Last month the Express-News reported that Ruth Medellin, executive director of the Alameda National Center for Latino Arts and Culture, will be leaving the organization. This comes on the heals of Laura Esparza’s departure from the directorship of Museo Alameda (which is run by the Alameda Center). However, this hardly the whole story.

According to Emvergeoning’s sources, virtually the entire Alameda staff will have to reapply to their jobs if they want to stay with the organization, while the Alameda conducts a national search to replace not just the executive director, but her staff as well. There were many problems with the launch of the Museo Alameda, and the organization had to make moves to address these problems. The exhibitions lacked vision; the wall text was riddled with errors; at least one commissioned artist wasn’t even reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses in the tens of thousands of dollars, and had to hire a collector.  However, despite problems with the opening of the museum (documented in part by the New York Times), I have to wonder if this purge is the wisest course of action at this juncture.

Now I don’t have an MBA, and I certainly don’t know about the internal politics of the Alameda, but to me it would seem much more reasonable to allow the incoming director to replace staff as needed, rather than throwing the entire organization into turmoil.

In the Express-News piece, founding chairman Henry Muñoz III says, “We’ve got senior-level people both at the museum and the Alameda, and they’re going to see us through this transition.” Are they going to remain committed to the Alameda during this time, not knowing who they will be working for or with at the end of the transition? Maybe it would be worthwhile for a full-time reporter to follow up on this purge, so we could learn more about the underlying causes and potential repercussions of the move.

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