Dear fellow LACMA Lover,
Thank you for joining more than 2700 concerned citizens who have signed the petition urging the Los Angeles County Supervisors to reconsider their approval of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for LACMA's redevelopment plan.
Yesterday, KCRW devoted two segments of the “Greater L.A.” afternoon program to criticism of LACMA’s radical new direction. First, reporter Kerstin Zilm addressed issues of gentrification and cultural sensitivity in the museum’s sole active satellite location, Charles White Elementary School in MacArthur Park.
Then, Greater L.A. host Steve Chiotakis and arts reporter Frances Anderton dug into the roiling controversy over LACMA’s proposed demolition of the 1965 William Pereira campus, its fundraising failures, and the two unrelated community groups — the non-profit Save LACMA that is affiliated with this petition and is raising money to put a measure on the ballot to keep museum leadership from wrecking the institution, and the Citizens Brigade, comprised of critics Joseph Giovannini and Greg Goldin and the mysterious zillionaire who pays for their full page newspaper ads.
Tune in and you’ll hear from both critical groups, and from LACMA’s director Michael Govan, failing to inspire confidence that the project is a done deal and nothing the community needs to worry about.
Plus, here’s more coverage of those no-longer-so mysterious full page newspaper ads attacking the LACMA project (Los Angeles Magazine, The Larchmont Buzz)
File under: unpleasant harmonies. Like LACMA, the Academy Museum has also gone widely over budget, and has been misleading the public about the situation. That institution’s much delayed opening is now scheduled for late 2020.
And finally, LACMA Lovers, here's a too brief time travel treat: Carol Channing takes you to the brand new William Pereira campus on her February 1966 TV special.
Please keep sharing the petition link (http://chng.it/PBQw6hhzdX) with your friends who love LACMA and want it to remain at the heart of our city's culture and community. And stay tuned for updates as we have them.
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim Cooper & Richard Schave
The LACMA Lovers League