On May 3, the museum announced the addition of six new board members, bringing the total roster of trustees added under Biesenbach to 10 - three of whom are people of color.īiesenbach said the criticism was unfair, that he simply posts good wishes to artists on their birthdays and that he otherwise works on behalf of the museum “24/6” except Sunday - when he needs to “go to nature” and takes hikes in the Angeles National Forest. “It’s going to be really beautiful.”īiesenbach also noted that MOCA over the last year voluntarily recognized a new union (though the museum in a statement initially said “we do not believe that this union is in the best interest of our employees or the museum”) and raised more than $450,000 for operating costs during Covid by selling artist-designed face masks. “When I arrived, this was just a warehouse and a parking lot,” he said, surveying the area. In an interview, Seferian pointed to Biesenbach’s accomplishments to date, including moving the museum to free admission with a $10 million gift from Carolyn Clark Powers, MOCA’s board president, and establishing Wonmi’s Warehouse, a performance program with a $5 million gift from Wonmi Kwon, a trustee, and her husband, Kihong Kwon.īiesenbach said he was particularly proud of having animated the Geffen Contemporary in the city’s Little Tokyo section, a few blocks from MOCA’s Grand Avenue flagship, by installing two billboard-size works by the conceptual artist Barbara Kruger on the facade of planning an expanded sculpture park outside the entrance and of reconfiguring the vast interior of the Geffen to create distinct exhibition spaces. The museum also said the change to its leadership structure was not in response to the reviews. The museum said in a statement that an independent adviser had reviewed the same data and concluded that Viramontes had negatively skewed the conclusions in summarizing the feedback about MOCA’s executives. In an email, Shapiro responded: “I do not agree with Carlos’s allegations and characterizations, and his attempts to hurt MOCA are very upsetting.” These same reviews that they say were problematic are what were used to demote Klaus.” “I just read the reviews to them, I didn’t write them, but my boss decided to make it a personal thing,” he said, adding, “I became the scapegoat. When Viramontes shared the results of the 360 review process with his own supervisor, Amy Shapiro, MOCA’s deputy director, he said she took it out on him, as she - along with other senior leaders - had also received negative feedback. “I don’t know if it’s so much that he’s unable, but he’s unwilling to be the leader,” Viramontes said.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |