Eli Broad made headlines in November last year when he offered to bail out soon-to-be-bankrupt Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. While most papers have described his bailout as a $30 million bailout, I think it’s important to clarify that he has offered to match funds up to $15 million, meaning he will only provide the funds if other philanthropists “step up.” He has also pledged $3 million a year for the next 5 years, making a possible total of $30 million. This deal would save MOCA from a proposed merger with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, to which Broad “gave” part of his multi-million dollar collection about a year ago. The question is raised, then: why would Broad, who has a

More than 60 years after the last mass general strike of a city in the US, a group made up of labor organizers as well as performers from groups such as the SF Mime Troupe, staged a recreation of that general strike: the Oakland “Work Holiday” of 1946. Max Bell Alper, looking more like a picket captain than a theater director with his bull horn and clipboard in hand, introduced the reenactment by telling the audience gathered on the sidewalk at Latham Square that they were in the exact center of where the general strike had occurred in 1946.

The story of the Oakland general strike is the story of how two small strikes of mostly Continue reading...

….and the winner is: Craftivism! With a wide lead of 24% of the vote, there will be no vote recount of Supreme Court decision as to the outcome.

However, in a surprise late-in-the-game performance, TOMORROWISM came in second place…which might count for a VP pick in some people’s minds, but not others.

See the Election 2008 results for yourself here at the A4DS website

A4DS

If you are out of the loop, it is worth mentioning the latest activity/project by Art 4 a Democratic Society: The Art Election. Celeste and Steven of A4DS have been asking the right questions and creating pie charts to investigate and comment on the interpretation of art and art society for many months now (they are almost always present at every Art Murmur Walk in Oakland), and recently they initiated the Art Election to parallel the Primary and General Election currently in development here in the USA.

TOMORROWISM joined as a candidate, although it hand’t made much progress in the polling. However, a few Continue reading...