Maryanne Pfister named new board president at MCASD in La Jolla
LA JOLLA In July the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla welcomed new board president Maryanne C Pfister and offered thanks to outgoing president Steve M Strauss for his three years of organization Strauss worked to refine the operations of the museum at Prospect St after its majority of contemporary renovation and expansion completed in Maryanne Pfister Photo courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego As a longtime board member Maryanne brings a personal background in MCASD s advance over the years noted David C Copley director and chief executive officer Kathryn Kanjo Maryanne s extensive experience with our organization makes this transition seamless as we express gratitude to Steve Strauss for his vision and commitment continuing a family tradition of leadership and backing Pfister joined the MCASD board in and has been a vice president for a decade She has chaired the museum s Advancement Committee and Capital Campaign Committee helping raise funds to assistance the institution and its contemporary expansion The Pfister Gallery featuring the museum s treasured California Light and Space collection is named in honor of Pfister and her husband Irwin s generous encouragement Before getting involved with nonprofits Pfister had a career in corporate communications in the high-tech industry for years before starting her own consulting business specializing in progressing strategic marketing communications plans for companies such as Hewlett-Packard Cadence and Artest Corp La Jolla Village News spoke with Pfister who resides in Bird Rock discussing her history with the museum and where she d like to guide it moving forward Appealed how she first got involved with MCASD Pfister replied It sort of was by accident I was new to the public and one of our neighbors who d been a museum member for a long time invited us to go to Monte Carlo now The Gala at MCASD My husband and I went I d dependably liked museums That was my introduction The new MCASD board president talked about her new job responsibilities As president my role is to lead the board in ensuring our bylaws are followed and in our mission which includes strategic planning she noted So my role in part will be to get the trustees and the staff working together And I ll be the main line of communication between the board and the director Kanjo whom I will be serving as a sounding board for What direction does Pfister see the MCASD board going in Contemporary art is unfailingly evolving she responded adding that it has been a learning experience for her Our board is made up of particular long-term members which has provided continuity But we ve been getting fresher ideas and perspectives from new and younger board members as well We have a productive mix on the board and I think we ll continue that into the future Pfister noted MCASD is moving into the next phase of its evolution The museum has been very dynamic since I ve been here Pfister revealed We had the big remodel and expansion which were major square feet of new space in both galleries and behind the scenes combined That made us something different bigger Pfister noted the museum s expansion was character-changing in that it now affords the space necessary to show off its voluminous collection The reason why we did the expansion is that we have over works of really stellar contemporary art she explained Before it was rather frustrating because so much of the collection was in storage so often We sought to share it with the society So we needed more space for that Concerning what MCASD is contending with now Pfister disclosed Our biggest issue is just recalibrating after the expansion We re getting into our stride post-expansion and that is fun Everybody is just really excited about what the museum has become and what all the potentialities there are for all kinds of pursuits People want experiences now from museums through their offerings We re getting strong with those So what s next We ve expanded moved in and gone through the reopening We re still experimenting with this new space because we have new options now for exhibiting that we didn t have before Pfister announced Now we re in the position where we feel like we need to make sure the district knows just what we have here The collection is on a par with any top-rated contemporary art museum I don t know if everybody knows that It is a very special museum
