Former UO dean to fill in as Schnitzer boss.

Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard

The new temporary director of the University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art will be job sharing and commuting from Los Angeles until summer while he continues working at the Getty Foundation.

Robert Z. Melnick, a landscape architect and former dean of the UO's School of Architecture and Allied Arts, was named interim director of the museum last week. He replaces David Turner, who resigned Dec. 31 during an evaluation of museum operations by an outside consultant.

Melnick said he will share responsibility for running the museum with UO vice provost Terri Warpinski.

"On a limited basis I can come to Eugene and very strategically work on very specific issues with the board and the staff," he said. "And then starting in July, I will be here full time. Until then Terri and I will be job sharing - sharing some responsibilities with my really focusing on ways of working with the board and working with some other issues."

Melnick, 58, takes over the museum as consultant Alceste Pappas, an expert on nonprofit organizations, is preparing a report on operations at the Schnitzer.

Melnick said he has not seen Pappas' report on the museum and was not at a recent board meeting where she discussed some of her findings.

Pappas' report on the museum was originally scheduled to be delivered last fall.

A separate report last year by Pappas was highly critical of the Oregon Bach Festival. Following publicity about the Bach report, university officials asked Pappas to hold off on giving her report on the museum.

University officials have not responded to a public records request filed by The Register-Guard on Dec. 18 for correspondence with Pappas about the museum report. She was to be paid $25,000 for the report.

Melnick said he expects the report to be delivered in February.

One issue the museum has faced since it reopened following a multimillion dollar remodeling is whether it is a community art museum, an academic museum or both.

Melnick says he thinks it can be both.

"It's a valuable resource on campus and in the community," he said. "I am not seeing those as opposites."

His primary job will be to find a permanent director for the museum, he said, adding that he is not a candidate for the job.

"I think you need a museum professional," he said. "And that is not the background I come from."

His other challenge will be to guide the museum as it receives the Pappas report.

"We - I purposely use the word `we' - can really make a difference in responding to that report and moving forward," he said.

Melnick resigned as dean and took leave from his job as professor at the UO in 2005. Since then he has been visiting senior program officer at the Getty Foundation in Los Angeles.

He is responsible for the program that supports preservation planning on college and university campuses. He will keep his job at the Getty while working for the museum.