Eilertsen leaving Sonoma Valley Museum of Art

The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art is losing the belle of its recent belle epoch, as executive director Kate Eilertsen announced this week she is stepping down after six years leading one of the Bay Area’s most respected suburban art centers.

And that reputation is one which owes a lot to the dedication and art-world savvy of its longtime executive director.

In a statement issued July 30, museum officials said Eilertsen plans to open her own consulting firm, “explore exciting opportunities as a freelance curator” and teach at Sonoma State University.

Eilertsen says she has agreed to stay on board until the museum’s new executive director is in place which, she told the Index-Tribune, could be within several weeks, if the hiring process runs smoothly. The search for a new ED, in fact, has been in the works since March when SVMA officials announced that museum management was being restructured in order to allow Eilertsen an opportunity to work solely as artistic director, while hiring a new executive director to handle the business side of the operation. Douglas Fenn Wilson, board president for SVMA, described Eilertsen’s new role at the time as a “coup” for the museum.

While the “coup” may have ultimately been put down, few would argue that Eilertsen’s imprint on the museum wasn’t one of broad and lasting brushstrokes.

Eilertsen arrived at the museum in 2009 with a resume as solid as a bronze-cast Rodin – including work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Harvard Art Museum and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

But it was at SVMA, with its more frugal budget and limited membership pool, where the charming Eilertsen’s ability to draw top talent shone through.

Among the internationally known artists who enjoyed successful exhibits during Eilertsen’s tenure are Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William T. Wiley and Fletcher Benton. Within the past year alone, Eilertsen brought such shows to Sonoma as the Eleanor Coppola retrospective, “Quiet, Creative Force,” as well as the museum’s current exhibition, “The Intimate Diebenkorn,” a series of sketches and drawings by the late figurative artist Richard Diebenkorn, on display through Aug. 23.

In between exhibition openings and luring renowned artists to the Valley, Eilertsen oversaw, in the words of museum officials, a period of “expansive growth of the budget, educational programs, membership and community engagement.”

Among her other achievements, museum officials cite SVMA’s travel study program, traveling exhibition program, facility rentals and the biannual “Discovered” exhibition, a program which featured up-and-coming Sonoma County artists, put on in partnership with the Sonoma Community Foundation.

SVMA board vice president Yvonne Hall credits Eilertsen’s “spirit and vision” and says she hopes there will opportunities to work with Eilertsen in the future.

“Kate’s warmth and exuberance has been instrumental to the success and growth of the museum over the last six years,” Hall said.

As for Eilertsen, she said this week that leaving the museum was one of the most difficult decisions she’s ever had to make.

Showing no small amount of emotion, Eilertsen said it was the right time.

“I put my heart into this museum,” she said.

And that’s no small thing indeed.

Email Jason at Jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.