FACULTY
First Museum Director Attracted Major Exhibitions and Acquisitions
Judy L. Larson arrived at Westmont in 2008, four months before the college broke ground for the Adams Center for the Visual Arts and the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. As the inaugural R. Anthony Askew professor of art and the director of the museum, she taught an art history course while organizing her first exhibition featuring 35 Rembrandt etchings in Reynolds Gallery.
She published the first collections catalogue in 2010 with 400 works of art; today the collection features 2,500. She retires this year after 17 years of establishing and developing the museum and its holdings.
In 2014, the Berger Print Collection gave the museum 21 of the Rembrandt prints interpreting Old Testament themes and featuring the artist’s prominent 17th-century Jewish neighbors. The museum created a catalog of the collection, which has traveled to museums in Iowa, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Oregon and Solvang.
The first exhibition in the new art museum, which opened ahead of schedule in September 2010, offered a 30-year retrospective of John Carlander, who co-founded the Westmont Art Department with Tony Askew.
Previously, Larson directed the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., where she completed a $25 million endowment campaign. She also led the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia, where she coordinated the acquisition of a multi-million-dollar American art collection. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art history from UCLA before completing a doctorate at the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University.
In 2013, Larson organized “Invisible Realms: Encountering the Sacred” showcasing contemporary artists of the four major world religions who address spirituality in their art. “So many Westmont art students want to sincerely communicate their faith through their art in meaningful ways that cause the viewer to ponder and reflect on their own souls,” she says.
The exhibition’s enthusiastic reception led Larson to invite five of the “Invisible Realms” Christian artists to present solo exhibitions at the museum: Kent Anderson Butler, Marie Schoef, Adam Belt, Linda Ekstrom and Duncan Simcoe. “Developing abiding friendships with each of these artists has been a highlight of my time at Westmont,” she says. “Developing abiding friendships with each of these artists has been a highlight of my time at Westmont,” she says.
Larson also appreciates Stephen and Denise Adams, who contributed to the first professional museum space on campus. “They were art enthusiasts with a passion for introducing students to the arts and supporting college students in the visual and performing arts,” she says. “They helped us become a collecting museum as well.”
Major donors include Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree, who gave artwork by Camille Corot as well as Barbizon paintings and Orthodox icons. Faith Mell ’62 and Dewayne ’62 Perry contributed Old Master prints and funded additions to the print collection. The Arts Alliance of Ventura County under the direction of Andrew Voth donated a collection Lawton Parker paintings, Keith Puccinelli bequeathed his own art and American outsider/folk art, and the Berkus and Family Art Collection bestowed international contemporary art as did Arnold and Marie Forde. Jere and Fima Lifshitz added African art selections. Steven Pattie ’74 gave the museum important outsider art from his collection.
When Chris Rupp ’00 suggested the idea for the wildly popular “5x5” exhibitions, Judy worked with him to launch this fundraiser. Under her leadership, the museum hosted five, themed Family Days that attracted hundreds of local families. In all, the museum organized 111 art exhibitions and published 22 catalogues during her tenure.
Judy hired Chris as a ceramics instructor, curator and collections manager in 2009, and he’ll serve as interim director of the museum. “Chris is very knowledgeable about contemporary art, and I respect his eye in acquisitions,” she says.
This is a story from the Spring 2025 Westmont Magazine