The cash-strapped Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, has accepted the $30-million bailout plan of billionaire supercollector Eli Broad. MOCA director Jeremy Strick has resigned as part of the part of the overhaul, according to the Los Angeles Times, and UCLA chancellor emeritus Charles E. Young has been named as the museum’s new chief executive. Strick, who has headed the museum for nine years, made no public comment. The plan implicitly splits the museum directorship into two parts, with Young overseeing the business side and a new director, still to be named, in charge of artistic matters.
The Broad plan provides a $15-million challenge grant for a new MOCA endowment fundraising drive, and $3 million a year for five years for operating funds. The MOCA board has reportedly pledged more than $20 million in new gifts, though no details were revealed. The agreement also sets the MOCA budget at $13 million-$16 million a year; in recent years, the museum budget has averaged $20 million. The move also means that MOCA is not taking up LACMA director Michael Govan’s offer of a merger with his museum.
