Pasadena Museum of California Art Announces the Appointment of Jay Belloli as Interim Executive Director

The Board of Directors of the Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA) announced today the appointment of Jay Belloli as Interim Executive Director of the Museum. Mr. Belloli will start in this position immediately, assisted by Erin Aitali, PMCA Director of Exhibitions, who will assume the role of Interim Associate Director, in addition to her current duties.

Mr. Belloli is an independent contemporary art curator and writer who has organized numerous exhibitions at the PMCA. He is the curator of the Museum’s current exhibition Claire Falkenstein: Beyond Sculpture and co-curated the 2014 exhibition June Wayne: Paintings, Prints, and Tapestries with Dr. Betty Ann Brown. After working at the Crocker Art Museum for four years, Mrs. Aitali, who holds a BA and an MA in Art History, both from University of California, Davis, has risen through the ranks of the PMCA since her start at the Museum in 2012. “The Board of Directors is thrilled to have Jay join the Museum staff; over a long career he has made outstanding contributions to the arts community, both in Pasadena and throughout the United States. We are confident that his experience in all aspects of museum and nonprofit management, along with the support of Erin, will cultivate the stability, development, and prosperity of the PMCA as we continue our search for a permanent Executive Director,” says Jim Crawford, Chairman of the Board. “The PMCA has become a place for our audience to connect with unique and previously undiscovered aspects of California art. Through artistic and fundraising efforts, Jay and Erin will play crucial roles in shaping the museum into an even more dynamic cultural space.”

An essential and involved member of the Pasadena arts community for over three decades, Mr. Belloli was the Director of Gallery Programs at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena from 1990 through June 2010. During that time he had administrative and budgetary responsibility for the Gallery and organized more than twenty-five exhibitions, including solo exhibitions by such artists as Tim Hawkinson, Craig Kauffman, and Robert Rauschenberg. From 1989 through 2004, he also served as Art Consultant to the Jonathan Club and Jonathan Art Foundation in Los Angeles, which specialize in California Impressionism. Mr. Belloli maintains roles as Vice-President of The Falkenstein Foundation in Los Angeles, President of the Board of Trustees of Southwest Chamber Music in Pasadena, and Chair of the Giving Committee for the Vestry of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. “In fourteen years, the PMCA has made major contributions to historical and contemporary practices in California art. I am thrilled to take on this new role at the Museum,” says Mr. Belloli. “I have seen the excellence of the Museum’s staff in action and believe in the new initiatives in programming, fundraising, and education. I look forward to upholding the PMCA’s mission to present the wide range of California art and design and to continue groundbreaking exhibitions and related programs.”

Mr. Belloli replaces former Executive Director Jenkins Shannon. In addition to his work at the PMCA and in Pasadena, he has nearly twenty years of experience as a curator and museum director across the United States at such institutions as The Detroit Institute of the Arts; the Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth; the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art; the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston; and the former Baxter Art Gallery at the California Institute of Technology. He has written extensively on contemporary art and artists for catalogues and periodicals. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a BA in Studio Art and received his MA in the History of Art from the University of California at Berkeley. He lives in Pasadena.

The mission of the PMCA is to present the breadth of California art and design through exhibitions that explore the cultural dynamics and influences that are unique to California. Since it opened to the public in 2002, the PMCA has presented almost 125 exhibitions and published 17 catalogues, including Someday is Now: The Art of Corita Kent, Sam Francis: Five Decades of Abstract Expressionism, and Picturing Mexico: Alfredo Ramos Martínez in California. http://pmcaonline.org/