Overview
- Kanjo will start in February 2026 as the museum’s first director and will also oversee the UC Irvine Jack & Shanaz Langson Institute of California Art.
- The new museum unites the Irvine, Buck, and OCMA collections into a roughly 9,000-work holding under UC Irvine stewardship.
- UC Irvine now manages OCMA’s approximately 52,000–53,000-square-foot, $98 million facility at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.
- Kanjo says she intends to present Orange County’s environmental and physical transformation as a core narrative drawn from the merged collections.
- UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman called her the ideal leader for the transition, while MCASD said her last day there will be Jan. 30 as it begins a CEO search.