Suggesting Strick's exit strategy

Tyler Green at Modern Arts Notes, getting impatient with the slow movement on the Museum of Contemporary Art front, lays out a path to Jeremy Strick gracefully yielding MOCA to someone better equipped to lead a financially failing museum.

Here are two suggestions.

First, MOCA director Jeremy Strick (above) should announce to his board that he has decided to pursue the vacant Hirshhorn directorship. The MOCA angle: It is unlikely that if MOCA survives, that Strick will survive as its director. Nearly every involved figure with whom I've spoken in the last two weeks speaks of MOCA's eventual "new leadership." (Obviously: The museum's fundraising has been non-existent, it has spent far beyond its means, strategic planning has been nil, the museum's permanent collection is not on permanent display, and, well, look at the mess they're in.) If MOCA survives -- and that's still very much up in the air -- I can't imagine a scenario under which Strick sees the end of his contract.

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Second, it's time for the MOCA trustees who want to save the institution to stop being so deferential to the trustees who want to kill it. MOCA trustees who are willing to put money on the table should make their pledges public.

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