User:WilliamOtton/sandbox

William G. Otton was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, June 11, 1939. His mother, Betty Elene Crow, was born in Oakland, California on November 15,1917 (died June 27, 2011). His father Jack Vincent Otton, was born in Parsons, Kansas on February 18, 1912 (died XX/xx/xxxx). After attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, Otton boarded the HMS Aquatania for Los Angeles with his grandmother, Corrine M. Otton. They arrived in Los Angeles in April 1942, and moved to Casa Grande, Arizona. Otton rejoined his parents when they arrived in San Francisco a few months later after coming across the Pacific in conveys of ships, some of which were sunk on the journey. Otton spent most of his early life in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sierra Madre and Bakersfield, CA. He graduated from Bakersfield High School in 1957 and entered Chico State University where he was active in launching a local chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon (Theta Pi) and graduated in 1963 with a Bachelors of Art degree in Studio Art and Education and a minor in History. He served in the United States Air Force Reserve after his BA and taught in public schools. In 1966, Otton married Alice Orena James and moved to Micronesia, with their daughter, Tanya Michelle, where he taught English as a second language until 1968. He returned to the Sacramento, CA area to continue education and teaching. In 1971, he received a Master of Art degree, majoring in Studio Art from California State University, Sacramento. His graduate committee included his advisor Joseph Raffael, Jim Nutt, John Fitzgibbon and Irving Marcus. In 1975, Otton completed the requirements for a Doctorate in Art Education from Illinois State University where his advisor, artist and professor, Harold Gregor, supervised his dissertation, "The Relationship Between Color Formed Pictorial Space and Image Content and its Ramifications for Teaching at the University Level". The document is on file at University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. While working on his doctorate at Illinois State University, Otton exhibited at the Nancy Lurie Gallery, Chicago, IL. Additionally, he competed and won awards in regional and national art competitions. In 1974, Otton was hired to help form a new art department at Corpus Christi State University, in Corpus Christi, Texas. During the period he helped oversee plans for a new art/music/theater building and launched a Gallery Management program in the art department and served as a review specialist for the Texas Arts Commission. In 1980, he made a major career change when he accepted the Executive Director position at the Laguna Art Museum, in Laguna Beach, CA. The change led him to set aside his art making while he filled a leadership role in non profit arts organizations. In addition to his duties at the Laguna Art Museum he served on an advisory group that developed strategies that led to the annual Los Angeles International Art Fair; served on a museum directors committee that worked with Lani Lattin Duke to create educational programs at the J. Paul Getty Trust; and reached out to other museums to help strengthen the visual arts, especially programs that brought new attention to the approximate 50,000 working artists working in the Los Angeles basin. During his time at the Museum he also worked with the board, community and donors to complete a Museum building expansion program completed in 1987. During Otton's tenure a showcase seven year series titled "Southern California Artists" exhibition program featured rising as well as recognized artists in the region. The program was augmented by an active program to add new works to the Museum art collection focused Southern California artists. After attending the 1987 Museum Management Institute hosted by the J. Paul Getty Trust at the University of California campus in Berkeley, Otton moved from the museum field for a two year assignment at the Southern California Institute for the Arts, a four year college of art and design located in Laguna Beach. During his tenure he was part of a team of administrators who worked with faculty to submit an application for accreditation, a project the school had been working on for several years. Otton was also responsible for developing fundraising programs that secured new sources of income for the private non profit college. In 1990, Otton accepted the Executive Director position at the Wichita Center for the Arts. He initially worked with local patrons, Mary Koch and Olive Ann Beech to strengthen exhibition, education and theater programs while building memberships and creating an endowment for the organization. Otton returned to Corpus Christi in 1993 to help revive programs and funding needs at the Art Museum of South Texas. To help strengthen financial stability he was actively involved in merging the Museum with the local campus of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, led by then President Dr. Robert Furgeson. Otton helped lead the effort to create a collecting program that added several hundred art works to the permanent collection including the estate of Texas Modernist artist, Dorothy Hood. During his tenure he led a strategic planning process with the board and staff that sharpened the Museum's mission to focus on artists in Texas and nearby regiona. During the period the Museum merged with two community arts organizations to strengthen the arts in the city. A final accomplishment during Otton's tenure with the completion of a major effort to add new spaces onto the iconic Philip Johnson building that opened in 1973. Working with the board, University and community he oversaw the design, funding and completion of the addition designed by Ricardo Legorreta and Victor Legorreta whose offices are based in Mexico City. In 2007 Otton retired to Sacramento, CA and resumed his studio practice. He also volunteered to help write the bylaws for an new contemporary art center and served on the Board of Directors when the new organization, purchased a downtown building and merged with another arts group in the city. In 2015, Otton moved to Novato, CA and joined the Board of the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. During this period he helped update the Museum bylaws, launch a process to develop operating policies and procedures and hire a new executive director with management skills critical for the organization to continue to grow. In addition to his volunteer work, Otton has reentered the art community and regularly exhibits his work in local competitions and had a one person exhibition at the Museum in Spring 2018.