By Marilyn Bauer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Less than four months after opening the internationally acclaimed Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art downtown, Charles Desmarais is stepping down as director and chief executive officer.

The center's board made the announcement Tuesday afternoon. No interim director has been named. A search for Desmarais' successor will begin soon.

Desmarais will not be leaving the center, however. He will become curator-at-large, a new advisory position, after a six-month paid sabbatical.

Desmarais is credited with getting the new museum built. "When it was a germ of an idea, it was him who challenged us to consider more than we were capable of doing," board chairman Joe Hale said.

"This is a good thing for Charles and a good thing for the Contemporary Arts Center," said board member Richard Rosenthal. In making the museum's new $37 million home at Sixth and Walnut streets a reality, "people just got tired and a new energy artistically and managerially will be good for everyone."

During the past 18 months, 11 of 20 staff members left the center, according to former center public relations manager Susan Jackson. She says she left the organization in May after only nine months because of a "hostile work environment." In June, the board hired consulting firm RHR International to review the center's staff and programming.

"I am difficult to work for," Desmarais said. "No one could have gotten through this without having been perceived as difficult."

"The planning and opening of our new building required seven years of intensive fund-raising, management and administrative work," Desmarais said. "While I have enjoyed these responsibilities, I am eager to invest more of my energy into art and programming."

Hale said the change "is the result of a couple months of conversation with Charles and his desire to change his role at the CAC and move away from the business side and over to the art side."

During Desmarais' eight-year tenure, museum membership increased from 2,056 to 6,232. The endowment grew from $1.18 million to $6.11 million. The center mounted more than 100 exhibitions

The hiring of London-based architect Zaha Hadid was hailed as a bold move. Her building design generated rave reviews worldwide.

The New York Times called it "the most important American building to be completed since the end of the Cold War."

The center is the first free-standing art museum to be built in Cincinnati since 1886 and the first art museum in America to be designed by a woman.