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Charles Young, the former UCLA chancellor who was named chief executive officer at the troubled Museum of Contemporary Art in 2008, has sent an email to friend and museum trustee Eli Broad urging they move on from director Jeffrey Deitch.
"I hope that the four-alarm fire now enveloping MOCA has at least given you pause for thought about his appointment and your continued attempts to try to save him for a job for which many (including myself) believe he is unqualified," Young wrote to Broad, according to the LA Times, which says it obtained the email. "The resignation of dedicated, long-term trustees, and especially four highly respected artists of international acclaim should bother you, David [Johnson], Maria [Bell] and the other continuing members of the Board. The question is 'What is now to be done?'"
"I will do anything I can to try to right the MOCA ship, but nothing will work, in my mind, without a new Captain/Director," Young wrote, per the Times.
Reporter Jori Finkel notes that Broad, "a longtime friend of Young, wields considerable power over the board because of the $30 million he pledged to the museum during its near-meltdown in the fall of 2008. He then brought Young in as interim chief executive to help steer the museum to financial health."
No word today from Broad or Deitch.
The story also notes that MOCA Mobiliation, an effort started back in 2008 by artists Cindy Bernard and Diana Thater, has urged the museum to fill the chief curator post held by Paul Schimmel, before his recent removal, and a senior curator position formerly held by Philipp Kaiser.
