Interview and article by
Cathy Breslaw
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Daniel Foster |
The Oceanside Museum of Art is
a regional museum of San Diego county which has seen large overall growth in
the last several years in both the size and scope of its spaces, staff and
exhibitions. Six months ago Daniel
Foster was hired to be the Executive Director and in our interview, Foster
discussed his background and what led to his joining the Oceanside Museum. He
also articulated proposed plans for its future.
Daniel Foster was born and
raised in Woodland Hills, California. He
is the oldest of two children born to a father who is a nuclear physicist and
mother who is a homemaker. While growing up, he wasn’t focused on any
particular subject area but commented that he was “curious and loved learning”. Foster spent his first two years of college
at the University of California, San Diego in Revelle College which he
describes as having given him a “renaissance education
that combined the sciences and math with the humanities”. Foster commented that this was where he
“discovered his philosophical soul”. To complete his college education, he
transferred to the University of Southern California where he majored in
Business Administration. Prior to
attending USC however, he spent a year traveling
through Europe, having craved an “experiential pursuit of knowledge”.
Fighting pressures to pursue a
traditional career path, Foster saw himself as a “staunch individualist”.
Rather than following the corporate route in business school, he was attracted
to the Entreprenurial Program at USC. He wanted to be part of
creating products and ideas that were innovative and “made the world a better
place”. Foster described himself as
not a “hands on” creator, being more interested in academic, book knowledge.
While studying business he realized that creating and running businesses are
more about the sweat of the day to day technical side, and very little having
to do with creativity and innovation. He
asked himself “How can I be both practical and live as an inventor and be
creative?”
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| James Hubbell "Group of Horses", bronze |
Foster often visited museums
and galleries and was in San Diego when he happened to see a Walter Wojtyla exhibition. Having seen Wojtyla’s work was a pivotal
moment in Foster’s life and having realized that Wojtyla used prismacolors, he
went down to the local art store and bought prismacolor pencils. He was determined to fill the walls of his
new place in La Jolla with his own art. He was in his 20’s and he wanted to
make the most of his creative moment. He described this time as a “deep intimate
journey” where he set aside the material aspirations of earning a living, to
create art. He supported himself in a combination of part time jobs – selling
jewelry and working in restaurants, galleries and museums, to working in the adult
education program at the San Diego Art Institute. Foster commented that he is a
“non-careerist” and that it is his belief that “taking care of today” is the
path one should take. So he put his faith in his ‘dream’ and signed up for
classes in the visual art department at UCSD.
He worked with several of the faculty there, gaining insight and feedback
about his work. He spent three to four years
working on various bodies of work that included painting, photography, and
poetry. When he was sure he had gone as far as he could with his work at UCSD,
he decided to get an MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute. He completed his degree in both New Genres
and Painting/Sculpture and then went to work at the residency program of the
Headland Center for the Arts in Sausalito where he spent two years. Interestingly
enough, Foster has never exhibited or sold any of his art work.
After his many years of
art-making, Foster applied for a position as Executive Director for the
Riverside Museum of Art. Admittedly, he
felt he may not have had the background for some of the aspects of the job, but
he felt he made up for it in his vision, philosophy and passion for the
museum. The Board of Directors agreed
and he was hired. He worked as Executive Director for the Riverside Museum from
2003-2009.
Foster had very specific
ideas about how he wanted to run the Riverside Museum. He believed the number one mission was to
take care of the artists in the community, and where some museums tend to
marginalize artists, his was going to
include them. He believes many museums
take a “country club approach” by focusing on the patrons, members and
collectors - his was going to center things around artists. During his tenure
at Riverside,he increased the number of exhibitions from 10-12 per year up to
25-30 shows per year, shortening the runs of each exhibition but giving the community
more eclectic shows to experience. The museum also operated many educational
programs for artists that ranged from setting up critique groups, to holding lectures,
to workshops that centered on teaching artists about how to run a successful
art career.
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| Flavia Gilmore, "Its Alright", assemblage |
While at the Riverside Museum
of Art, Foster was approached to become the CEO for the Riverside and San
Bernadino Counties Community Foundation.
This public, non profit foundation, is one of 770 in the U.S. that focus on charitable
activities to improve the quality of life for its citizens. Foster took this
position as he realized that this opportunity gave him the chance to change
peoples’ lives. During his time there, he accomplished his goals to improve
education, environmental issues, and to establish an arts and culture plan for
the communities in those counties. He helped build a San Bernadino Arts Council,
raising $250 thousand dollars for this organization. He remains as Board Chair and wants to see
that this council sets up an arts and cultural organization in San Bernadino. Foster
believes that building the arts and culture in an area greatly improves the
overall life of the entire community.
In the spring of 2012, Foster
was contacted by a board member at the Oceanside Museum of Art, letting him
know there was a vacant position for Executive Director. Encouraged to apply
and having also thought seriously about returning to San Diego, Foster applied
and was selected to become the new Executive Director of the museum. Foster
believes that strengthening the arts and culture of the Oceanside community is
central to its’ becoming an economically sound city. Foster had been watching
the development of the museum for several years and was impressed with the
growth of its new building, membership and outstanding exhibition schedule.
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| Ellen Salk, "Emergence", oil on canvas, 6' x 8' |
Foster outlined several plans
for the museum. Central to his plan, is
to build what he calls an “Oceanside Cultural Consortium” – a group of both
business and arts groups and to develop a collaboration among these
groups. He wants the focus of the
exhibitions to be on southern California artists, and to make collectors a
priority. He intends to encourage
regular exhibitions of San Diego collectors’ collections and to build an
association between collectors and artists. Foster intends to greatly increase
the usage of the building to include outside classes and an outside sculpture
garden, to open a new gallery space on the basement level with an art
instruction classroom for youth and adult art classes, and to do community
outreach by expanding into satellite spaces in Del Mar, Rancho Santa Fe and
Escondido. He also wants to facilitate
monthly Art Walks for the community, and to encourage the building of artists
studio/lofts in Oceanside. Long term he
wants to aggressively fundraise and lead
an expansion of the physical spaces of the museum in the city of Oceanside.
No doubt Daniel Foster has
some ambitious plans for the Oceanside Museum of Art and we welcome his passion
and enthusiasm for growing the arts and culture of San Diego county communities.
*Note: Art images are selections from current exhibitions at the Oceanside Museum of Art
