March 9, 2006—The Children’s Museum/Museo de los Niños San Diego has recruited another leading fundraiser to join the Museum’s growing staff. Jeffrey Levenson, a renowned manager of music and arts organizations for the past 16 years, has joined the Museum as its new development director.

Levenson began his career in arts management in 1989 as operations and personnel manager for the San Diego Mainly Mozart Festival. There he worked with maestro David Atherton in assembling a world-class chamber orchestra. From there his career is a long string of successes including his most recent position as executive director of the Claremont Community School of Music, which has a distinguished faculty of 52.

According to Children’s Museum Executive Director Kay Wagner, Levenson will be assisting in fundraising for the Museum’s current capital campaign but will, more importantly, “help establish a long-term culture of philanthropy to the Museum.”

Levenson will work alongside new capital campaign director Carolyn Clark to raise the final $6.5 million needed to build the Muse, the Museum’s new 50,000-square-foot facility in downtown San Diego. He will also seek grants for operational funds, traveling exhibits, special events and a $3 million endowment.
“Our new facility will not just be a children’s Museum,” Wagner explained. “It will house performing and visual artists and become part of the San Diego arts scene. Jeffrey is the perfect person to help us achieve our vision for the Muse.”

A cellist who has performed in string quartets, orchestras and chamber music groups across the country and in Europe, Levenson was raised in Newton, Mass. He was graduated from Indiana University School of Music and pursued post-graduate studies in arts administration.

Levenson spent three years at Kent State, summer home of The Cleveland Orchestra, as the director of Kent/Blossom Music. There he acquired major grants for the pre-professional music- training program. He also served as executive director of the Bear Valley Music Festival for two years and general manager for the La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest for two seasons. From 1998 to 2000, he was director of Facility Operations for Copley Symphony Hall and the San Diego Symphony.

In 2000, Levenson was recruited by the San Diego Chamber Orchestra to be its executive director, responsible for a $1.35 million annual budget. He then went to the Pasadena Pops Orchestra in a similar position and was successful in securing several sizeable gifts from foundations and corporations. He produced a benefit concert with John Tesh that netted $50,000 and produced a September 11 concert on the steps of Pasadena City Hall that received national media coverage.

The Children’s Museum/Museo de los Niños San Diego is a cultural and educational institution with a 24-year history of hands-on, arts-based programs for children and their families. It has been cited nationally for its emphasis on the arts and its challenging and problem-solving activities that develop critical thinking skills among children.

Located in the heart of the Marina District in downtown San Diego, just blocks from Petco Park, Horton Plaza, the Gaslamp Quarter, and the Convention Center, the new Museum will be an integral part of downtown’s revitalization, according to Wagner.

Designed by renowned architect and downtown San Diego resident Rob Wellington Quigley as the first “green” building in downtown San Diego, it will include a dramatic three-story atrium, an entrance bridge that spans from Island Avenue into the see-through Museum to a point 17 feet above the lower level, a glass-enclosed elevator tower that rises above the building and functions as a solar cooling tower, and an angled saw-tooth-shaped roof structure with space for future solar panels. Recycled building materials, water-saving devices, natural day lighting and convection cooling will be additional environmentally friendly elements.

The new Museum at 200 West Island Avenue will include art galleries, theatrical spaces, a toddler area, a revolving artist-in-residence space, clay, painting and mixed-media studios, as well as a computer animation studio and party rooms. In addition to public spaces, the Museum facility will house the Museum School, administrative offices and an exhibit workshop.