The newly formed UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art has appointed Kathryn Kanjo as its first director. Kanjo, who currently leads the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), will assume the role in February 2026, also overseeing the UC Irvine Jack & Shanaz Langson Institute of California Art. The appointment follows the amicable merger of the University of California, Irvine, and the Orange County Museum of Art, finalized this fall, which created a new entity uniting three major California art collections—the Irvine, Buck, and OCMA collections—totaling some 9,000 works housed in a 53,000-square-foot facility at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
This appointment matters because it marks a watershed moment for visual arts in Orange County, establishing a new model for public arts engagement and scholarship through a university-museum merger. Kanjo brings over three decades of experience, including leadership at MCASD, Artpace San Antonio, and curatorial roles at the Portland Art Museum and the Whitney Museum, positioning her to guide the institution through its transitional period and into a future that emphasizes critical inquiry, student learning, and exceptional museum experiences.