The long-serving communications director at Chapman University will take on a new post in February as director of the school’s Hilbert Museum of California Art.
Mary Platt plans to implement “a robust programming schedule, enhance its educational mission for Chapman students, as well as K-12 students, and initiate creative partnerships, exhibitions and collaborations with other arts institutions around the state and the nation,” she said via email.
Donors Mark and Janet Hilbert of Newport Beach made their fortune through Hilbert Properties, a private Newport Beach-based real estate management company he founded in 1987.
The Hilberts gave Chapman $7 million worth of art, plus $3 million toward creating the museum, which opened about a year ago in a building it owns near its main campus in Orange.
The museum showcases an extensive collection of the Hilberts’ California Scene art, works that capture life in California, from epic landscapes to narratives of everyday life.
The new position dovetails with Platt’s art experience. She holds a master’s in art history from Michigan State University and studied art history at the University of Florence, as well as in Germany.
