Museum Aide Responds

In response to the story about the California Arts Council penalizing Newport Harbor Art Museum for the loss if its director and curator, and criticizing the museum for not reaching out to audiences beyond the borders of Newport Beach (“O.C. Art Groups Praised, Criticized,” July 27):

1. We may have lost our curator, but we have not lost our heads. Our outreach program has always been carried out by docents who are volunteers and we have continued to serve with the same commitment we have always felt.

2. We have students from areas outside the “white community.” The last group I led through, on July 26, was from Compton. We have had children of all ages and ethnic backgrounds, some of whom could not yet speak English.

Speaking as a docent and a private individual, I resent the fact that effective, dedicated people, many of them volunteers, have been maligned by a careless assessment based on the fact that we have lost some key people. In reality, our programs have been set for the year with the help of our former curator and we should be able to carry on, helping all students become creative viewers.

BEATRICE N. YOUNG

Huntington Beach