Save LACMA - Can LACMA Be Saved?

Dear Friends,

We have all been looking for peace, solace and hope, especially during this past week which has been one of the darkest and scariest yet, and LACMA's leadership had failed us. Miserably.

One of the most heart-wrenching, if not entirely heartbreaking, comments someone has posted about LACMA leaderships's decision to begin LACMA's self-destruction this past week was from a woman who tweeted, "Seeing this really took any remaining wind out of my sails. I've had some splendid moments there. One of my first solo outings when I moved here was to LACMA. My (now) husband left for work, and I was on my own for the day. I found the museum in the Yellow Pages, noted the address, called for operating hours, called the bus company's info line for route times, and made my way over."

After the LA Times published on Wednesday an almost full page article, loaded with large color photos, of the surprise demolition of LACMA's beloved Bing theater, dozens upon dozens of people were absolutely aghast at what they saw and read. One Times reporter told me that it was the most traffic on the Times' webpage they've ever seen in recent memory.

Dozens of others, like the person quoted above, posted comments on Twitter as well. These people represent the entire spectrum - from almost every local community, from other cities and even other countries - and the vast majority were, not surprisingly, very negative. But the comments always have been against, haven't they?

People are already very stressed and the local weather had been dark, rainy and cold this past week. On top of it all, it's the time of year when many of us reflect on the intercession between plague(!), sacrifice, death and rebirth. Has there ever been, in recent memory, a more profound time in recent history to observe Holy Week and Passover? LACMA's leadership, willfully, looked the other way and commenced demolition just days after it's fifty-fifth anniversary. What begets heartlessness?

To say that this was a major PR blunder on LACMA's part is a gross understatement. They rushed out two email blasts after, rather than prior to, the major blowback. One was from Building LACMA, where they blamed "the county" and LACMA's board of trustees for moving forward and Clark Construction if anything goes wrong. The other from Michael Govan, impishly titled "Director@Home" - home being the $5.6 million Hancock Park residence owned by LACMA where he lives rent free - and about how art can calm us down...and can be seen on LACMA's website. Neither expressed any contrition about the incredibly cruel behavior on LACMA leadership's part.

To those upset on Twitter, LACMA also kept retweeting the same tweet over and over again, and Save LACMA felt compelled to correct them, that it was only demolishing, "4 (sic) aged buildings." As if a building has an expiration date.

What if they were talking about the aged Guggenheim, which conducted a top to bottom rehabilitation and renovation not too long ago (I saw the bare, stripped and colorless façade in person and was mesmerized) and where Mr Govan learned how museums work? What if they were talking about the very aged Louvre, which actually built a complementary IM Pei addition in between it while finding, and reviving, an extremely aged 13th century castle underneath it? What if the citizens of New York and Paris were now told they were paying to demolish their landmarks, expending almost half a billion dollars or euros in the process and instead of paying for much needed medical and financial relief? That's what we've been told. Repeatedly.

Learning more, perhaps too much, than I may have ever wanted about what has led us to this moment with LACMA has been an education about how one person with enough charisma and guile can take his vision, ensorcell his enablers and attempt to go all the way. The Wall Street Journal printed an article on Michael Govan, entitled "If He Builds It, You Will Come" and published it seven years ago almost to the day. It began with the retelling of one of the first phone calls he placed after his LACMA hire but prior to the announcement of it. It was to Peter Zumthor. They were going to make Govan's dream become real and they had the land to do so. "I didn't come to LACMA for what it was" he told the reporter, "Look at the map! Twenty-two acres in the middle of Los Angeles!"

In other words, he didn't see the Pereira campus, the Goff addition, the iconic AC Martin May Co building and the Renzo Piano under construction. He saw flat land that was his to take, use and morph into his ideal, the past disregarded and absolutely discounted any emotional hold that LACMA has already had on hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of her visitors. To make it a reality, he's had to garner hundreds of millions of dollars in pledges from donors and promises from LA County - and hooked them all to the demolition of the Pereira campus. This explains the rush to destroy now, without any consideration about how the public may feel now and while this terrible tragedy is happening now in our community and the world.

As has been mentioned previously many times, Save LACMA would gladly give credit to anyone who wants to be our hero, even if it's LACMA leadership themselves. We'd actually prefer it. Sadly, the county board of supervisors and LACMA's board of trustees (comprised of a total net worth of ninety-four billion dollars and composed of twenty-two multi-billionaires and many more multi-millionaires) have been silent. Michael Govan, to whom I directly appealed, and to his credit did actually respond but I was only told that everything is fine and he actually asked me to help ease the anxiety. He could've been our hero by course correcting. Obviously, he's chosen not to.

So, is it time to give up? No, it's not. In fact, what's happened has only strengthened our resolve - especially now since even more of the public is asking for our help to now truly help Save LACMA. Why? Well, maybe because, after all, it is your LACMA, it is our LACMA and, if LACMA can't save itself, then we will all need to help Save LACMA.