Downtown L.A. is officially a contender for Eli Broad's art museum

Here's the latest installment in the courtship of Eli Broad -- and the art museum he aims to plunk somewhere in the Los Angeles Basin, complete with big-name architecture, a spiffy $200 million endowment and the 2,000 works of contemporary art held by his Broad Art Foundation.

Downtown L.A. is officially making a play, courtesy of the Grand Avenue Authority, which today authorized negotiations with Broad toward a possible deal that would wrest the museum from Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, which are also in the running.

After a closed session today of the Grand Avenue Authority, L.A. City Councilwoman Jan Perry, a member of the joint city-county authority that's overseeing development of vacant land and parking lots in the heart of downtown's arts district, said it will deploy a negotiating team "to proceed with discussions with the Broad Foundation to consider his proposal and reach a mutual agreement."

The Grand Avenue project, of which Broad himself has been a leading advocate, is considered the centerpiece of downtown's revitalization. Designed by Frank Gehry, it includes two towers, condos, hotel rooms and a shopping center. The project, which involves public land and a private developer, stalled last year after the developer was unable to secure a multibillion-dollar construction loan amid the global credit crunch. A Broad Museum launch there would be a coup that could help rebuild momentum for the plan.

Until recently, Broad, who has painted a redeveloped Grand Avenue as L.A.'s answer to Paris' Champs-Elysees as a cultural hub, was a member of the committee overseeing the project on behalf of the Grand Avenue Authority. Officials said today that Broad had resigned from the committee in November in order to avoid any potential conflicts of interest as the negotiations move forward.

Broad has said that he deliberately has kept his options open for a museum site, hoping that competition will prevent plans from getting bogged down by bureaucratic delays in any single government jurisdiction. Beverly Hills was the first contender to surface publicly, in 2008, with talks centering on a parcel at Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, and Santa Monica stepped forward late last year with what appears to be the most advanced plan: the City Council is expected to vote in February on a nonbinding "agreement in principle" that would allow the planning, permitting and environmental review process for the museum to go forward.

The basic outline of the proposed deal: the Broad Foundation would get a $1 a year, 99-year lease on 2.5 acres of city-owned land next to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, plus $2.7 million from the city in project funding and site-work. Broad would pay to build and operate a museum costing an estimated $40 million to $60 million to build and $12 million annually to run.

It would house at least 30,000 square feet of exhibition space for his collection, plus  space for storing the art not on display or out on loan to other museums. The museum building also would include offices of the three-pronged Broad Foundations for art, science and education, which now occupy a 1927 vintage building in Santa Monica that lacks the parking needed for a public museum.

Jeffrey Deitch, recently announced as the next director of L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art, where Broad is the leading donor, is among those who have asked the billionaire philanthropist to locate his museum on Grand Avenue, where its cultural neighbors would include MOCA, Walt Disney Concert Hall and the rest of the Music Center, the Colburn School of Music, and the Los Angeles Unified School District's new arts high school.

Reiterating past statements from Broad's camp, Broad Foundation spokeswoman Karen Denne said today that “we are considering multiple locations and look forward to making a decision this spring.”

-- Mike Boehm, Ari B. Bloomekatz and Cara DiMassa 

Related:

Eli Broad and the mysterious third museum site

Santa Monica to vote on proposed Broad Museum deal

Cities compete for Broad museum

Eli Broad on new museum: 'Our first choice is the Beverly Hills site'

Photo: Artist's rendering of proposed Grand Avenue project. Credit: Grand Avenue Authority

Comments

[Donald Frazell]

Great, sucking up to the robber barons who put us in this mega recession, mini depression. It is all about money, and brownnosing, isnt it? No one goes to the boring stuff at MoCA as is, now we gonna have another behomonth of even worse trash? Far too many museums as is for the limited amount of relevant art as is.

Grow a sack, have some kinda values, and look for that which will involved all of LA not just the speculative leeches and snake oil salesmen of the Hills. How does this matter to those in the Valley, San Pedro, Baldwin Hills, or the rest of LA county? It doesnt. Its spoiled brat trash. No more therapy and imperial clothing. Go for what is about US, not Them. This splits LA even more into those who dont have, those who stay in their small domains as nothing draws them out worth a damn besides movies, and those who think they deserve to be above the masses, strictly through manipulating markets til they collapse for their own benefit, and no one did this more than Broad in LA.

Just say Hell No! No more splintering of America, no more blind vanity, the mirror of Dorian Gray has been uncovered, we know you now. You are but dust.

art collegia delenda est

[Naomi Treblaine]

Mr. Frazell - your language is crass and unnecessary. I do not understand why the LAT accepts all of your ranting posts.
And it is a "Picture" of Dorian Gray - not a mirror.

[Donald Frazell]

No, it is a mirror, no one in these childcare centers has the skill to paint a portrait. The crassness is in the artscene, embracing decadence. And avarice is it like no other. Consecrating thieves and greed with Mausoleums stretched across LA is obscene.

Learn what is important in life, "crass" language, or truth.

another example
art collegia delenda est

[no more latin tag lines]

Would the Culture Monster editors please tell us what we can do about these annoying, negative, non-productive posts such as the one above? It does not add to the conversation (as that "contributor" has voiced that similar sentiment time and time again) and the CM comments section is becoming a wasteland of this sort of rhetoric. It is disrespectful to the writers, who are actually qualified to write about the subjects they cover, the artists and others they write about, and the readers, who see the same comments weekly. Please help clean up Culture Monster.

[Dian Sher]

At first glance, I like this idea. A Grand Avenue Museum - how enormously grand.

I happen to spend time on Grand Avenue, for various reasons - photographing it being one of them. Exploring politics of the region being another.

Grand Avenue is, to me, an embodiment of nothing short of a modern day miracle - what hills the developers must have climbed, what hoops they must have mastered in order to build the exquisite buildings that are there now.

A new museum soaring in a skyscraper - art rising. (Forgive me Mr. Deitch, but that is better than art burrowing as it does at MOCA)

Inspiring to imagine.

[Naomi Treblaine]

It is surprising to me as well that the LAT allows this kind of raving to continue. Mr. Frazell is constantly filling the comments section with his bitter rants. They serve no purpose and do not contribute to dialogue. All they do is make commentary pointless because most of the responses are just abuse from Mr. Frazell. Aside from that - his responses are always nearly the same - he has a stock set of comments he sends out.
Why should people who genuinely want to comment suffer his verbal (written) abuse?
The Culture Monster comments section is a joke. It has become a negative, bizarre forum for one sad, angry person.
Please clean it up.

[Donald Frazell]

Not bitter, truth, if you got something better, lets hear it, lets ahve that quaint idea of "dialogue" in contempt art, There is none, all toe the line sucking up to those who "might" help them. Toadies. I seldom if ever get a knowledgabel and well thought out response, always "shock" and dismay that they have been found out, and cant cover themsevlse anymore. All intelligent people left art long ago to have the rich and decadent take over the field. Thre are a few of us left, and been disgusted for decades, but now is the time to bring it down. Creative art is needed once more. Times are changing, values have returned, there must be purpose for our joined survival, not this vain and arrogant twaddle. Bet you like that word. This is what Obama meant by change, he was chastising the left just as much as the right. The center must hold.

And like thsoe who wave the cross and flag and are perverted within using them to cover it up, those on the left and arts are decadent, and cover themselvs in "sophistication" and "cleverness". We all now what Hemingway wrote about such people, it is just as true today. But then, most "art" people have no sense of history, or knowledge of our common culture, they are far too "refined'. LOL!

art collegia delenda est

[None]

I'm curious Mr Frazzell you keep ranting about times changing but I don't see it. LACMA has expanded, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego has expanded, Moca has been saved. Riverside, Laguna and Santa Barbara have put more of a focus on contemporary art. Now another contemporary art museum is opening. The local schools seem to be putting out more and more students. Los Angeles has grown from a city with dozens of gallery to one with hundreds. Even in this economic downturn few galleries have closed and those that have tend to be the ones that show the derivative passe art you praise.
So, how are times changing? Is it that you and your friend have decided they are or am I missing something?

[Donald Frazell]

And how many people go to these lovely temples to self glorification EXCEPT students and others whose lives are intrinsically linked to the artscenes growth? No one. Attendance is way down especially at contempt museums and few repeat viewers. MoCA is still down, only those whose investments are at stake have come to "save" it. The New Museum is a disaster in NYC. Most of those museums you listed are in serious financial situations, and looking to be bailed out by whoever they can get. And those who got the richest from this bubble economy are the very patrons they want, and who bought this psychobable and games. It fits their "personalities". Those interested in short term profit, not long term growth.

LACMA is doing great, it did an excellent rehanging, getting rid of the white cube syndrome. But it is dead except when well publicized shows are there or shindigs for the patrons. I have shown on my blog how to reactivate its space by that old fashioned technology called paint, Just click my name below.

No, few are interested. How many outside of the insular westside weho and hills go to these things? Art is supposed to activate the passions of all, to define who we are and bond us together, to gather the tribes to commune as one. In this it has failed miserably. It has banned god, any concept of which they are afraid of, as they want to be seen as gods themselvs, and fear to answer for their lives. There is no nature, nothing except which can be easily seperated and controlled, never delved into and explored.

No, times are changing. They will not happen overnight. But to survive as a species we must stop splintering, and find common purpose. This is completely lacking in contempt art, and has Always been creative arts core role in humanity, visualizing the world of mind, body and soul we are all a part of not apart from. But philosophy, science, and theology are unknown in the artscene, history considered frivolous, becasue of course we are the end all of evolution. LOL!! Art is now fashion, and the lowest common denominator of small men, not the highest which is its goal.

But not laughing when we see what must be done, what art has failed in doing. It is no more or less important than a chef, a farmer, a soldier, or a lawyer. But has been turned into childsplay, literally, it is about fun, it is entertainment for the rich and decadent, the soft and spoiled. Art is by the strong. They have been busy elsewhere. But art is needed again, we must find common Purpose, for purpose in art as much as anything else, is everything.

art collegia delenda est
fine art collegs must be destroyed
the Bastilles of the pharisees.
the Ivory towers of sophistry.

[William Wray]

Actually hundreds galleries have closed here and across the country. Many are barely holding on. Take off the rose-colored glasses and talk to gallery owners, they will tell you it’s ugly out there. Recently there has been a slight improvement, but it’s still a very weak market.
This contemporary art venue expansion is a societal echo of the mortgage-borrowing binge. It’s driven by the money made on construction and the benefits of a personal collection being housed in a museum.
Art felt the downturn first and its “economy” will be affected the longest. There is good contemporary art being done, it’s just that a lot of the weakest stuff is forced on a public that doesn’t want junk they don’t understand. We need to get out of the cycle we have been stuck in since the sixties of repeating less and less and get back to the basics of foundation based art.

Take the contempt out of contemporary art stop looking down on the public, give them feeling and beauty.

[None]

Yes, I know the economy is bad, but its across the board with the "traditional" arts you love getting hit as hard (if not harder) than contemporary art. And yes galleries have closed. The Thomas Kinkaid galleries are closing shop and there's been a blood bath among the cheesy "California Impressionist" galleries in Laguna and La Jolla. Meanwhile contemporary galleries are expanding (Blum & Poe, Kordansky, Vielmetter and Angles to name a few).

And as a side note, I don't know where Frazell get's his idea of the past. I can't think of a time or place in history when art was more accessible to the masses.

I know you both really really want to believe the sky is falling but I'm still just not seeing it.

In the end, I don't think painting Molaa to look an El Pollo Loco will help.

[Gabrielle Hunter]

Let me add my voice to the many pleas to ban Donald Frazell from the Culture Monster comments section. In publishing his inflammatory and uninformed remarks, you are not promoting real dialogue on the issues, but merely enabling mania.

[Donald Frazell]

El pollo loco does look like MoLAA. This looks like real houses in latin america. it is the colors of how people live, and color has been banned as a musical and harmonic quality in Contempt art because it is born of passion. Look at LACMA, horrible boring Broad McMansion beige, and look at how I fixed it into something people can feel energy from. No fast food there.

No, the sky isnt falling, but what was, failed. That is obvious to all but those who are tied to its industy, any who have wasted tens of thousands osf dollars to create tens of thousands of artistes who will enver do anything worthwhile let alone get a job. They are making money off the lemmings, and building a base to steal off of by getting rich kids and their daddies involved. Thats it. It has NO value. No one goes except these brainwashed and ignorant kids.

It will take time for new artists to arise, and the few who can actuallys ee ofor themselvs and not so trained into Pavlovian dogs to have thier own minds and emotionsto create taht of US, not I. This is te salon of Cezanne, totally corrupt, yet everywhere. It fell, so will this mess. It hasno purpose, n meaning, no roll in human culture.

And by the way,I am a history major, a REAL one, not some art flunky. Byzantine primarily, Anatolia the crossroads of the world, Consantinople the key to three world cultures. LA, well its the enterainment capital of the world, whihc is teh lowest common denominator, So art does not thrive here, its values are instant gratification, you cant even wait to find out what is new, so quit and decalre there isnt anything. . Wow, that takes backbone and strength of character. Get to work.

ACDE!

[Donald Frazell]

Then say something Gabrielle. I never hear dissenting voices, those of reason left long ago as art is now boring. and those left to filled with ennui and self interest to ever havea thought of their own. Say something independant and thought out as to why contempt art has anything to add to humanity. That any intelligent caring person from any nation and cuulture on earth can find purpose in. Modern art brought people of all nations and education levels together, it didnt trigger everyone, but was open and available to all. This isnt, it is closed off, restricted to the "intelligentsia" of introverted and self absorbed. I am waiting.

Many many agree with me, few care enough to bother with a field they see has nothing in it for anyone. I dont speak for just myself, but far more who are both amused and disgusted with contempt art, than like it.
I am waiting.

[Naomi Treblaine]

Once again - raving by some bitter old man who is full of hate. Why is the LAT allowing this section to be taken over by someone who has nothing new or interesting to say? Every post is the same incoherent raving against artists, museums, universities, intellectuals and young people.
And, as I said in my previous post, Mr. Frazell's comments are abusive to the other writers.

You've given him a free and open forum to spew hate. Why should your readers have to deal with this bully?

Do something about this section - it has become ridiculous.

[William Wray]

“None” reveals the true hate in the contemporary art world by grouping traditional artists in with obvious garbage like Thomas Kincaid. This is the kind of indoctrination and prejudice that spews forth from the closed mind I've seen in the art world my whole life.
I’m often negative here, but I like a lot of contemporary art; my favorite art being a balance of traditional mixed with abstraction, a kind of meeting of the two worlds that makes both valid.
Ironically the contemporary art world can be as inflexible as Republicans in their views with its shotgun dismissal of tradition, so sure that learning to draw is a waste of time, self-assured that building a box out of toothpicks is genius. At least I'm open to both worlds co- existing.

The idea that supposedly enlightened people want someone banned on a bolg because they don't agree with them is just embarrassing in a free thinking society. Donald can be a preachy and dogmatic, but at least he has the passion to fight for change. All the brave souls with fake names jumping in with a dog pile attack shows weakness.
I have yet to hear a logical well-reasoned defense of contemporary art that informs on this blog. I see review after art review without any comments. Donald and I at least want to talk about the art. Where are the rest of you? Don't attack us, attack our arguments, defend the art you love so much, enlighten us, be articulate or are you afraid of the contemporary art world and hurting your careers? Don’t worry; Shepard Warhol proves that controversy is sells, go for it.

[Marshall]

I'm usually not on the side of the ban hammer, but I do agree with the numerous posters above about the need for Culture Monster to do something about Donald Frazell's posting.

While I do appreciate Mr. Frazell's obvious passion for the arts as he sees them, at this point he's completely trolling this blog and using it as a free, high profile soapbox for his own agenda. Based on the above comments, it's obviously discouraging others from contributing to the dialog, as well.

[None]

Mr. Wray, I don't think you'll ever "hear a logical well-reasoned defense of contemporary art" because you don't listen. I should also note that defending contemporary art is a bit like defending rock n' roll. Sure some musicians can't play and might be sloppy but the debate has long been settled and it's not going away.

I'm sorry you think I lumped you in with Thomas Kinkaid. I was just clarifying that when you all say "galleries are closing" it doesn't just mean contemporary galleries. Closings are across the board and hitting all arts equally hard. But if were going to bring up generalizations could you define what you mean by "contemporary art" all I can gather from your definition is that it's work you don't like.

[Cate]

I've learned more about visual art from Donald Frazell and William Wray than I have from any other commenter on Culture Monster. Both of them have attacked my intelligence on occasion (Donald, more often than not), but that does not stop me from commenting when I have something I'd like to say, or asking a question if there is something I don't understand. (And lately, there have been so many things I don't understand--I don't even know where to begin.)

William, I told you in a previous comment that I am easily intimidated, but there are some things that are so important to say, no amount of shyness or fear can keep me quiet. My name is Cate, by the way. It's not a fake name and I am a real person.

DF and WW have just as much right as anyone to voice their opinions. It's freedom of speech and no one should try to take that away from them.

[William Wray]

Mr. None you have me at a disadvantage do to your anonymity—revealing your name would give your comments some creditability. When it comes to the closing of galleries perhaps we both need to listen more or articulate better, I’m quite aware that the economy is wreaking havoc across the board. However the Toothpick sculpture, girls in mud, cardboard scrawls, appropriating imagery school of contemporary art that is reviewed with breathless reverence on this blog have a huge advantage. They receive all the encouragement, museums, promotion and grants; representational artists are ghettoized and ignored. Can you see why being summarily dismissed might put a chip on our shoulder? Is it so unfair to what to hear articulate reasons why a strong foundation in art is poison and why found objects rearranged are great? I only ever hear the implication that the greatness of contemporary art is all so obvious to the enlightened, so understandable that it’s can’t be articulated.

Your rock and roll argument doesn’t hold a drop of water because even the crudest musician has to know the basics of how to play. Ok I’m listening for your answer, why is it wrong to know how to draw?