Innovator Rich Cherry is leaving Balboa Park Online Collaborative

The Balboa Park Online Collaborative’s highly regarded director, Rich Cherry, is leaving the organization to co-chair Museum and the Web, LLC, and start a cultural technology consulting practice.

Cherry, who previously held positions at Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center and New York’s Guggenheim Museum, built the organization from the ground up. He was appointed director in 2009, soon after the collaborative was formed with a grant from the Legler Benbough Foundation and the cooperation of the park’s more than two dozen cultural organizations.

Under his leadership, the collaborative has launched more than 20 websites and developed unique mobile apps for park members, built a park-wide high-speed fiber optic network, and installed a public Wi-Fi network. In addition, the collaborative provided technology and expertise for members to scan and digitize hundreds of thousands of images and video for use online.

“He has built a team and a program that are capable of providing Balboa Park institutions (with) the basis for participation at a national level in the important and growing area of new technology,” said Peter Ellsworth, president of the Legler Benbough Foundation, in a statement.

Vivian Kung Haga, the collaborative’s deputy director and a former deputy director and director of education at the Museum of Photographic Arts, will assume the role of interim director until Cherry’s successor is named.

May 6, 2012

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