In my former life I lived in Michigan, worked as V.P. for a sales consulting firm and took undergraduate classes in the evening.  In 1974, I moved to southern California with my new spouse and changed the course of my life.  After a couple of years of not being employed, I became bored and enrolled at the University of California, Irvine where I completed two bachelor degrees -- one in studio art; then returned for an art history degree, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

The years of exposure to cutting edge contemporary art and artists along with the challenging professors at UCI was the beginning of a new direction for me.  In the 80’s I served on the Collections Committee at the Newport Harbor Art Museum (now the Orange County Museum of Art) and spent a lot of time visiting galleries and museums at every opportunity.

In 1990, I met Richard Turner who was the director of the Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University and began working in the gallery as a volunteer associate curator.  After the first year, I was hired as a curator and eventually became Co-director of the Gallery.  These were exciting and heady times.  The Los Angeles Times had a full-time art critic who wrote very positive reviews about the provocative exhibitions being mounted in the Guggenheim Gallery.  This not only raised the profile of the gallery but made us known beyond Orange County and southern California.  Not only were we showing emerging artists, but also national and internationally established artists.  During this period I was also guest curating at other venues in the area.  In 1995, I received my masters from California State University, Fullerton.

Subsequently, I began curating exhibitions for different parts of the university and in 2000 was appointed University Curator responsible for the permanent collection.  As such, it is my goal to acquire and maintain a first class, cohesive collection that Chapman can be proud of.  I derive a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction from my “second” career.

For the past six years, I have served on the Board of The Pacific Art Foundation, a California non-profit, publicly-supported charitable organization, as Chairman of the Collections Committee.

I can be contacted at mowens@chapman.edu.