Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
Should a city’s mayor assemble a panel to help determine a privately run museum’s future?
LA’s Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa thinks so.
In a letter sent today to the co-chairmen of LA MOCA’s embattled board, the major called for a 30-day delay in deciding what to do about the two rescue options offered by Eli Broad and by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In the meantime, he want’s MOCA’s board members to engage in “a public review of the proposals before them, allowing for input from the community and all interested stakeholders.” This public review would be “conducted by or in conjunction with a panel of appointed contemporary arts experts,” to be convened by the major.
I always thought that MOCA had superlative contemporary art experts already on hand. It’s the fiscal and fundraising experts who were conspicuously missing.
In what sounds like a swipe at the proposed LACMA merger, Villaraigosa also wrote:
Any plan to preserve the museum’s long term financial health must also maintain MOCA’s independence and require structural reform and strict financial accountability measures. The strategic choices you make for MOCA’s future should…ensure that the Board maintains its stewardship and authority over the financial and operational management of the museum.
Eli Broad was invited to discuss his bailout proposal at today’s MOCA board meeting. In light of the mayor’s surprise intervention, I doubt we’ll have any decision today regarding the two offers on the table. But there should be no delay in addressing two of the mayor’s expressed concerns—“structural reform and strict financial accountability measures.”