Debra Lehane
Curator of the Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation in Geyserville

Debra Lehane has had a lifetime association with art. Her most recent achievement is a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley with an emphasis on Education and Public Programming. Her thesis topic was a "state of the field" review of sculpture parks and gardens in the United States.

Lehane received her Bachelor of Arts from Anderson College in Anderson, Indiana. Her undergraduate focus was in studio art, specifically painting and drawing with a minor in art education. After teaching art for two years in the public school systems of rural Indiana, she decided it was time to immerse herself in an art community. She looked to the east (New York) and to the west (California), and in 1974, arrived in San Francisco. A position at San Francisco State University sparked her interest in returning to school where she focused on textile art. But, it was an opportunity to work in a major contemporary art museum through the federally-funded program known as CETA (Comprehensive Employment Training Act) that set her on a career path in museums and collections management. She worked in the Registrar's office at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from 1978-1984. When she left SFMOMA, Lehane was the Associate Registrar in charge of exhibitions. From 1984-1985 she was Registrar for the University Art Museum at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1985 she accepted the challenge to build a program for the San Francisco Arts Commission, developing and administering the Civic Art Collection Program. Lehane retired from her position as Program Director for the Civic Art Collection at the Arts Commission in 2004 after nineteen years of service to return to school for her Master's degree.

The Civic Art Collection Program developed by Lehane has responsibility for the cataloging, care and preservation of public art belonging to the City and County of San Francisco. She applied museum standards to documenting and creating an archive of information about the City's collection, which consisted of historic monuments, loaned art, WPA murals, and works in all mediums such as prints, paintings, sculptures, installations and contemporary public art integrated into the environment. Lehane was the local coordinator for Save Outdoor Sculpture!, a national inventory of publicly accessible outdoor sculpture sponsored by Heritage Preservation and the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian. Her assigned area was the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin. She is on the Advisory Board for the Diego Rivera Mural at City College and on a National Advisory Committee for a new program called Save Our Murals! (SOM!). She is particularly proud of the conservation program she implemented for the Arts Commission where historic monuments such as Lotta's Fountain, the Buddha in Golden Gate Park, and numerous other monuments were conserved and restored, as well as the fresco murals in Coit Tower and the historic Beach Chalet at Ocean Beach.

Lehane's personal interests include monotype printmaking and horses. She lives in Glen Ellen with her husband, Jim. Her daughter, Jamie, is majoring in photography at the University of California Santa Cruz and her son, Sean, attends Sonoma Valley High School where he makes metal sculptures and plays sports.

<Return to Exhibitions page>