Who Should Acquire MOCA?
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Nancy Rubins sculpture outside MOCA. (Creative Commons)
In a press release Tuesday, MOCA’s Board of Trustees announced that the museum had garnered more than $60 million in promised endowments. It’s a big step for MOCA’s fundraising campaign which seeks to raise the $100 million they say will allow them to remain independent.
After a partnership between MOCA and USC was announced in December, one that artist and former MOCA board member John Baldessari said could be beneficial and comparable to UCLA’s involvement with the Hammer Museum, the university has been in the running to bail out MOCA from its financial woes. LACMA offered $100 million early March to acquire the downtown museum, but the L.A. Times reported last week that a MOCA spokeswoman said, “The board is in agreement that the best future for MOCA would be as an independent institution.”
And now with the $60 million in promised endowments, MOCA is closer to putting its money where its Pollocks are.
So besides the question of how much it will cost for MOCA to hold onto ownership of its enterprise, will offers by LACMA or USC be more attractive? And how would potential changes in MOCA ownership affect the museum and the larger L.A. art scene?
LACMA acquires MOCA
LACMA’s proposal early March to purchase MOCA was not the first time it tried to combine forces in the L.A. art scene. Eli Broad last bailed out the institution in 2008 with a $30 million grant that was contingent on MOCA staying independent and not merging with LACMA. But this time around, LACMA’s $100 million bid seems much more attractive after MOCA has continued to struggle to stay afloat. And Broad's own museum is set to open early 2014 across the street from MOCA.
With the acquisition of MOCA, LACMA will have a near monopoly on major art institutions in the city and will be the natural choice to house large, high-profile exhibitions regardless of genre. LACMA will expand its reach geographically across Los Angeles and into the more contemporary Downtown L.A. art scene. Whether LACMA will absorb MOCA into its own establishment or maintain the contemporary museum in its original capacity is unknown, but the Times reported that LACMA’s offer letter said it “would preserve MOCA’s two downtown locations and operate them under the MOCA name.”
LACMA Director Michael Govan – also Wallis Annenberg Director – said in a statement that same day, “A combined MOCA and LACMA could make history.”
USC acquires MOCA
While LACMA has made an official offer to buy out MOCA for $100 million, USC has not made one. But an alliance between the univesity and the museum could be mutually beneficial similar to UCLA's relationship with the Hammer Museum. UCLA gives the Hammer about $2 million a year, and in return, the university has a large say in how the museum is run. USC would have to be firm in its decision to bail MOCA out of financial trouble, allowing the university to influence programming or other operating decisions. A USC ownership would prevent LACMA from expanding in both a physical and influential sense. USC's voracious appetite to conquer L.A. would be whet by acquiring MOCA and give the university more clout in the contemporary art scene.
Jeffrey Deitch, MOCA’s controversial director, told Vanity Fair that USC’s involvement was welcome. “I’m very excited about it. The combination would be amazing," Deitch said. "But there’s nothing to say beyond the terse statement released by the university."
Gayle Garner Roski, for whom USC’s Roski School of Fine Arts is named, supports the partnership according to the L.A. Times. There are already existing ties between USC and MOCA: Wallis Annenberg, head of the Annenberg Foundation, serves on both institutions’ boards. So will USC make a bid for MOCA or just continue to develop a partnership with the museum?
Reach Senior Arts Editor Melissah here. Follow her @MelissahYang.
