LOS ANGELES, CA.- Rounding out a year of momentous change for the institution, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has announced the election of three new members to its Board of Trustees. The addition of the new trustees creates a total of six new members that have joined the LACMA board during the first year of CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director Michael Govan’s leadership.

New to the LACMA Board of Trustees are:
• Tom Gores, Chairman and CEO of Platinum Equity, a leading mergers, acquisitions and operations company. Platinum Equity has been recognized as one of the largest and fastest growing, private companies in the United States, most recently ranking #18 on Forbes’ Largest Private Companies list for 2005. Mr. Gores is involved in philanthropic activities as a member of the board of directors at both St. Joseph’s Hospital and UCLA Medical Center. He collects primarily twentieth century art work.

• Geoffrey Palmer, Founder and CEO of G.H. Palmer Associates, a diversified real estate company. Mr. Palmer is a board member of the Los Angeles Music Center and a founder of its Fund for the Performing Arts. He and his wife, Anne, are active in philanthropy with community groups including Friends of the Family, a counseling center in the San Fernando Valley. His recent donation to Pepperdine University founded the Geoffrey H. Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship and the Law. The Palmers collect modern art, with an emphasis in early twentieth century paintings.

• Eric Smidt, Chief Executive Officer of Harbor Freight Tools. The Camarillo-based private company is the largest tool and equipment catalog retailer in the U.S. and operates retail outlets across the country. Mr. Smidt collects post war contemporary artwork and is involved in a variety of educational causes.

The addition of Gores, Palmer, and Smidt – as well as David Bohnett, philanthropist and technology entrepreneur; Michael Crichton, bestselling author, award-winning television producer and filmmaker; and Terry Semel, chairman and CEO of Yahoo! Inc., announced earlier this year – further demonstrates the concentrated efforts of LACMA’s Board of Trustees to expand its ranks and seek out new leaders, with a vast range of experience and perspective. The board is currently comprised of 46 trustees – 24 of whom have joined since 2000 – and each of whom play a critical role in determining LACMA’s reputation, success, and future growth.

“This has been a thrilling year for the museum, packed with change and a reenergized spirit at every level,” said Nancy Daly Riordan, LACMA Board Chair. “These new trustees are exceptionally enthusiastic and well-suited to advance the Board’s mission to further develop our collection, our programs and our campus. I can’t wait to see what the next year brings for LACMA.”

LACMA is currently in the midst of the first phase of a major expansion of its Wilshire Boulevard complex expected to be completed in late 2007/early 2008. The Board of Trustees will focus their energies over the next several years on supporting ongoing programs, planning and fundraising for additional phases of the expansion, and working with the Director and curatorial staff to identify and acquire works of art that can take LACMA’s collections to world class status.

“As the museum leadership charts a course for LACMA’s growth it is vital that we have an energized and engaged Board who shares our vision of its future,” stated Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Director. “The three new trustees share our commitment to making great art accessible to the entire community, and our commitment to LACMA’s role as a civic leader in what is undoubtedly the creative capital of the world.”

Since LACMA’s inception, the museum’s outstanding collections have grown dramatically and are reflective of the dynamic attributes of the region. Yet, as the collections have grown, space constraints and an awkward building configuration have limited the museum’s ability to share them with the public in a meaningful way. In 2006, LACMA began construction on Phase I of its comprehensive building program to expand, upgrade, and unify its six building, 20-acre campus with a design, developed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, in collaboration with the museum. The task laid out for Mr. Piano and the rest of the design team was to transform the museum both inside and out, creating dynamic, light-filled spaces for viewing art, enjoying the surrounding park, and more easily navigating through LACMA’s encyclopedic collections.

The addition of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA (BCAM) will make LACMA the first major encyclopedic museum to make contemporary art a primary area of activity, fully integrating it into LACMA’s collection and installation strategy, exhibitions, and programs. Los Angeles has one of the most exceptional concentrations of artists, art schools, galleries, collectors, and arts institutions in the world; the city is perfectly poised to become one of the great cultural cities. LACMA plays a vital role in supporting and fostering this transformation and in using its encyclopedic collections to explore the interplay of the art of our time with the art of the past.