WHY THE MOCA LA DISPUTE MATTERS TO ALL OF US
In the last few weeks, the LA Times, the NY Times
and every visual arts and museum blog in America has been hashing and rehashing
the situation at LA MOCA and the recent resignation/firing of Chief Curator
Paul Schimmel. I've been following this story with great interest, not least
because it encapsulates so much that is good, bad and complicated about running
a nonprofit arts organization - of any sort - in today's world. Without going
into the details, which are readily available to you on Culture Monster and any
number of other arts blogs and/or web sites, let me make an observation.
First, as we see happen so frequently in today's world, polarized positions on issues have tended to become intractable and worse, caricatured. The LA MOCA issue is no different. The so called art world is characterized as caring only about it's narrow idea of quality and being completely indifferent to financial viability and/or audience attendance. The so called real world is said to care only about the numbers of people attending and the cost/benefit ratio of the art regardless of what it is. Dire predictions emanate from both sides that if the other side prevails, all is lost. I'm exaggerating a little here, but not much.
Just like the current polarized political debates, this is an unhelpful construction that distorts reality and prevents an important conversation from happening; one that in fact that needs to take place in the hearts and minds of every cultural professional in this country.
It is disingenuous of anyone in this field to not
acknowledge that the neo-liberal ideal, the power of the market, the dominance
of the financial/profitability metric and the collapsing of that
metric with quality (i.e. if it's good lots of people will pay for it and if they
won't or don't, it must not be good) is absolutely the world we live in. One is
hard pressed to find anyone today, in or out of the arts
"sector" who still believes that art is intrinsically valuable
and by that I don't mean that it has value because it makes you a better person
but it has value because it simply exists, as a human expression of an impulse
quite inexpressible otherwise.
I have long maintained that we in the art world, especially arts administrators, share some responsibility for this state of affairs. In our laudable quest to get the money to build and sustain the organizations we run, we've internalized the business model of America as the "right way" to produce and present art. In so doing, we have gone far down the slippery slope of making art a disposable commodity. The firing/resignation of Schimmel is the latest evidence of this and many feel compelled to call it out as they try to stem the tide of the full on commercialization of art. It may be too little too late.
However, there's enough evidence of pre-Jeffrey
Deitch and Eli Broad startlingly bad management of MOCA LA ( raiding
your endowment in the good times? really?) to give one pause. Every arts worker
in America, well before the latest bubble followed by the inevitable crash,
knows that running an arts organization, whatever its mission, requires
constant vigilance and careful management. There never has been, nor will
there ever be, a time for reckless behavior. And that prudence is
necessary precisely because the intrinsic value of art is NOT universally
recognized in this country. Custodianship of our culture requires sensible
managers and Boards, not careless ones.
Why this conflict especially matters now however is because the environment, beyond simply the economic questions, is rocking our world. Rapidly shifting demographics of age and race, technological innovations that are remaking how we communicate and even relate to each other, the simultaneous tribalism and globalism occurring in the world all point to the desperate need for us to rethink how we exist in the world, how we do our work, for whom and why. Now more than ever, the country needs the richness of our absolute best, most courageous, thoughtful and profound artists to help us look at the world and make some sense of the craziness. We don't need more shiny toys, we need serious thought, deep reflection and insightful ideas - the very qualities that only art can provide.
But that thought, reflection and insight cannot be the exclusive domain of only a few of us. It needs to engage the millions of people who are desperately seeking meaning in their world and their life and are not finding it in the commercial products that we have been convinced by mass marketing that we all "need."
So a new approach is needed. We cannot afford to embrace either of the polarized positions that are dominating the MOCA LA debate. We've got to create the vast middle ground - artists, institutions, activists and whole communities who are determined to break through the mindless clutter of the contemporary world and connect with art and ideas that actually mean something to us. That is in fact what arts institutions were meant to do in the first place, is it not?
I'd really be interested in hearing from those of you who are engaged in this most vital practice and willing to share with us what you are doing and learning. That would be blogs worth reading.
My name is Anthony Wofford. I am a Juilliard-trained actor and I run a theatre company, but I'm responding as an audience member here. I have chosen not to look into the whole MOCA LA debate, but I do have strong feelings about a "new approach" that allows us to "break through the mindless clutter of the contemporary world and connect with art and ideas that actually mean something to us.
We rely on artists and their content to bring joy in to their lives, to make connections with big ideas, and to be inspired. We want to share those experiences with others. So it is in an arts company's best interest from an artistic and financial point of view to create more content that people can interact with. And if they want to take it a step further, they should allow us to run certain offerings – guide us through activities where we create the work. Encourage us to form Meetups where we can develop our own communities around certain interests that stemmed from the company's culture. We will continue to feed it, either directly or indirectly.
An example:
Have a special show website that is 4 or more videos (released weekly and each lasting anywhere from 20-40min) where audiences can learn something about the artistic side of the show, the business side of the show, the world of the play and maybe a few actors point of view about the play. At the end of the video, present a challenge to have audiences submit something. The winner gets something like $100 or a complimentary meal for 2 at the theatre’s restaurant. This keeps people (artists and audiences) engaged, it generates unique content from artists and audiences, and it promotes the fact that art is not all about the show – it’s about the process and the connections we make throughout. This allows the company to be perceived by the audience as receptive, human, textured, personable, and passionate. This type of content really gives people something to talk about because it’s them who are in the spotlight. And that’s the difference between thriving today and flailing today.
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The so called real world is said to care only about the numbers of people attending and the cost/benefit ratio of the art regardless of what it is. Dire predictions emanate from both sides that if the other side prevails, all is lost. I'm exaggerating a little here, but not much.
alternativetreatmentsarticles.com
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Brava! A more thoughtful and engaging article on the MOCA mess than the mainstream press has produced. How I wish more art professionals and lovers would use this testy situation to expand the conversation. As you well noted, there is much to discuss, debate and integrate. The dogma coming from the shrieking voices at the top is getting boring and ultimately hurting the efforts of art workers who are dedicated to engagement and vitality.
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Ken, What I come back to again and again, is a rock and a hard place: “the neo-liberal ideal, the power of the market, the dominance of the financial/profitability metric”. . . this thinking, this conditioning and its reasoning, has become so total, so pervasive across all public and private sectors of life in the U.S., that it is invisible to most of us. Not only does it have arts organizations structuring themselves after businesses models, but even artists themselves are now more and more expected to behave as entrepreneurs as they are pressured to develop their “brand” and immerse themselves in marketing, social networking, and other audience building strategies. I cannot help but see this glaring and baffling assumption that we have bought into that the arts should conform to, and comply with, the present economic market system. And then, if you are to critique this trend, the response is similar to that of the business world; you’re not in touch with reality. And this (the arts sector) is just the rock. The hard place is the utter absence of art/artists on the list of our country’s values. It amounts to a pattern seen throughout history wherever a particular group is forced to conform to the rules and norms of a dominant culture. At some point along the path of one’s endeavor to assimilate into a culture that will never, can never, accept you as equal, you begin to suspect that you are participating in your own self-negation. At that point it is impossible to continue forward, and there’s no going back. And this, I believe, is the situation with the arts in the U.S. today. It places us in the position of having to do something unprecedented. Our status quo must disintegrate. It appears the process is already underway. . .
Thank you for helping make the conversation happen!
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A petition from MOCA Mobilization, with over 1700 signatures, was delivered to the co-chairs of the museum board of trustees on Tuesday August 7th. As of today we have heard nothing form the museum.
http://www.change.org/petitions/los-angeles-museum-of-contemporary-art
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