Displaying items by tag: board members

The long-running dispute between the former board of North Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art and the city that housed it is over.

Attorneys for both sides met this week after months of mediation to work out the final settlement, emerging with a plan Wednesday that will split the museum’s assets between the city and departed board members, who have since founded a new institution, and close the lawsuit that was filed earlier this year.

According to a joint statement released Wednesday, North Miami will keep the majority of the 600-work permanent collection, some of which was donated by board members who left MOCA, that was a major sticking point in the mediation talks.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has elected four new members to its board of trustees, the latest sign of growing confidence in the museum under new director Philippe Vergne.

Prominent L.A. artist Mark Bradford is among the additions, who also include legislative and public policy strategist Heather Podesta, entrepreneur and art collector Cathy Vedovi and banking executive and philanthropist Christopher Walker.

The additions announced Wednesday raise the number of board members to 50, which the museum said nearly restores the board to its largest size in the last decade.

The future of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture has divided the institution named for the iconic designer. The quest to keep its accreditation status has some school board members concerned the degree program will end, while its foundation denied the school is in danger of closing.

The Scottsdale-based Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, which operates the school, announced last week that it would not independently incorporate the school as a way to stay accredited. The Chicago-based Higher Learning Commission, which accredits degree-granting colleges and universities in 19 states, changed its bylaws two years ago to prohibit accreditation for schools that operate as divisions of a larger organization.

The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University has named 15 new members to its board of advisors and reappointed eight former board members. The unprecedented number of appointments, which follow the recruitment of Christopher Bedford as the Henry and Lois Foster Director of the Rose in 2012 and the naming of Lizbeth Krupp as chair of the board of advisors last fall, are another important step in a new era in the museum’s history.

The Rose’s volunteer board includes prominent personalities in the contemporary art, academic, philanthropic, cultural and business communities in the Boston area and across the U.S. The new board members are Gannit Ankori, Leslie Aronzon, Mark Bradford, Ronni J. Casty, Rena M. Conti, Tory Fair, John S. Foster, Steven A.N. Goldstein, Susan B. Kaplan, Lizbeth Krupp, Frederick Lawrence, Beth Marcus, Dianne Markman, Tim Phillips, and Lisa Yuskavage.  Reappointed board members are Gerald Fineberg, Lois Foster, Matthew Kozol, Jonathan Novak, Betsy Pfau, Meryl Rose, Ann Tanenbaum, and George Wachter.

An anonymous donor has given $15 million to the future Pérez Art Museum Miami. The Miami Art Museum announced on Friday, May 17, 2013 that they received $12 million in cash and $3 million art. It is unclear whether the donor has had any involvement with the museum and why the benefactor wishes to remain nameless.

The Pérez Art Museum Miami, which is months away from opening, was formerly known as the Miami Art Museum. The institution closed in 2011 and construction on the new building, which was designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron and overlooks Miami’s Biscayne Bay, began immediately. Fundraising efforts for the project began in 2004 when Miami-Dade county voters approved a general obligation bond for $100 million in public money. Private donors contributed another $60 million for the building’s construction and institutional endowment. After developer Jorge Pérez pledged $35 million to the project in 2011, officials decided to rename the Miami Art Museum The Pérez Art Museum Miami, which did not go over well and led to a number of board members and collectors withdrawing their support.

The latest gift, which comes with no strings attached, brings the museum to 85% of its $220 million fundraising goal. The generous donation will go towards the museum’s endowment.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has offered to acquire L.A.’s struggling Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). MOCA has been at the center of a number of controversies after the museum’s chief curator, Paul Schimmel, left the institution in June 2012 after 22 years on the job. Critics have bashed the museum for becoming too celebrity focused and all of the artists who once served on the museum’s board including John Baldessari (b. 1931), Barbara Kruger (b. 1945), and Ed Ruscha (b. 1937), have resigned after disagreeing with the institution’s new direction.

LACMA Director, Michael Govan, offered to raise $100 million for MOCA’s two locations in exchange for the acquisition. LACMA made a similar offer to MOCA, which is currently helmed by former New York gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, back in 2008. LACMA officials believe that the merger would strengthen both institutions and provide MOCA with stability and strong leadership.

MOCA’s contributions, grants, and operating profits have all declined in recent years.