MOCA-Broad agreement summary

Here's a summary of main points in the agreement reached Monday night and announced this morning between L.A.'s cash-strapped Museum of Contemporary Art and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation:

The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation agrees to:

1. Match contributions to the endowment up to $15 million.
2. Provide $3 million per year for five years for exhibition funding.
3. Within 90 days allow any responsible party to replace the Broad Foundation on identical agreement terms.

The Museum of Contemporary Art agrees to:

1. Continue operating as an independent world class contemporary art museum.
2. Maintain existing facilities including its  headquarters on Grand Avenue in downtown and the Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo.
3. Strengthen its board of trustees to include a substantial number of individuals who share MOCA’s vision for art and downtown Los Angeles.
4. Seek highly qualified and effective executive leadership.
5. Undertake an active membership drive and annual giving campaign.
6. Commence a fundraising campaign with a $75-million goal, 30% from MOCA’s board of trustees and $15 million matched by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.
7. Maintain annual trustee dues at a minimum of $75,000.
8. Engage reputable investment advisors to manage the endowment.
9. Mount exhibitions consistent with the high quality of prior exhibitions.
10. Exhibit MOCA’s permanent collection widely, consistent with customary museum practices.
11. Keep its collection intact and not sell any works of art.
12. Operate with an annual budget of no less than $13 million and no more than $16 million in cash expenses; however, the museum may operate at a higher level if it has the cash income to do so.
13. Cooperate fully and in good faith to conclude the inquiry by the California attorney general.

-- Christopher Knight

Photo: Jupiterimages/Brand X/Corbis

Comments

[SLM]

Wow, I am glad they got something done, but it sounds like the museum signed up to a bunch of restrictions that don't seem necessary. Why sign up to a minimum operating budget - to award inefficiency? Why sign up to not sell any art pieces - just to keep prices high for the Broad's personal collection? What if people simply stop going/donating to the museum? The museum has no way to adjust? This smells of bureaucracy and ego as opposed to efficiency and rationality. Were these things really part of the "deal" or just part of Mr. Knight's reporting of the deal in order to serve some agenda (which has been underlying his "reporting" of the manner the whole way through if you ask me)?

[ria]

slm, they need to have a minimum in their budget to assure consistency in the quality of the MOCA experience and to make sure they don't fire any of their staff in order to cut down on the overhead. -and they shouldn't sell any of their art because that would be counterproductive in maintaining the integrity of their collection, which is what brings MOCA (and LA) the international esteem it already has. Mr. Broad seems to just be trying to maintain what MOCA has already earned through amazing exhibitions- your claim that he just wants to "keep prices high for the Broad's personal collection" is paranoid and over the top. The man just gave 30 million to save LA's art scene, why don't you calm down and cut him some slack?