More on the LA Museum of Contemporary Art

The NY Times recently ran a very interesting article on the financial difficulties of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. As noted here on the AW Blog on November 21 (click HERE to read the post) the museum was having a major financial collapse and including perhaps misappropriation of designated museum funds. The NY Times chronicles the ill of the LA MOCA. The museum is well regarded for its collection of post war contemporary art and according to the article, managed the museum with a minimum of financial planning and poor fiscal oversight. The trend of Museums with financial troubles is rather alarming, with the bankruptcy of the Copia, the National Academy and Corcoran selling art, many of which have been chronicled here on the AW Blog.

The NY Times reports Yet by putting art ahead of the bottom line, the Museum of Contemporary Art has nearly killed itself. The museum has operated at a deficit in six of the last eight years, and its endowment has shrunk to about $6 million from nearly $50 million in 1999, according to people who have been briefed on the finances.

Now the California attorney general has begun an audit to determine if the museum broke laws governing the use of restricted money by nonprofit organizations. And local artists, curators and collectors, including current and former board members, are lobbying to remove the museum’s director, Jeremy Strick, its board, or both.

The museum’s tailspin has brought an outpouring of grief and disbelief in a city that has recently cast itself as a rival to New York as the nation’s art capital. The closing of such a respected museum, or even its merger into another institution, would leave a formidable hole not only in the city’s psyche but in the national cultural landscape as well.

It difficulty the LA MOCA is having shows that even with wealthy benefactors, large budgets and a sound artistic reputation, museums are just like any other business, large or small and have to be managed and marketed properly. While gaining accolades for its collection, they museum's management failed to consider the second half of the equation, the finances. I am sure the MOCA is being hurt by the current financial trends, but it also appears the trouble started a long time ago. To read the NY Times article, click HERE.