Museum facing more disarray as last curator quits

The David Ireland House at 500 Capp St. took another hit as its remaining curator, Diego Villalobos, tendered his resignation Thursday. The move leaves the small Mission District museum, dedicated to the legacy of conceptual artist David Ireland, without a staff curator as it attempts to narrow its scope.

Villalobos’s exit follows the departure of head curator Bob Linder, who was laid off by the 500 Capp Street Foundation on June 25. In reaction to the firing of Linder, two international artists exhibiting at the museum abruptly closed their shows July 8. Other artists commissioned through the end of the year also withdrew, leaving a void in the museum’s schedule.

Foundation board Chairman Jock Reynolds as well as museum founder and benefactor Carlie Wilmans told The Chronicle Villalobos, 28, is leaving to pursue opportunities abroad.

“He has an opportunity outside of the Bay Area and he has chosen to pursue this,” Wilmans said.

But in an email, Villalobos denied emphatically that this was true. “I resigned for other reasons,” he stated.

Villalobos’ last day is Tuesday, July 16.

Wilmans emphasized that the loss of Linder and Villalobos will not derail the programming at 500 Capp St.

“We will still be presenting exhibitions,” she said. “This does not mean we won’t have an exhibition schedule.”

The museum is now closed while an emergency replacement exhibition featuring only the work of Ireland is installed. That show is scheduled to open July 24.

Villalobos declined to comment further, citing a nondisclosure agreement he had signed when he was hired. Linder also could not discuss his June termination because of the agreement. Linder and Villalobos have been the only fulltime staff curators since the David Ireland House opened to the public in January 2016. The twostory home at the corner of 20th and Capp streets had been Ireland’s greatest undertaking as he slowly converted its interior into a work of art.

Wilmans bought the 1886 Edwardian in 2008 after Ireland’s death, and laid out an ambitious plan to turn it into an artists residency program under the 500 Capp Street Foundation. Linder and Villalobos carried out this plan through a series of exhibitions of both Ireland’s works and artists they commissioned.

But after an annual board meeting in June, Linder was let go. Wilmans cited financial hardship and said she could no longer fund the museum as she had in the past, and Reynolds cited a series of grant applications that had been rejected as the reason for cutbacks. The museum’s annual budget is around $600,000.

The changes at the museum prompted a group of 50 artists and curators to gather outside 500 Capp St. during its regular hours on July 6. Aaron Harbour, codirector of Et Al Gallery in San Francisco’s Chinatown, said at the time that the protest was “a show of support for what is going away.”

Wilmans and foundation director Cait Molloy offered assurances that the museum will continue uninterrupted under Villalobos. Now that seems to have dissolved, and rancor over the operations at the house is growing. Artist Alicia McCarthy has circulated an online petition that has collected 750 names as of Saturday to protest the direction the foundation has taken.

Wilmans said she is aware of the petition but had not seen it and had no comment on it.

Molloy declined to say whether a replacement curator will be hired.

Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle 2016 Bob Linder (left) and Diego Villalobos were the curators at the David Ireland House at 500 Capp St. in the Mission District when it opened in 2016. Linder was let go after a board meeting in June, and Villalobos quit Thursday.