Clear water in Venice. Blue skies over Beijing. Air monitors in the city of Houston recording less ozone than normal. Clearer and crisper Austin skyline. The cleanest air ever recorded in Los Angeles.
“I think contemporary art changes how you look at the world. And that’s huge for everybody who comes into the situation.”
“Art as responsibility, art as a civic engagement, art has to be a force in society, art has to be courageous, unafraid, ecological, ecological. That was Joseph Beuys talking to my art teacher.”
“As a museum, you have a civic responsibility, you have a role in society, you have to be courageous, you have to open up your doors to allow for dialogue.”
“after 10 years of working for and with [MoMA PS1 board chair; president emerita & trustee, MoMA] Agnes Gund, I follow one very important principle in decision-making: ‘It’s not about you, it’s about the difference you can make.
・Klaus Biesenbach, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles (Deborah Vankin, “New MOCA director Klaus Biesenbach embarks on a’civic-minded’ mission to steady the museum,” Los Angeles Times, 8 November 2018)
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), established in 1979, is the only artist-founded museum in Los Angeles. As of late 2018 its endowment amounted to more than $134 million.
Klaus Biesenbach is MOCA’s sixth director, beginning work with the museum on 23 October 2018. He “’loves fundraising’” and sees his role at MOCA “as strictly administrative, focused on fundraising and growing the museum’s attendance, programming, endowment and board.”
Prior to moving to Los Angeles to take up the directorship of MOCA, Klaus Biesenbach lived for 23 years in Manhattan. In 1995 he moved to New York from Berlin where, in 1991, as an intern for the East German government, he established Berlin’s Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art in a vacant former margarine factory.
Biesenbach worked initially with what was then called the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York. The P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center was established in 1971 by Alanna Heiss as the Institute for Art and Urban Resources Inc., an organization devoted to organizing exhibitions in underutilized and abandoned spaces across New YorkCity.
The P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center became an affiliate of TheMuseum of Modern Art in 2000.
Biesenbach joined MoMA in 2004 with a concurrent role at MoMA PS1. He became director of MoMA PS1 in 2010, serving also as chief curator-at-large at MoMA.
Just weeks into his job at MOCA, Mr. Biesenbach described his view of the mission of museums: “’to be a resident among residents,’” “meant not only to display art but to support artists and greater civic life.”
“’“As a museum, you have a civic responsibility, you have a role in society, you have to be courageous, you have to open up your doors to allow for dialogue.’”
“’After 10 years of working for and with [MoMA PS1 board chair] Agnes Gund, I follow one very important principle in decision-making: ‘It’s not about you, it’s about the difference you can make.’”’”
He continues, a primary goal is now “’alignment. To develop a vision for the museum and then align the board and the staff and all the other constituencies. And vision doesn’t necessarily mean huge buildings or blockbusters. It could also be a much more modest vision: simply functioning.
“’I think contemporary art changes how you look at the world. And that’s huge for everybody who comes into the situation.’”
Growing up near Cologne, Germany, Mr. Biesenbach’s love for art began when he was in primary school. Joseph Beuys spoke through his art teacher, who had studied with him.
“Art as responsibility, art as a civic engagement, art has to be a force in society, art has to be courageous, unafraid, ecological, ecological. That was Joseph Beuys talking to my art teacher. We were like 8 or 9 years old!”
Full circle to today’s Los Angeles, and to today’s Houston, Beijing, Venice, and so many other cities.
Clear water in Venice. Blue skies over Beijing. Air monitors in the city of Houston recording less ozone than normal. Clearer and crisper Austin skyline. The cleanest air ever recorded, in March 2020, in Los Angeles.
Home not only to MOCA but also to The Broad (across the street from MOCA and founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad; Eli Broad was founding chairman of MOCA in 1979), the Hammer Museum (affiliated with UCLA), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art amongst others, Los Angeles has seen a lifting of its “notorious L.A. Smog” due “to the fact that most Angelenos are driving less.”
“The notorious L.A. smog starts as a cloud of traffic emissions that’s spewed into the air during the morning rush hour. This layer of air pollution is then held in place by a combination of the Southland’s topography and its prevailing weather patterns, and baked for hours in SoCal’s warm ultraviolet rays, an effect that air-quality experts liken to a pot of soup heating on a stove.
“There’s no question that the drastic improvement in air quality—a combined measure of the particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone we breathe into our lungs—is due to the fact that most Angelenos are driving less and staying inside more.”
・Jason McGahan, “As Many Stay Home, L.A.’s Air Quality Is Better Than It’s Been in Decades,” Los Angeles Magazine, 6 April 2020
Better quality of air is observed also in Houston, home to numerous excellent museums including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH).
“The primary reason, experts say, is fewer vehicles on the road, which means fewer emissions from the petroleum-based fuels on which so much of the Texas economy relies.” …
“In Houston, where the huge volumes of commuters and sprawl of industrial facilities often result in a lingering smog, emissions of nitrogen oxides, which combine with other pollutants in the atmosphere to form ozone, are already down 15 percent this month compared to last year.”
“The reduction in pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and microscopic particulate matter, not to mention the carbon dioxide that is warming the planet, offers a temporary window on what the world might look like as governments worldwide move to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by mid-century.”
・James Osborne, “As pollution abates and skies clear, coronavirus shutdown gives glimpse of life with less fossil fuel,” Houston Chronicle, 27 March 2020, updated 1 April 2020
“A question we should be asking is, how do we maintain the better air quality without the economic consequences of shutter in place orders?’” Michael Webber, energy resources professor at theUniversity of Texas, Austin.
・James Osborne, “As pollution abates and skies clear, coronavirus shutdown gives glimpse of life with less fossil fuel,” Houston Chronicle, 27 March 2020, updated 1 April 2020
The economic consequences of “shutter in place orders” are dire.
In response to the outbreak of the coronavirus, MOCA, for instance, has laid off all 97 part-time employees. Almost all 69 full-time employees are taking a full or partial furlough or a significant salary reduction.
In correspondence with Deborah Vankin of the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Biesenbach writes, “the coronavirus crisis is changing lives in unprecedented ways and that he couldn’t say ‘how long this slow-burning catastrophe will grow and when it will end.”
“’Given these uncertainties, we are taking significant measures to make sure MOCA’s unique legacy and collection, built through the creative hard work and contributions of so many will continue to be preserved and accessible for generations to come.”
More vulnerable than some other Los Angeles museums, MOCA does not enjoy the financial privilege of a wealthy benefactor behind it, as does the Broad (Eli Broad). Nor is the museum partially funded by a university, as is the Hammer Museum. Nor is it so directly connected to a government entity as is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
“’MOCA,’” rather, Biesenbach observes, “’is supported independently, mostly by individuals, and we have to navigate this crisis in our own way.’”
・Deborah Vankin, “Hit by ‘slow-burning catastrophe,’ MOCA forced to furlough or cut pay for most staff,” Los Angeles Times, 1 April 2020
So how might we maintain the better air quality without the economic consequences of shutter in place orders?
A hint at forward direction might come from Cody A. Hill, Vice President, Energy Storage at LS Power.”
LS Power is “a development, investment, and operating company focused on power generation, electric transmission and energy infrastructure. We partner with communities across North America to create lower-cost, cleaner energy solutions.”
Mr. Hill has an MS in Electrical and ComputerEngineering from the University of Texas at Austin and is now based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sharing an “astounding chart from the EPA,” Mr. Hill (Twitter: @cody_a_hill) notes, in a tweet of 2 April 2020, that “Los Angeles had the cleanest air ever recorded there in March 2020.”
Cody Hill continues in the same tweet, “This is mostly from reduced driving with the same vehicle fleet. It could be the new normal and ~13 million people living there would be healthier if we electrify transportation.”
See:
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)
Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation | MOCA
Jason McGahan, “As Many Stay Home, L.A.’s Air Quality Is Better Than It’s Been in Decades,” Los Angeles Magazine, 6 April 2020
Cody A. Hill (@cody_a_hill), tweet of 2 April 2020
James Osborne, “As pollution abates and skies clear, coronavirus shutdown gives glimpse of life with less fossil fuel,” Houston Chronicle, 27 March 2020, updated 1 April 2020
Deborah Vankin, “Hit by ‘slow-burning catastrophe,’ MOCA forced to furloughor cut pay for most staff,” Los Angeles Times, 1 April 2020
“Larry Bell, Bill and Coo at MOCA’s Nest (2019),” MOCA
Larry Bell, “Bill and Coo at MOCA’s Nest” (site-specific installation, laminated glass, 2019)
Larry Bell, represented by Hauser & Wirth, New York and Los Angeles, and Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco
Deborah Vankin, “New MOCA director Klaus Biesenbach embarks on a’civic-minded’ mission to steady the museum,” Los Angeles Times, 8 November 2018