| NEWS 11.17.09 12:54 PM |
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$4 Million MOCA Gala Breaks Fund-Raising Records
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The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles celebrated its 30th anniversary with a gala on November 14—and the benefit broke fund-raising records for the museum: The event for 1,000 guests—including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and Jeff Koons—took in $4 million.
Following a performance piece starring Lady Gaga and dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet, the museum auctioned a Steinway & Sons piano customized in pink with blue butterfly motifs by Damien Hirst—and it alone fetched $450,000.
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MOCA, Lady Gaga, Bolshoi Ballet, Steinway & Sons, Damien Hirst, Broad Family |
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| NEWS 11.13.09 4:42 PM |
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MOCA Gala Spawning Arty Online Auction—Including Gehry's Hat for Gaga—Through November 30
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The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles gala—complete with Lady Gaga performing the world premiere of her new song, "Speechless," with dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet—goes off tomorrow for about 900 guests, but an online auction will continue the fund-raising efforts through November 30. The museum will auction a Damien Hirst-created Steinway & Sons grand piano live at the 30th anniversary event, which will kick off an online auction of artwork created for Francesco Vezzoli’s Ballets Russes Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again), a one-time performance work commissioned by MOCA for the gala.
Online bidding for the works, which include costumes by artists and designers Frank Gehry, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Miuccia Prada, and Vezzoli, will run through the end of the month, with proceeds benefitting MOCA’s exhibition and education programs. Specifically, the hat worn by Gaga and designed by Gehry, masks worn by Gaga and Vezzoli and designed by Luhrmann and Martin, and costumes worn by Gaga and the dancers and designed by Prada and Vezzoli are among the one-of-a-kind offerings.
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MOCA, Lady Gaga, Bolshoi Ballet |
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| NEWS 09.15.09 1:39 PM |
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MOCA 30th Anniversary Gala Will Include Lady Gaga and Bolshoi Ballet Dancers
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Today the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles announced plans for its 30th anniversary gala, to take place on November 14. The benefit will be held at MOCA Grand Avenue, and will be chaired by Maria Arena Bell and Eli Broad, who will be joined by honorary gala chairs Larry Gagosian and Dasha Zhukova, along with artists, collectors, and patrons celebrating the museum's milestone anniversary in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years. The largest, long-term installation of the museum’s acclaimed permanent collection will open to the public the following day at MOCA Grand Avenue and the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.
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MOCA, Lady Gaga, Bolshoi Ballet |
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| INFLUENCES 07.22.09 9:00 AM |
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Installation From Ball-Nogues Studio Hits MOCA Pacific Design Center
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 | "Feathered Edge: A New Installation by Ball-Nogues Studio" at MOCA Pacific Design Center, 2009
Rendering: Courtesy of Ball-Nogues Studio |
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For a bit of color and design inspiration, head to MOCA Pacific Design Center, where the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles will present "Feathered Edge: A New Installation by Ball-Nogues Studio," which opens on Sunday and remains on view through November 15. The Los Angeles-based design and fabrication firm headed by Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues created the site-specific piece using 17 miles of colored string that spans the gallery with curving lines. Through the installation, Ball and Nogues explore the intersection between digital technology and hand-made work—an exploratory walk may spark any number of other event-applicable ideas. —Alesandra Dubin
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MOCA |
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| NEWS 06.03.09 1:39 PM |
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At Financially Troubled MOCA, Event Chief Vanessa Gonzalez Is Out After Nine Years
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 | Vanessa Gonzalez at the museum in 2007
Photo: Christine Fessenden/Chic Photography for BizBash |
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Last week, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, which has experienced well-documented financial troubles, announced a balanced budget for the 2009 fiscal year—but cut four exhibitions and 17 employees (in addition to cuts already made in January) in restructuring efforts to help guarantee a balanced budget for its 2010 fiscal year.
The museum's head of events, Vanessa Gonzalez, left the institution at the end of last week, after nine years of handling events there. The museum—which has a recent history of eye-catching, buzz-generating events under Gonzalez, like the 2007 gala for the Takashi Murakami exhibit—no longer has a dedicated event department.
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MOCA |
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| EVENT REPORT 02.16.09 9:00 AM |
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Street Fighter IV Launch Transforms MOCA Into Arty Arcade
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 | Guests testing Street Fighter IV
Photo: Dale Wilcox for BizBash |
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Hordes of Street Fighter fans waited in line for hours in the Los Angeles winter cold to get a sneak peek at the newest version of the video game Thursday at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Some in the crowd got turned away after the venue reached capacity, but the guests who made it inside found an arcade-meets-art-gallery theme. Game developer Capcom’s Emily Anadu oversaw the event and turned to Kathy Lee-Fung of KLF Events for production.
“We picked MOCA because it’s a museum venue [where] we could really showcase the history of Street Fighter art in the space. Street Fighter not only has a following from a video game standpoint, but it’s also launched a huge following in artwork, art books, and anime,” Fung said. Displays included large canvases that were decorated by members of the Street Fighter art community, a vintage arcade setup showing the history of the series, original sketches by its producer, and a room showcasing licensed products.
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MOCA, MTV, Capcom, Street Fighter |
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| EVENT REPORT 05.30.08 4:07 PM |
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Angeleno's Release Party Mixes Murals and Mini Coopers
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 | Angeleno magazine's arty party
Photo: BizBash |
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For its first summer issue release party last night, Angeleno magazine teamed up with Gen Art and MOCA Contemporaries to celebrate L.A.’s underground art scene and local muralists Man One, Mr. Brainwash, Retna, and Joex2 in a subterranean garage at the Hollywood residences, mid-century modern condos designed by Stephen Kanner.
Angeleno marketing director Lisa Gild worked with her sister, Paula Gild of Gilded Events, to produce the colorful fete, which attracted several hundred hipsters and art aficionados. Massive murals by the honored artists stretched the walls of two levels of the venue (one piece was more than 20 feet tall), and Mini Coopers doubled as decor elements and natural barriers to concentrate guests near several translucent bars.
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Angeleno Magazine, Gen Art, MOCA, MOCA Contemporaries, Mini Cooper |
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| NEWS 05.19.08 4:32 PM |
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Museum of Contemporary Art Announces New CinéMOCA Series
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The Museum of Contemporary Art has announced a new after-hours summer series, CinéMOCA, which will take place on six consecutive Saturday evenings from June 7 through July 12 at the Geffen Contemporary. CinéMOCA will feature outdoor film screenings, DJs, and tours of the "Lawrence Weiner: As Far as the Eye Can See" and "Allan Kaprow—Art as Life" exhibits. Screenings will include films by Weiner, as well as selections from artists Amy Adler, Edgar Arceneaux, Larry Clark, and Edward Ruscha.
For the new series, organizers will transform the canopied plaza outside of the Geffen Contemporary into a lounge, where guests can listen to music, nibble, and watch film programming. Patinette Café will provide drinks and bites. The museum will be open until 11 p.m. on CinéMOCA nights. —Alesandra Dubin
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MOCA, CinéMOCA |
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