Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager and two others join LACMA’s board

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If the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ever needs a theme song, it won’t have far to look for a composer: LACMA announced today that Carole Bayer Sager has joined the museum’s board, along with two other new trustees, Ghada Irani and Dr. Richard Merkin.

The theme song’s singer, of course, would be Barbra Streisand, a LACMA trustee since 2007. Bayer Sager owns both an Oscar (as co-writer of ‘Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do),’ and a Grammy (for co-writing ‘That’s What Friends Are For’). The other star name in the world of entertainment and amusements on the LACMA board is Jamie McCourt, whose predecessor in the job of chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Dodgers was Bayer Sager’s husband, Robert Daly. With his majority partner, News Corp., Daly sold the baseball club to McCourt and/or her now-estranged husband, Frank, in 2004. Whether that should be an ‘and’ or an ‘or’ in the previous sentence is a leading question for the McCourts’ divorce court judge to decide, with Frank claiming sole ownership of the Dodgers and Jamie seeking to establish that they own the team jointly.

Bayer Sager is also a backer of L.A. Art House, a West Hollywood art studio and gallery that opened last year as a showcase for rising artists; profits are donated to the Hammer Museum‘s Hammer Projects program for emerging artists.

Irani is a philanthropist who also serves on the boards of the Music Center and the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Mich. Her husband, Ray, is chairman and chief executive of Occidental Petroleum (his predecessor was Armand Hammer, founder of the Hammer Museum).

Merkin, a physician, is the founder and chief executive of Heritage Provider Network, a health maintenance organization. He founded the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony and is on the board of the Asia Society Southern California.

Each of LACMA’s 45 board members commits to donating or raising at least $100,000 a year for the nonprofit museum. Museum director Michael Govan reports to the board, which has ultimate responsibility for LACMA’s operations, policies and financial well being.

-- Mike Boehm

Related:

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Jamie McCourt, Dodgers’ chief executive, joins LACMA board