Ceramics helped him get through high school. Once he graduated, he knew he would pursue a career in the arts.
Brian Trimble attended Cal State University Long Beach for his Bachelor of Fine Arts, and then went back for his master’s degree in art education and doctorate in educational leadership.
Last summer, Christopher Scoates, the previous University Art Museum director, left CSULB to lead as the first alumnus director at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Museum. After he left, Trimble was announced as the interim director for the UAM.
Although his recently obtained position is new to him, he said his journey for pursing art and education started off in high school.
After high school, Trimble began his undergraduate degree at Long Beach City College, and then transferred to CSULB. At CSULB, he managed to get a job working at the College of Education as a student assistant, and then got a new position there working with student teachers.
“I worked with a lot of people at the College of Education that showed a commitment to helping students,” Trimble said. “As I was going to school in the College of the Arts, the faculty was the same. They were committed to helping students.”
After graduating from CSULB, he decided to leave the College of Education to pursue a different profession.
“I left to teach high school, but it was not my thing,” Trimble said.
Even though teaching high school did not work out for him, he said he knew he wanted to work in art and education.
“I started working weekends at the Getty,” Trimble said. “That’s how I started working in a museum.”
Trimble said Liz Harvey, the previous curator for education for the UAM, “hired him to work at the Getty.” After she left her position, Trimble then took over and became the new curator of education for the UAM in 2005.
Along with working for the UAM, Trimble also served as an instructor for liberal study and art classes at CSULB.
One class he taught was Liberal Studies 404, which explored relationships between the visual arts, dance, theater, creative writing, music and other forms of creative expression, as well as their relationship to criticism and various broader values, Trimble said. He taught from 2002 to 2013.
In his position, he said he is in charge things like making sure construction is completed, and working on the exhibitions coming up.
Trimble is leading a project with the Getty Conservation Institute that will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Sculpture Symposium, which he said is expected to be on campus next fall.
Kristina Newhouse, the curator of exhibitions for the UAM, said she has known Trimble since the mid 1990s, which was when they were both studying ceramics.
“When I considered applying for the position of curator at the UAM, my first thought was that it would be wonderful to work with Brian,” Newhouse said. “This has been the case. He is a great boss and colleague.”
She added that “normally in the cultural of art museums, there is a deep divide between the curatorial and educational programs.” In this case, Newhouse said she and Trimble managed to avoid this because of a “shared and deep commitment for introducing students on this campus to the arts through UAM exhibitions and programming.”
Trimble said making connections with people in the field and applying for internships will help on the journey.