizations acknowledge their past and create a roadmap to collectively move forward through radical listening and calculated risk-taking.”
Expect that here.
Founded in 1996, the MAH is a community gathering place at 705 Front St., Santa Cruz, that offers rotating art and history exhibitions, visual and performing artworks, public festivals, education and outreach programs, and cultural celebrations with many partners. It maintains a permanent collection, a research library, a historical archive, and historic sites including the Evergreen Cemetery, Octagon Building, and Davenport Jail. It is home to Abbott Square, a public plaza offering food, social events, and creative happenings.
Museum leaders had sought community input getting more than 200 responses.
Board chair Jorian Wilkins had said, “We are committed to finding a visionary leader who will continue to advance the MAH’s mission and values.”
Porcella won out over another finalist, Laura Henkel, based in Las Vegas and author of “Creating Profits: Artists, Galleries & Museums” about building a successful and sustainable business that supports arts and cultural ventures while engaging communities and enriching cultural landscapes.
“I’m thrilled to be joining the MAH in furthering their mission,” said Porcella. “To ignite shared experiences and unexpected connections, using art and history to build a stronger, more connected community. To be able to live and work in Santa Cruz alongside such a dedicated staff and board is truly a dream come true.”
Porcella plans to focus on elevating history and contemporary art while expanding the MAH’s influence through community-driven exhibitions. She aims to create “a strong regional focus with a significant national impact.”
Porcella has an master’s degree in socio-cultural anthropology from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in art history from DePaul University.
She is founder/co-curator of the 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial, a collaboration with more than 20 arts, environmental, and tribal organizations.
She curated critically acclaimed museum exhibitions such as Amir H. Fallah: Scatter my Ashes on Foreign Lands; Blessed Be: Mysticism, Spirituality and the Occult in Contemporary Art; and Dazzled: OMD, Memphis Design and Beyond.
Her exhibitions have been positively reviewed in Frieze, The New York Times, and Hyperallergic and in 2015 she was named the “Voice of the Year” by the San Diego press for her visionary leadership in transforming the arts and cultural ecosystem of Southern California and Baja, Mexico.