May 15, 2024
Dear Chancellor’s Advisory Council colleagues,
I am pleased to announce that Rich Aste has been appointed Interim Director of the Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, effective May 8, 2024.
Rich is the founder of Rich Aste Executive Coaching LLC, which focuses on supporting leaders and their teams in the arts and higher education. Prior to joining UC Irvine as an executive coach for the UCI New Leader Program in 2022, Rich was Director and CEO of the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas from 2016-2023. Under his leadership, the McNay increased visibility of underrepresented communities in its collection and exhibitions, diversified the leadership team and staff, and created a sustainable business model and new strategic plan. In 2019, Rich was awarded San Antonio’s Vistage CEO Impact Award.
Rich earned a Ph.D. in art history at the City University of New York and an M.A. in art history from Hunter College. He taught art history at Hunter and served in curatorial roles at Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico and the Brooklyn Museum. He also worked as an art specialist at Christie’s in New York and Rome. Rich is a fellow of the Center for Curatorial Leadership and a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management. He also holds an MBA and a B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan.
Please join me in thanking Rich for taking on this important role. A national search for the Langson IMCA Director will begin soon.
Sincerely,
Hal Stern
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Chancellor's Professor, Department of Statistics