Thank you again, Los Angeles Times Culture Monsters:

Several museums and art institutions, including the Orange County Museum of Art, are saying that the Judith Rothschild Foundation has failed to make good on 17 grants awarded for 2009.

The total amount of money in question reportedly amounts to more than $100,000. Some of the arts organizations have filed a formal complaint to the New York attorney general’s office.

A spokeswoman for OCMA said today that it has received a letter from the foundation stating that the grant money will be paid. The museum added that its grant from the foundation was for $4,000 and is intended to go toward costs associated with the works of Florence Miller Pierce in an exhibition titled “Illumination”…..

Read the rest online at LA times Culture Monsters

Scrooge type news from Los Angeles Times Culture Monsters on Christmas Eve:

Bowing to continued financial pressure and a lack of donations, the Claremont Museum of Art said today that it would close its doors to the public on Dec. 27 and move its permanent collection to a warehouse.

Officials said its board members would weigh options as to what form the museum could take in the future.

The museum, which currently rents space in a former citrus packing plant, is scheduled to move out by Dec. 31, according to leaders.

A fledgling museum with a permanent collection estimated at about 100 items, the Claremont Museum of Art billed itself as regional institution with “international significance and breadth.” During its less than three-year history, the museum featured exhibitions by artists such as Karl Benjamin and James Hueter.

The museum's financial problems came to light in October, when leaders announced that three expected donations had failed to come through. The museum subsequently laid off its entire full-time staff of five individuals but continued to operate with volunteers.

In November, the Claremont City Council donated $18,879 to the museum to keep its doors open through the end of 2009….

Thank you again, Los Angeles Times Culture Monsters:

Thomas P.F. Hoving, the controversial former director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art who died this month, is widely attributed (for good or ill) as the “Father of the Modern Blockbuster Exhibition,” thanks to undertakings like the first King Tut show in 1976. Big extravaganzas with jaw-dropping loans can be a revelation, and at least one from the past year made it onto my list. But so did small, quirky or unexpected presentations, proving once again that it isn't always the manufactured crowd-pleasers that end up pleasing the most. Click on the photo gallery for the 10 most fascinating museum exhibitions I saw this year.

– Christopher Knight

Also:

Architecture 2009: Christopher Hawthorne's Top 10

Music 2009: Mark Swed's Top 10

Theater 2009: Charles McNulty's Top 10

Follow this link:
Art 2009: Christopher Knight’s Top 10

Thank you again, Los Angeles Times Culture Monsters:

The dream of razing four of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s oldest buildings — or at least radically reconfiguring the dreary, closed-in quadrangle they occupy – is being resurrected at the Wilshire Boulevard institution.

The Architect’s Newspaper reports that museum leaders are working with this year’s Pritzker Prize winner, Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, to formulate a long-range plan for getting rid of the problematic buildings and plaza, and replacing them with a more open and inviting structure.

A previous plan to tear down the buildings and build something revolutionary in their place died in a 2002 bond referendum. A 60.5% majority favored the arts bond proposal that would have given LACMA $100 million toward architect Rem Koolhaas’ $300 million-plus plan to replace everything on the eastern end of the museum’s Wilshire Boulevard campus, except for the distinctive Pavilion for Japanese Art. In place of the three 1965 gallery and theater buildings, and a fourth that opened in 1986, LACMA would have become a single structure on concrete stilts, topped by a billowing, tent-like roof.

California law, however, requires a two-thirds super-majority for tax-backed bond issues. With the economy in a post-9/11, post-tech-bubble recession, LACMA leaders abandoned Koolhaas’ all-at-once plan and adopted a gradual, $450 million project that could be built in stages, on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Today on ArtDaily.org:

DURHAM, NC.- “Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids,” an exhibition of rare photographs, many depicting celebrities, will open at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke on Thursday, Nov. 12. The exhibition includes about 250 Polaroids and 75 silver gelatin black-and-white prints taken by Warhol from 1970 to 1987. The exhibition includes Warhol’s Polaroids of such famous subjects as artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, writer Truman Capote, skater Dorothy Hamill, fashion icon Bianca Jagger, artist Grace Jones, golfer Jack Nicklaus and musician Rick Ocasek….

Read more here:
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke Presents "Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids"

We appreciated this sharp-tongued listing SDMA’s Culture and Cocktails event tomorrow night in Balboa Park:

Culture cold war: San Diego Museum of Art’s Culture and Cocktails events are often filled with some serious gallerinas and culture vultures eyeballing each other more than the art. We don’t expect that to change between 6 and 9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, but scenesters take note: SDMA’s new exhibition, American Artists of the Russian Empire, featuring mid-century work from Russian artists who emigrated to the U.S. from the Soviet Union pre- and post-WWII, is a stirring show that’s worth taking an hour or so to peruse. There will also be complimentary cocktails (we have a feeling vodka will be involved), DJs, an interactive watercolor activity and an after-party at The Prado restaurant for post-culture schmoozing. 1450 El Prado in Balboa Park. $15. www.sdmart.org.

Thank you Los Angeles Times:

View “Free Museum Day, Oct. 3 and/or 4” in a larger map

Summer is officially over, but that doesn't mean family excursions are out of season, especially when it comes to local museums.

This weekend, many of the major art, history and science museums in L.A. and Orange County are participating in the annual Museums Free-for-All, which allows admission-free access to the institutions' main exhibitions.

Among the museums participating are the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Norton Simon, the Bowers Museum and the Orange County Museum of Art.

With museum ticket prices reaching as high as $12 for adults, this weekend's program represents an opportunity for affordable culture. Some museums are offering free admission on both Saturday and Sunday; others are free for only one day.

Check our map of the participating museums so you can plan your trip accordingly.

– David Ng

Read the rest here:
Musuems open their doors for free today and Sunday

This from artinfo.com:

SAN DIEGO—The San Diego Museum of Art has elected to appoint not one but four interim directors to oversee museum operations while it searches for a replacement for Derrick Cartwright, who will step down as director this week. According to San Diego’s Union-Tribune, the interim team will consist of the museum’s four deputy directors, Julia Marciari-Alexander, Julianne Markow, Katy McDonald, and Vasundhara Prabhu, all of whom were hired under Cartwright. The museum has tapped New York search firm Phillips Oppenheim to help find Cartwright’s permanent successor.

Read the original artinfo.com page for links and more.

Read this full article on Jim Phillips here:
The King of Santa Cruz Skateboards Returns – Santa Cruz News

The show “PRAISE THE BOARD: 35 YEARS OF SKATEBOARD DESIGN & INNOVATION” opened Friday, Sept. 4 at the Museum of Art and History, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz. 831.429.1964. and runs through September 27, 2009.

Max Donner covers the current Palekh exhibition at the Timken in San Diego.

Soviet Communists ruled Russia from 1917 to 1989. Most artists had to work within guidelines set by artists’ councils with government bureaucrats monitoring and censoring their work. This made continued artistry in traditional styles challenging. But the artist’s colony of Palekh adjusted beautifully, preserving the artistic elements of traditional styles. Many of the subjects were far from traditional – tractors, plows, smokestacks and the omnipresent hammer and sickle symbol of the Communist movement. The combination is, however, striking and something you should see while the Palekh exhibition continues at San Diego’s Timken Museum of Art.

Read his entire article here:
The brighter side of Twentieth Century Russia at Timken Museum