In an age when everything is 'curated,' these folks are the real deal

_This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts._ “I was thinking of going to England to do something more

calm,” says Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, a former director, curator and consultant of the Cisneros Fontanals Arts Foundation in Miami. Instead, she became chief curator of the Museum of Latin

American Art in Long Beach. Answering the call of Richard P. Townsend, the museum’s new president, she agreed to help transform the institution founded by the late Robert Gumbiner and

endowed with $25 million. Gumbiner was an eccentric collector, but he left a museum “ready to move to the next level,” Fajardo-Hill says. “There is only one museum of Latin American art in

the States and it’s this one. Everything is in place to do something great, so I had no excuse to say no. It was too perfect.” With plans to present three or four edgy contemporary projects

each year, in addition to three major exhibitions and a changing array of works from the collection, Fajardo-Hill has her work cut out for her. And she has lots of collegial company. Over

the last couple of years, amid an economic downturn that has brought cutbacks at museums nationwide, about 20 curators have landed jobs at Southern California’s art museums. The infusion of

new blood reflects a growing ethnic diversity as well as fresh perspectives and new directions. To read the full story in Sunday’s Arts & Books section, click here. -- Suzanne Muchnic

_Anne Ellegood of the Hammer Museum,__ Cecilia Fajardo-Hill of the Museum of Latin American Art and Douglas Fogle of the Hammer Museum, photographed at the Hammer, part of the new class of

museum curators in Southern California. _ s