In a surprising (to say the least) development, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has posted on its website some general information about its proposed partnership with MOCA, which is still being pondered, as I write this, at a closed meeting of MOCA’s board.
What I like about the proposal is the plan to allocate space for MOCA’s important but insufficiently displayed permanent collection in LACMA’s Broad Contemporary Art Museum and in its Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion, now under construction. (I’ve previously endorsed such an arrangement here.)
The rest, to me, is very murky. You can read the above-linked press release for yourself, to see if it’s clearer to you than it is to me whether MOCA will retain its separate director and whether the two boards will become one. (Does the “strong director and management team already in place” refer to the team at MOCA or at LACMA?)
Unless MOCA remains under its own (but much improved) governance, the notion that LACMA’s plan will “preserve the independence and integrity” of MOCA is a myth. The official dissemination of his offer while MOCA’s board is still closeted may be LACMA director Michael Govan‘s idea of transparency, but it also strikes me as a lack of diplomacy. It seems almost calculated to embarrass MOCA’s board if it has the chutzpah to turn down an offer that Govan thinks it shouldn’t refuse.
The missing piece is: Who’s going to show MOCA the money? Is Eli Broad still on board? When I know more, you’ll know more.