THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 22, 1995 TAG: 9510200077
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
DR. R. Peter Mooz, a former director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, is the new curator of The Arts Center of the Portsmouth Museums.
Mooz started at the Portsmouth center on Monday.
``I'm very happy,'' said Mooz. ``It's the realization of a 12-year dream.''
In the early 1980s, he explained, he and his wife, Betty, built a house in Virginia Beach.
``At that point, we thought it would be a retirement house. But we had an opportunity to come a whole lot earlier than retirement. So we said, `Well, why not come and do all the things you wanted to do - 10 years early?' '' said Mooz.
Mooz's somewhat glamorous arts career has found him dining with Queen Elizabeth, traveling to Russia to secure loans of objects owned by Catherine the Great and managing the foundation of one of America's most prominent families.
An American-art scholar, he has published three books. He holds a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Pennsylvania.
Yet Mooz sounded thrilled to take on a more modest position in Portsmouth.
``We're going to do some exciting things, I hope. Right now, I'm trying to do a lot of listening to all the people who work here and live here. You know, talk to community people and so forth to really get an idea of what they would like to see.''
Mooz was in Virginia when the Portsmouth museum was established. ``And it's remarkable how wonderfully it has blossomed. The whole project is really fulfilling a lot of dreams already.
``My feeling is: I would like to use my experience and contacts for the good of this community, and bring here some wonderful things that maybe otherwise might not come here.''
Betty Burnell, director of the Portsmouth Museums, spoke enthusiastically about Mooz.
``He has a lot of wonderful experience,'' she said. ``I think he can help us a lot in achieving the goals and objectives we have set for ourselves.''
Mooz's background is dense with achievements.
He was in charge of a graduate program in American culture at Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Del., from about 1965 to 1972. From 1972 to 1976, Mooz directed the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine.
The Virginia Museum hired him in 1976. During his tenure in Richmond, the museum acquired the significant collections of Paul Mellon and Sydney and Francis Lewis. He also started a $15 million endowment campaign and began plans for the new West Wing.
In June 1981, Mooz left the museum. He and board members told reporters that he was taking a leave of absence. However, one anonymous trustee said Mooz was being forced out because of staff unrest, partly over a purchase deal of European paintings Mooz had struck without staff input, according to the Associated Press.
Last week, Mooz said he left Virginia Museum ``mostly because my two young boys had practically grown up to be men, and I hardly recognized them. During my last month at the Virginia Museum, I think I had every meal out for 18 days in a row,'' he said.
``But we were raising a lot of money. You can do that for a certain amount of time. And then you say, `Life is just too short.' ''
In 1982, Mooz became the first director and curator of Wilton, a 1753 James River plantation that was the home of William Randolph III. The situation suited him well: Wilton was a few blocks from his home, and his sons' school.
Four years later, he moved to Galveston, Texas, to run the philanthropic foundation of Mrs. Mary Moody Northen, he said. The Moody family has strong Virginia roots; it owns Mountain Lake Resort near Blacksburg. Mooz spearheaded a $16 million project to turn a family home into a museum, he said.
In 1990, he and his family moved to Dallas to run ``a couple of institutions,'' Mooz said. One was The Hall of State, a marble monument built for the 1936 Texas Centennial Fair.
``The second day I was in Dallas, the Queen of England arrived for dinner. You can imagine, this was a very grand dinner.''
Two months later, he procured a Dallas stop for the international touring show of objects owned by Catherine the Great; the event brought 600,000 people to his museum in five months.
The installation for the show cost $6 million. Outside was sweltering Dallas in summer; inside was snowy 18th century St. Petersburg. Officials estimated there was a $150 million economic spinoff into the community, Mooz said.
Mooz spent the last few years developing a new Texas history museum on six donated acres near Dallas. But funding hit a snag. ``I think the money can still be gotten,'' he said, ``but it was going to take a very long time.''
Meanwhile, the Portsmouth opportunity arose.
``And I said, `Betty, we're going back to Virginia, where we belong.' ''
Though not Virginia natives, both went to college here and lived for 15 years in Richmond. Mooz studied business at the University of Virginia, and his wife attended Hollins College.
Mooz is in charge of the galleries in the 1846 Courthouse building at Court and High streets in downtown Portsmouth.
Upstairs, the main gallery will be earmarked for shows of national significance. The downstairs gallery, previously occupied by the Children's Museum, is slated for local art.
Exhibitions are planned through 1996. ``Well, that's par for the course,'' Mooz said. ``Everybody's got to plan that far ahead.''
And his taste? ``I love anything that's beautiful and has quality. And it doesn't matter to me whether it's a Greek statue or an abstract painting.
``If it's beautiful and it's good, I like it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Dr. R. Peter Mooz is the new curator of The Arts Center of the
Portsmouth Museums.
by CNB