For anyone, or anything else, in this county whose livelihood, hobby or goal is the public assessment of artistic effort, the last five months (and who knows how much else) have commonly been a waking nightmare. Whether it’s cutting or canceling seasons, switching to online/virtual programming, getting your peers or customers to keep the artistic verbal exchange alive, or praying for them to endure long enough to survive, no one is overcoming the pandemic.
Hirsch is Muck’s CEO. Like anyone who manages a cultural or artistic entity, to pay the bills you will have to leave the doors open. And that means doing homework. But Hirsch, who joined Muck in 2017, is the kind of user for whom promotion and production are less of a task than anything rooted in his DNA. The display of continuing is not so much a cliché for him.
That’s why, as recently as March 10, it was not imaginable that this “stupid virus,” as he calls it, derailed Muckenthaler’s chances. Like a plane vacation to the California wine region five days later. But after confirming their plans with the travel agent on the 10th, the NBA and NHL canceled their seasons the next day and Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that all statewide rallies had been canceled until at least the end of the month.
On March 12, Hirsch said, “We had no way to get on that plane.” On the 15th, with the order at Newsom’s home, Hirsch saw all of Muck’s income source resources sold out: music concerts, art classes, weddings and the ever-popular motor display and jazz festival in May and June.
Faced with so much uncertainty, Hirsch did what any 55-year-old cultural establishment manager would do: turn off the lights, send home and wait.
It’s not enough.
“There was never any closing consultation,” said Hirsch, a New York native, a producer and playwright of theater and awards, who joined Muck in 2017 after 15 years with Sirius Radio to launch new networks.
“Conceptually, our project is to enrich the human spirit through the arts,” he said. “That’s what he says. It says enrich the human brain only when it is practical or easy.”
Hirsch did not like the concept of moving exhibitions online or broadcasting concerts. But I knew I was trying to do something; I just didn’t know how to do it.
Then he started getting emails from arts organizations and corporations like Coca Cola and McDonald’s that said something like “in those tough times, we need you to know that we’re with you all the time, stay healthy and we’ll be there on the other side.”
Hirsch said the idea was positive, but an email similar to Muck’s 60,000 mailing list didn’t suit him. I like to give up.
“I think it was a serious virus, but also (which) we had a problem,” he said. “This is the way to move on here: how to solve a problem? This is not revolutionary [for any artistic organization]; I think it’s pretty standard.
Instead, Hirsch sent an email saying that “the last thing the world wants right now is self-proclaimed medical expert.” We’re not going to use this area to tell you what to do. We will use the area and all the intellectual strength we have to fulfill our mission.
Surprisingly, Hirsch said, this had results.
“Literally a lot of thank you letters and money,” he says. “People who send us checks. We don’t ask for checks. Not a million-dollar check, but they do check for $10, $50, $100, just because we were doing something different.”
It was then that Hirsch said that as long as the state was in mandatory quarantine, the Muck would launch a new program every week. And it lasted 12 weeks. Friendly videos were sent weekly to the mailing list, either to appease the serious temperament and stay connected. There was a poetry event, launching an outdoor sculpture garden, using the Muck’s enclosed interior gallery area to make masks and shields.
“People come to help,” he says. “Volunteers felt more attached to the organization and others who donated cash again.”
And then there’s a concept That Hirsch would never have a concept of flying.
Marcia Judd, a CSUF teacher and one of Muck’s art teachers, approached him with an idea. With so many young people at home after school and schools suffering from perceived distance learning, what about putting together art kits that parents can pick up at the Muck and take home?
Hirsch said he thought maybe 30 families would take the kit, but he agreed. After making sure it was COVID, the program was launched.
“When it started, we were serving 500 families a week,” Hirsch said. “We charge about $300 a week and I talked about our newsletter and dozens of other people paid $300, they paid the full program.”
A similar assignment for the elderly in the city of Anaheim followed a short time later.
After lifting his quarantine, the Muck continued to release new shows, such as a pop-up drive-up co-produced with frida Cinema, which sold his first screening, “The Promised Princess,” in 47 seconds, and opened his art. Gallery for personal Americans and up to 3 visitors for 15 minutes at a time: “a concierge gallery,” called Hirsch.
The Muck has kept its doors open, and even with the loss of the marriage’s source of income and other sources of income, unsolicited additional donations have brought it closer to the equilibrium point, Hirsch said. And he also gave Muck one of the highest profiles of any artistic entity in the county by the pandemic, with politics through newspapers and television channels, adding Telemundo, making articles and seven mentions on the News channel Spectrum Cable.
Richard Stein, president and chief executive of Arts Orange County since 2008, is not surprised. He said Hirsch, who had never been to Fullerton before the day he was interviewed for Muck’s work, better have compatibility with a long-standing institution in Fullerton, but that he opposes certain perceptions, or misperceptions, of being a country club on a hill, or the playground of some old Fullerton families. Neither is true, says Matthew Leslie, who worked for Muck for 20 years until last year as curator and helped resurrect Muck’s art categories after they became inactive in the 1990s.
Zoot Velasco, who was hired in 2007, raised the center’s profile, greatly expanding its relations in Southern California and also began actively seeking grants. Today, the Muck teaches in about three hundred locations, Hirsch said, adding prisons, homeless shelters, domestic violence immigration services, and senior centers. After an eight-month stint as director of the Kern County Museum, Velasco returned to Fullerton in 2018 to lead the Gianneschi Center for Nonprofit Research at Cal State Fullerton.
“Zoot, a guy bigger than life, charismatic and flamboyant, and he had many ideas, innovated,” Stein said. “And filling your shoes is going to be difficult. But after Farrell was hired, I thought, “Wow, they have another character bigger than life.” Farrell is as imaginative as a leader and charismatic. It is evident before the pandemic, however, I had already tried new things, so already (ahead of this curve).
“You can’t say that someone else in the county hasn’t done similar things, yet it’s been so quick about it, and I think what you’ve done shows a lot of the adaptability of an organization like that, if you’re creative.”
The Muckenthaler has some built-in benefits, Hirsch said. He doesn’t pay rent because the village still owns the property, a base manages it. And it has its vast outdoor grounds, especially its lawns to the north and west. In addition, the staff is small enough to be agile and flexible, a relative luxury that giant operations do not have.
But Hirsch is not content that some arts organizations are too large to adapt to the pandemic.
“I hear other people say things like, “We’re kind of a big shipment in the ocean and we want a giant berth.” No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I don’t buy this: “Well, we’ve done those 117 years exactly the same way.” No, the global is full of pivots and changes. Nothing is permanent unless there is a change. You’ve faced it all your life. You don’t live in your parents anymore. Don’t be afraid of change, don’t think there’s a moment that’s the turning point. You’re going to change, settle for it.
Even so, Hirsch does not minimize the severity of the pandemic or the price it entails for so many artistic institutions. But this doesn’t paralyze the creativity of other people whose activity is creativity, he said.
“This virus is not a joke. This isn’t a hoax. My brother had it and feared for his life. I just think other people don’t exercise all the weight of their brain, their creativity. There are tactics to keep doing things and do them safely. You can’t serve as usual, it probably won’t happen. But there’s a way to do it.”
Hirsch said one of the tactics in which art entities can acquire another attitude is towards the beatles film scene “Let It Be”.
‘The Beatles didn’t (they played ‘Get Back’) in the studio, they did it on the roof. What does your roof look like? What does your parking lot look like? What does the lawn look like on your board chair? I don’t know what the answers are for an individual group, but there’s one. “
So far, Hirsch has placed Muck as one of the county’s artistic achievements of the pandemic. It’s great, he says, but he’d like to go back to something familiar.
“I don’t give a damn about improvisation, but certainty is better. But I’m glad our team has a lot of skills.
But until then, he has pledged to bring out the Muck’s original 52-time season. No occasions will be cancelled; If an artist or organization cannot show up for security reasons, they will locate one to occupy the space.
And even primary occasions like the Muck Gala would probably not be virtual.
“You’ll come looking for food and listen to a Grammy-winning band, it’ll be set up a little differently. Think of it as an adventure,” he says.
And Hirsch said the Muck would be the only main occasion he likes to program every year. Last year it was the Doc Severinsen 26-piece Orchestra. This year, it’s the ballet “The Great Gatsby.”
“He has those giant plays and it was just amazing. And I think it would be wonderful to take him to a mansion that was built the same year the novel was written. But we took him off the stage. It will be a site- specific environmental theater the interior of the mansion and the lawn.”
As for beyond the pandemic, Hirsch, a history specialist at the University of Buffalo, drops an old reference to how the Muck will continue to fulfill its mission.
“Our other motivator is Newton’s first law of physics,” he says. “A moving object has a tendency to remain in motion. So let’s keep moving.”
Joel Beers contributes to the arts and culture at Voice of OC. Can be attached to [email protected].
Do you have an opinion on this story? Join the verbal exchangeArray.. Instead of comments, we inspire readers to interact with us in a variety of media. Join the open verbal exchange on our Facebook page. Send us a message through our online page form or our staff page. Send us some secure news advice. Share your opinion in a network opinion piece.
ABOUT US: Mission Editorial Policies Between us. Funding Privacy Policy
CORONAVIRUS: The latest news and orange county.
Voice of OC met with several Orange County artists to see how they deal with those life-changing events.
Since the end of March, frida cinema has been open virtually, posting links to fifteen other films a week, thanks to the film sellers who make them for the art houses.