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Patsy Marino has served on the NCM board since 2006. She was elected vice president in 2007 and again in 2008. Professionally, she served as the vice president of organizational development for Nextleft, Inc. She graduated with a BA from the University of San Diego in 1990. Marino is involved with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in their stART Up program as well as Contemporary Collectors, and she has also served as a board member from 2006 to 2007. Marino also serves on the Community Advisory Board for Voices for Children. She lives in La Jolla with her husband David and their two children. Having survived a turn-around period well-documented in the local press, NCM needed strong leadership to build the reputation of the reinvented Museum, win donor support and attract talent to serve on the board, increase attendance—opening access to a wider sector of the community—and to set NCM on a course of sustainability and excellence. Following the term of Laurie Mitchell, NCM board president 2007-2008, who led the Museum up to and during its historic opening, Marino took the reins and led the board to complete the $10 Million Matching Challenge. When Marino joined the board in 2006, there were very few donors and even fewer prospects. Gifts-to-date were serendipitous and no fundraising process was in place. Chairing a highly-engaged board of atypically young community leaders and philanthropists, she has led The New Children’s Museum from start-up mode to become a flourishing, award-winning innovator in the arts and education sectors. Marino is personally responsible for cultivating and recruiting fully one-fourth of the current board. Typical of her lead-by-example nature, she toured board and donor prospects every day and night of the week and kept office hours at the Museum up to two days a week. She even originated the “bubbles tour” during construction featuring hard hats and champagne glasses. Her dedication to the success of NCM is reflected in this year’s perfect Christmas gift from her husband: a donor solicitation he implemented, yielding a gift-box full of signed pledge forms from friends and colleagues in excess of $65,000. The New Children’s Museum 2008 gala, netted $269,083. NCM’s 2009 gala netted $430,834, a year-over-year increase of 63%. These are big numbers for a young nonprofit organization. Corporate support is critical to the success of cultural institutions. Marino created a major corporate partnership with Nordstrom, a multi-faceted fundraising program including the gala-night auction of several New York City Fashion Week passes—a first for San Diego—and bringing Nordstrom’s Spring Designer Preview to NCM, totaling $97,000 in new income for NCM. It also attracted an audience of 47% first-time visitors to the Museum. As an indication of the growing, impactful programming at NCM under Marino’s leadership, Target renewed its sponsorship of Target Free Day for a third year, serving as the cornerstone of the accessibility funding that is now a hallmark of the Museum. Through the Community Access Program, which achieved dramatic growth during Marino’s term as chair, fully 20% of attendees were able to visit NCM at no charge. This represented the first museum visit for many of these children and adults, greatly extending awareness of art into the community. More than 34,000 students have visited NCM since its opening, including an innovative school-in-residence partnership with Washington Elementary, which provides three weeks of the NCM experience for third-grade students. The partnership with the San Diego Public Library (SDPL), Check Out The New Children’s Museum, provides free admission passes that can be checked out from a library with an SDPL library card. NCM won significant grant funding and implemented the Farrell Family Foundation Free Title I School Visit program, which has made high quality arts education experiences available to a large, diverse underserved population totaling more than 9,000 children in its first two years. The program grew 200% between year one and year two, literally filling the widening gap of arts education as state and local funding for arts programs has dwindled. The City of San Diego Arts and Culture Commission has praised the Museum’s access philosophy, noting that “diversity is organic” to NCM. Awards NCM garnered during Marino’s board service:
NCM has been recognized for the excellence of its exhibitions and innovative children-and-arts concept, meaningfully demonstrated by the fully-funded grant requests from the prestigious Irvine Foundation and the Institute for Museum and Library Service (IMLS). This has allowed NCM to fulfill its vision of serving the mega-region of San Diego-Tijuana, with Mexican artists fully integrated into NCM programming. The partnership on Animal Art with the world famous San Diego Zoo, a first for a local nonprofit, indicates the brilliance of NCM’s exhibition strategy under Marino’s leadership. IMLS voiced this accolade, “The exhibition promises to increase the profile and reputation of a fine Museum. It is quite possible that the excellence of the Museum’s exhibitions will inspire other children’s museums and art museums around the country.” Patsy Marino has led this newly reinvented organization from uncertainty to a position of cultural leadership and active community service. Just two years since reinvention, NCM rivals century-old cultural organizations in board effectiveness, accomplishment and community service.
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— Institute for Museum and Library Service, Grant Reviewer
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The exhibition promises to increase the profile and reputation of a fine Museum. It is quite possible that the excellence of the Museum’s exhibitions will inspire other children’s museums and art museums around the country.”