“I think that if the Broad is to always remain a vital museum, not a collector’s mausoleum, it will need to Broad-en its sights—-developing dynamic programming that views the collection as a springboard, not a straitjacket.”
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See what she did there? Broad-en!!
Nothing too exciting is going on, but I’ll do a little link round up of some things that are worth looking into, if you feel so inclined:
“It just burns me that people are saying they’re giving me, a billionaire, $1 a year for nothing, without looking at the public benefit that’s being created…. Any city in America would like to get a museum built if they didn’t have to pay for it.”
— Eli Broad, who would actually not be paying just $1 but $7.7 million for the downtown location for his museum.
“This is not a one-philanthropist town.”
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Eli Broad quoted in an extremely bold article by Christopher Hawthorne for the LA Times regarding his architectural preferences.
Wouldn’t it be so much better if he said that this is a one-philanthropist town in a brusque Clint Eastwood voice? I know I have a rich imagination at times, but this scenario of Broad running all the other philanthropists out of town via any means necessary is going to keep me entertained for quite a while.
But apparently the LA Times thinks that they are?
Eli Broad, Los Angeles’ leading philanthropist, is asking the city and county to give him a piece of property downtown for an art museum to house his collection — a museum he’s offering to build and endow. As they consider that request, the Board of Supervisors, the City Council and other agencies of local government should base their decisions not on what is best for Broad but on what best serves the public. And they should approve this deal.
I sort of stopped following this story a while ago (sorry) because I got bored with the Broad baiting, but I haven’t seen one article or even a quote against Eli’s proposed museum. All I have read is the fight over the location between Beverly Hills (now out of the race), Santa Monica and Downtown (so Deitch can have a friend to play with). I wish they had linked to any sort of dissenting voice so I could feel better about reading this article filled with information that anyone with common sense most people who have an active interest in art already knows.
» Santa Monica not giving up on the race for Eli Broad's museum
Meanwhile, Beverly Hills is now out of the running, having withdrawn from the Great Eli Broad Museum Race last week, but Santa Monica is also offering a cheap lease deal to Broad, offering a 2.5-acre site for $1 per year for 99 years. Given the surrounding cultural institutions, a rep for the city tells the paper that Santa Monica “envision this area as an important cultural focal point for Santa Monica.”
The $1 a year for 99 years is the same deal that DTLA is offering, so that wouldn’t tip it over. We all know that Broad likes to shake things up, so even though Deitch has been talking to him, doesn’t mean he will keep any promises made about DTLA over the west side. I think Santa Monica would be fun, bring some contemporary flavor over there, but does that mean instead of pigeons we would have to be dealing with seagulls? I hate seagulls.
Also, what would the conservation issues be with the museum being closer to the ocean? Different weather, more salt in the air, more wind. I only ask because 2.5 acres is a lot of land to not have any sculptures outdoors.
Remember toward the end of 2008 when MOCA had negative money and were flayling around and everyone was panicking and then Super Eli came to the rescue? Well, the LA Times is now reporting that the Attorney General found that not only were they very good at going broke, they were very good at breaking laws!
Instead of reducing spending, MOCA paid some of its bills with money from endowments that donors had earmarked for other purposes, Johns found; she noted that the law requires either that nonprofits get written permission from donors before using restricted endowments in other ways, or that they obtain court orders overriding the restrictions. “The withdrawals we reviewed did not follow this standard,” Johns wrote.
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As a consequence, MOCA was ordered to take two “required corrective actions” — hiring a consultant to help it come up with newer and better financial procedures, and special training for all museum board members “to ensure that they fully understand their fiduciary duties.”
via…
Well, this should be interesting to watch. Deitch is on his way over. They are now going to have to hire consultants. I haven’t heard if they are still having that fundraiser at Blum + Poe, but that’s not good.
I have to wonder if they are just counting on more attendence and interest because they have their hearts set on Eli Broad having his museum downtown and having that fix a lot of their publicity woes. Now that Beverly Hills has bowed out of the competition, it’s only DTLA and Santa Monica going head to head. Where the ball stops, nobody knows.
“If you’re not a billionaire, and are beginning to feel a bit insignificant in the face of mega-wealth, remember to think proportionately: When a billionaire donates $1 million, it’s the equivalent of a millionaire giving $1,000; of a person with a net worth of $100,000 giving $100, and of someone who lives paycheck to paycheck giving anything at all.”
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Mike Boehm in an article about SoCal Billionaires and their (or lackthereof) philanthropy.
I have never thought about this before, which is silly b/c it’s pretty simple math to figure out. But this means, when Eli Broad donated $30 million to a failing MOCA it was actually about the equivalent of him donating $6k if he only had $5 million instead of billion. Talk about a drop in the bucket. A very big, gilded bucket that was probably commissioned from Jeff Koons.
“In a major coup, scrappy and nearly bankrupt Los Angeles has emerged as a third contender—joining Beverly Hills and Santa Monica—for Eli Broad’s planned art museum. Today the Los Angeles Grand Avenue Authority authorized discussions on the possibility of leasing a plot of land—a site right next to the Redcat Gallery on lower Grand Ave—to the philanthropist for the art museum. “This is a great opportunity for the city,” said City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who sits on the Grand Avenue Authority board, in a statement. “A world class city like Los Angeles is the perfect location for a museum of this caliber. I look forward to working with The Broad Foundation in exploring this project and hope that they will seriously consider downtown as they move forward.”
— Oh Eli…getting everyone’s hopes up.
