Located in Somerville Theater, The Museum Of Bad Art (MOBA/www.museumofbadart.org) has found a home just a couple of subway stops from Downtown Boston in Somerville's funky Davis Square.
“MOBA was founded in 1994 with the purpose of collecting, exhibiting, and celebrating art that will never make it in traditional art museums,” said permanent acting interim Executive Director Louise Sacco.
Louise’s colleague, curator-in-chief, Michael Frank added, “Art lovers around the world have responded to our work, understanding that we love and celebrate these pieces. We believe that we encourage people to have fun with art and the way they think about it.”
MOBA’s tagline is Art Too Bad to Be Ignored! Louise says that artists are proud to be seen in their exhibits, “Artists want their work to be seen. Artists themselves often submit their own work in which something has gone wrong or has not worked out as they hoped. When an artist contacts us to tell us they are the creator of one of our pieces, they are delighted to find MOBA and to find they have a work in the museum.”
Michael concurs: “The strongest reaction we see is from visitors who hotly proclaim, “That isn’t bad. I like it.” We try to explain that we like all of these pieces. Like/don’t like is not highly correlated to fine/not so fine art.”
Right now, Michael remains fascinated by a piece they’ve had for many years, Sunday on the Pot With George. “It’s a masterpiece of pointlessism that begs the question: why put all that effort into a portrait of a man in his tighty-whities," muses Michael.
The Boston arts community embraced MOBA, offering a MOBA book in gift shops at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art, a fine achievement for such a specialized boutique museum.
Photo Credits: Louise Sacco and Michael Frank at MOBA/www.museumofbadart.org
Second Photo: Sunday On The Pot With George, John Gedraitis, Oil on Canvas
37” x 22”, acrylic on canvas, Donated by Jim Schulman
Alison Harris, is a communications professional in Boston and served in Governor Patrick’s administration, held three rising PR positions at Harvard, wrote for the Boston Herald, and worked for Liz Claiborne and Tommy Hilfiger
