How the Orange County Museum of Art’s CEO is redefining access to creativity through authenticity, inclusivity, and purpose-driven leadership.
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Show Notes:
In this episode of Mission Matters, Adam Torres sits down with Heidi Zuckerman, Founder and CEO of the Orange County Museum of Art, to discuss her lifelong mission of making art accessible to all. Heidi shares how art can build community, foster creativity, and empower individuals to live authentically.
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Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on be Our Guest to Apply. Alright, so today I’m in Los Angeles, California and Pac Sun and invited me to this amazing to.
Summit, there’s, it’s filled with influencers, brand partners, all the designers, people in individuals from music, I mean producers, you name it. All the above. Um, been a lot of fun. And my next guest is Heidi. Heidi, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me. Alright, so, um, first off, what is your initial impression?
I mean, I just watched a bunch of people on stage, otherwise there’s music going on. Initial thoughts, super high energy. Love this idea of leadership with a purpose and yeah. Just being in integrity and being loyal to what your values are. It’s really exciting. So what, what brings you out to the, to the summit in general?
I’m here at the summit to, again, be part of the conversation about things that I care about and. For me, my personal mission is to connect people to art and artists. Yeah. To make their lives better. And so we’re super aligned with Paxon and the idea of the creator economy and giving a space of amplification to people who.
Or living with integrity and living creatively and making things. Yeah. How did you originally get into, into art in general and come up with that mission? Did you know early on or was it an evolution over time? Like where’d that begin for you? You know, I’ve realized recently that I don’t remember a time that I didn’t have access to art.
Wow. Really? That. That’s cool. You know, makes me even more committed to trying to get people to have access as soon as they possibly can in their lives. Hmm. What do you, so when, in your day-to-day conversations, obviously you’re, you’re working in a large organization, but working with, in a room like this, there’s creators of all different sizes, backgrounds, and I mean size of audience and things like that, different backgrounds, different locations.
Like what, what, what do you tell individuals that are looking to access their creativity and art in order to make. Really a business out of it or a lifestyle out of it. However we wanna a living out of it. However, we wanna word that. You know, I think the most important thing is to trust yourself and to kind of dial down any negative voice in your head.
Hmm. I think we all think that we’re the only ones that you know, have some issue or have gone through some kind of challenge, but actually. We’re all more alike than we think we are, and being authentic with your experience there, there’s always gonna be an audience for it. Mm-hmm. Finding your people by speaking your truth.
That’s how community gets built and that’s what art can do. It gives a place for people to have that. Ability to communicate and to express themselves in a way that they can’t otherwise. Hmm. Talk to us a little bit more about, about the museum overall. Absolutely. So one of the values of the Orange County Museum of Art is that we believe that everyone should have access to art.
Hmm. Um, we talk about how access to art is a basic human right and not a privilege. And we have printed right on the front door. Everyone is welcome, amazing. And, um. Some of the things that if somebody hasn’t visited, like give us a little bit of, a little bit of a teaser. Why should people come out if they haven’t seen yet?
You know, I have to tell you that one of my most favorite days at the museum was Valentine’s Day this year, and there was a long line of people waiting to come in. And I think it’s because we’ve created a space where people know that they are safe to be who they are. Mm-hmm. And people get dressed up, they come to the museum wearing amazing outfits, they record their experiences on different social channels and.
It really feels great to see people in the galleries holding hands. Yeah. And just having a shared experience of art with people that they love. Yeah. See, so I, I’ll tell, you know, right now, I’m a, a huge fan of art and I don’t, I’m not claiming I’m knowledgeable. I’m just a fan. I remember one of my dreams, people say like, what was your, like, do you have any regrets?
And I’m like, oh. At one point I lived in, in, uh, Scottsdale, Arizona, and I was like, I wanted to be a docent at the Phoenix Art Museum. That’s one of my regrets. I’m like, but you can’t just take off time and like just. Start when you’re building your career. This is like in my twenties, and I’m like, and I’m like, oh, but I, but I love art and I, and I’m a fan of what you’re doing today and what the museum’s doing by, by having your representation here.
’cause I think art should be in many different areas of our lives and be, and more representation to coming to even an event like Pac Suns event. Like talk about that. I don’t know if the right word’s collaboration, but just that support, like with the significance of. The museum having representation here so that also the, the, the next generation or other generations that maybe don’t even know, like they haven’t, not everybody’s gone into museums if their parents didn’t take ’em or otherwise, maybe social media is how they’re interested and they get introduced to art and they’ve never thought about even walking a large population like that.
Can you, you know where I’m going with that? Can you talk a little bit about that? I do. Yeah. So I’m a big fan of however people come upon. The idea that art can be for them. Yeah. And there’s science that says if you have no access to something, you can have no curiosity about it. Hmm. And so in order to be curious about something, you have to be introduced to it.
So whether you’re introduced to art through a hip hop song, or whether you’re introduced to art through seeing it in the backdrop of a TV show, Hmm. You know, whatever it is. However we can populate people’s creative imagination, I’m all for it. Yeah. And I do think that. By just reminding people over and over again that they’re welcome because you know, people aren’t sure sometimes it might be.
They think not for them, or it might be elitist or it might be for someone else. And, and that’s what I’m getting at. And I’m not saying you’re saying that, but there are people that think that and maybe they weren’t welcome into a particular place. So I love what you said was written outside. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
We’re, we’re all about removing barriers of entry and you know, podcasts are also an amazing way to do that because people can listen in their home or in their car or on the bus or when they’re out for a walk or a run. So, oh yeah, I’m, you can plug my podcast all you want. I’m, I want a sign. How, hold on.
How do I get a sign at the museum too? No, couldn’t help it. I’m sorry, Heidi. No, it’s all good. I have a podcast too, so what’s the name of it? My podcast is called About Art. Oh, duh. Of course it’s gonna be about art. It has to be. Yeah. But that’s the idea. You know what we’ll call it. I wanna go further into that.
Like what caused you to start it? Like what was the, kind of like the podcast. Podcast, yeah. Yeah. Of. Course. Yeah. It’s amazing. I love, by the way, I love supporting other podcasters is in all sincerity. I think the podcasting community as a whole. My podcast aside, I’m not trying to plug it, but like, um, ’cause some, um, but I just think it’s a great community of individuals, creators.
They support each other. They come from all different fields, backgrounds. You’re into art. Somebody else is into business. Somebody else is into something completely different. They can, they all, you get ’em together though, and there’s a certain bond of being a podcaster. So what what got you into it? Yeah.
That’s why I asked. I appreciate that. You know, I think it’s super creative and mm-hmm. It’s kind of a DYI Yeah. Project. Right. You know? Totally. You know, all you need is, you know, basically a computer, uh, and you can do it from wherever you are. Yeah. And so it, you know, it fits in with my personal mission mm-hmm.
About this idea of access and. So the podcast for me started because I wanted to put art in front of people where they didn’t necessarily expect it. And I had a, a project that I did, I was previously the CEO and director of the Aspen Art Museum. Mm-hmm. And I approached the Aspen Skiing Company about putting art on all of the lift tickets.
Wow. And so this idea of art in unexpected places, and I started the podcast about six years ago, and there weren’t really any art podcasts. So it’s always about this idea of. Putting art on t-shirts, that’s the tax on collaboration. Putting art in a podcast space, putting art anywhere that, that they’ll have us basically.
Hmm, that’s amazing. I love that story, and I like that you said that. You mentioned that, you know, anybody can start, it’s DIY kind of stuff, this show, I mean, this. Started, I started my cell phone. I’m over 6,000 episodes in. I didn’t think that was gonna be my career. I didn’t know I’ll do 1500 plus episodes this year.
So I didn’t know that this was gonna be like, where I found my niche and where I found my people. I did though, like, and I’m just thrilled to be able to talk to individuals like yourself about what they’re doing. Um, you dropped something that I, I wanna bring back up, which is the PAC song Collaboration, putting Art on Shirts.
Can you, can you talk a little bit more about that? So we have a, a. A partnership with Paxon where we’re bringing creators together to. Highlight the museum and, you know, PAX Sun’s partnership with the museum of, uh, with the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been amazing for them. Yeah. And, and, um, so their interest in supporting a museum, you know, where they’re headquartered in Orange County is, is where it’s come from.
Oh, I love it. Well, Heidi, um, thank you for coming on the show. Last question, what’s next? What’s next for the museum? Like gi give us some of the schedule going into the, to the, to the end of the year. So we have the most amazing show, which is totally appropriate for the Pac Sun Summit. Mm. It’s called Desperate, scared, but Social, and it is our California Biennial, and it is all about youth culture.
Wow. Features a whole group of young curators mm-hmm. Of Orange County. They curated their own show. Hmm. And. Uh, we had an amazing opening with punk bands from the nineties and, um, Emily, sassy Lime, and then also bands from now, and it’s. Just come to the museum. It’s, it’s amazing. Oh, that’s amazing. All right, well, last thing, um, look into the camera.
How do people follow up? How do they learn more? The museum website, your socials, anything you wanna leave? Absolutely. So you can follow me personally on Instagram with my name Heidi Zuckerman. You can listen and subscribe to the podcast about art on Apple, Spotify, whatnot. And you can go to the museum website, which is akma ocma.art.
Fantastic. And for everybody watching, just so you know, we’ll definitely put some links in the show notes, so you can just click on the links and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new experiences to help you along the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Heidi, thank you again so much for coming on the show. Thank you for having me.
