[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]he Los Angeles Library Foundation on Wednesday announced the hiring of a new programming director, weeks after the organization became enmeshed in a controversy over the firings of two previous longtime directors at the library, Louise Steinman and Maureen Moore.
Jessica Strand, founder of the events platform Dear America, is now the Director of Public Programs at the library foundation. She was previously an associate director of public programming at The New York Public Library.
Strand's appointment fills a vacancy left open after Steinman and Moore were let go on Aug. 27. Steinman launched the foundation's celebrated ALOUD program 25 years ago. Moore was an experienced associate director.
The day after their abrupt departures, L.A. Taco published a story showing the foundation made no public effort to draw attention to unfair treatment of two library-commissioned artists from Oaxaca, Mexico, at the hands immigration authorities in San Francisco. The artists of the Tlacolulokos collective were denied reentry to the United States for five years, even as their mural decorated the downtown Central Library rotunda, drawing media coverage from The New York Times and others — artwork that was expressly related to themes of migration and displacement.
It was unclear if the personnel change was related to the Tlacolulokos case, but privately, observers and friends of the departed directors said it was not.