You are hereArchive - Jan 17, 2009
Archive - Jan 17, 2009
Art, space, but no benefactors? U.S. museums look inward for their own bailouts
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As the art world waited breathlessly for word on whether the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles would survive or go bust, a white knight, the billionaire art collector Eli Broad, rode to the rescue with a $30 million bailout plan. Some people cheered; others sneered. Few thought to point out that more venerable and vulnerable institutions across the U.S. are also struggling, but with no bailouts in sight.
Major art museums in Detroit, Newark and Brooklyn are prime examples. Forged a century ago or more from idealism and dollars, they are American classics, monuments to Yankee can-do. As latecomers to the culture game, American museums had to buy art fast and big, and they did. But times and fortunes - we all know the story - changed. Depression, recession and politics brought powerful cities to their knees. Populations shifted.
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