Public discussion set on MOCA's financial crisis

As the art community rallies in support of L.A.'s financially challenged Museum of Contemporary Art, individuals are taking matters into their hands and looking for solutions, as well.

On Sunday, George Baker, an associate professor of art history at UCLA, is scheduled to lead a critical discussion of conceptualism in California, tied to MOCA's exhibition "Index: Conceptualism in California from the Permanent Collection." 

According to MOCA Mobilization, a new Facebook group, Baker has offered to broaden his discussion to include MOCA's current financial crisis in "the first public event since news about the museum's financial crisis" was made public by the Los Angeles Times.

MOCA Mobilization, formed by artist Cindy Bernard, currently boasts more than 200 members. Its mission is to "generate support for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles ... disseminate information on the current financial crisis, discuss options and advocate for an autonomous MOCA if necessary."

The event takes place at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Geffen Contemporary. The event is free with museum admission.

-- Lisa Fung

Photo: Liz Baylen / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Shep]

Here is the link to the Facebook MOCA Mobilization group discussion:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=46490296653&topic=6480

[Leedie]

HA! Another Broad Museum with his (way) less than impressive collection. The problem is: it's a terrible museum (see past exhibit schedule + attempted promotion) + no matter how good the institution might be - without support from the local media - nothing will succeed. We have one major donor in this city whose name has to go on everything...look at NYC and the number of donors which affords some diversity to the culture.

What's next -- Broad Angeles? Los Eli...?

[Donald Frazell]

I will be ther handing out petitions with my wife. Contemporary art has only been for teh rich, to amuse them, and not for 99.9% of Los Angeleno, it has no conneciton to us, for us, or about us. It is run by art academies for their own benefit, to train more mediocre artists, no great artist has ever graduated form an art school. Art must be earned, no learned. Amusing the rich is not what art has alawys been about, now they run like rats when their finances are cut a little, they got more than enough. Thye dont find it funy now is all.

The museum should be sold, keep the Geffen, thata all that is needed. Use the Barnsdall Park for local artist, adn the Geffen for international. Keep teh Panza collection, it was stolen fair and square jsut as Manhattan was, for a few trinkets. Sell the rest. Or whatever is needed to keep it afloat til the economy rises again, in about two years.

make sure the museum stays public, but coulde be a school. Private collections like the Norton Simon serve the community much better, are financed well, and succesful. The Museum of Latin American Art should be your guide, and perhaps should take over. Their art is relevant, involves the community, and our aspirations, our faith, our needs, and goals in life. MoCA is about games and children at play. We dont need it, which is why it is going broke. No one cares. Why should we? it is irrelevant.

[Donald Frazell]

The Failure of MoCA to serve the needs of Los Angelenos

MoCA does not represent the goals, aspirations, needs, or varied artistic creativity of Los Angeles. Contemporary art in general, has been about amusing and serving the desires of a tiny minority, the wealthy, and keeping art academies in business. It has no relevance to the life of Americans, and certainly not Los Angeles. No public funds should be used in any way. All efforts to keep the Museum financially stable, is completely on the audience it serves, the rich, and the Art Academies that rely on their patronization. If they cannot keep it afloat, it does not deserve to exist.
Privatizing the main site would be best, Museums such as the Norton Simon are of much higher quality, and involves far more and disparate peoples than MoCA ever has. The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach has far greater outreach, and relevance to the community it truly serves. Its finances are stable, and within reason, for the public, not private sources who use MoCA more for its own desires than the public good. Art has always been to define a community, who a people are, and their search for meaning in life, of god, and family. Contemporary art in general does none of this, being about self-expression, desires, and defining decadence in a Gilded Age of self-worship, which has now ended. The equivalent of the Academy of the nineteenth century, its day is over, if it ever truly had one.
The Modern Art of the Panza Collection should be sold to a modern museum, preferably the gallery at LACMA. They now have more than enough wall space, and need to upgrade a rather mediocre level of art. It could be kept, as the only truly valuable work in the Museum, being stolen fair and square. As Manhattan was for a few baubles, in the great American tradition of land deception and breaking of treaties. Or housed at the Geffen, and selling or renting the main site for another type of museum or other public usage. Selling the other works, whose prices have crashed forever, true worth now to be seen, could keep the Institution alive. And hopefully bring more of LA into it, looking for more and better art to inspire the imaginations and hearts of Los Angelenos, few of who know, or care, about the Contemporary, or its art.
But the desires of the few, no matter how well connected or financed, should not induce the City or County of Los Angeles into any deals. A reprioritizing of values is now underway, the new Administration holding out the promise of uniting us as a whole, being about We, rather than the Meism of Contemporary “Art”. Sacrifice is now called for, not to promote the few, but by the whole, for the whole, including the wealthy, who hold the resources of our age to an inordinate degree. There are far greater needs at stake, our children, our homes, our livelihoods. Art has not addressed these fundamental human needs for generations.
And until it does, should not be financed by public funds, through grants, incentives, deals, property or direct cash infusions. Let the market it serves determine the outcome.

Donald Frazell art collegia delenda est

[Moca Mobilization]

We're really excited at the prospect of so many people showing up to support MOCA!

However, the Geffen is not set up to handle a large discussions. It will not be a forum for asking questions of the Board or Staff or airing different proposals for MOCA's future. It is not a press conference and not a showdown. There will be a brief period for comments from attendees - if you choose to speak, please be concise and productive.

What is paramount is to remember that what we are doing today is showing our support for the museum and its staff in a time of crisis and demonstrating to the Board of Trustees that there is a public who is vigilant and cares about the future of MOCA.

Thanks!

MOCA Mobilization

[Moca Mobilization]

We're really excited at the prospect of so many people showing up to support MOCA!

However, the Geffen is not set up to handle a large discussions. It will not be a forum for asking questions of the Board or Staff or airing different proposals for MOCA's future. It is not a press conference and not a showdown. There will be a brief period for comments from attendees - if you choose to speak, please be concise and productive.

What is paramount is to remember that what we are doing today is showing our support for the museum and its staff in a time of crisis and demonstrating to the Board of Trustees that there is a public who is vigilant and cares about the future of MOCA.

Thanks!

MOCA Mobilization

[Michael Buitron]

Why are MOCA's board and management so tight lipped in the face of this problem. If they expect donors to pony up some cash, they need to show how they plan to fix their balance sheet.

http://imoralist.blogspot.com/2008/11/mocas-fiscal-future-contemporary-arts.html

[Michael Buitron]

The contemporary art world has been pretty fickle here in Los Angeles, as the Pasadena Museum of Art and LAICA will attest. I support MOCA, but it feels a little like supporting a heroin addict. Sure I'll give you some money, but you need to fix that hole in your pocket first.

http://imoralist.blogspot.com/2008/11/mocas-fiscal-future-contemporary-arts.html

[jason kenny]

Have a barbeque with plenty of fosters
It works for me

[Meng Qiu]

Importance of the Financial Crisis

The financial crisis affects us all, physically and psychologically at the least. The "Global Monster" that awoke in 2007 (Bear Stearns) had been in the system for about 8 years. I had a go at interpreting the crisis as of 2009 in sculpture and poetry and I hope that some of you can share my feelings about it.

The sculpture: http://mengcomment.com/site/index.php/artworks/sculpture

The poem: 2009, dwindling in the midst of economic crisis I see hands reaching out to the farthest corners of the globe, bringing fear. A global monster had slammed into Manhattan's grand stand, rocking the world's financial high rises. As the tsunami enters second harmonic, choking even recycling factories in the slums of Mumbai, a petty heartbeat remains. Now, leaning towards the east the monster seems to be holing out, its inward conflict being redefined, politically, financially, realistically by definition of its very existence. It seems now as if I can almost sit back and relax again, for another moment.