Museum That Opened to Such Fanfare Closes. Why? (PDF)
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$3.66 DESIGNATED AREAS HIGHER ©2020 WST D SUNDAY,FEBRUARY16, 2020 latimes.com ANALYSIS Trump pushes campaigning to new levels apparatus that has helped Riding high on his raise morethan$200 mil- lion, deployed eager surro- Senate acquittal, huge gatestoearly primary warchest and polls, states, and built an exten- sivefield operation and ad- he’s already trying to vertising network months upstageDemocrats. beforeDemocratsare likely to choose their nominee. He also has found new By EliStokols ways to break political taboos, seeking to overshad- WASHINGTON —Four ow Democratic candidates years afterhis hostiletake- in Iowa and NewHampshire over of the WhiteHouse, just beforetheyheld their PresidentTrump’ssecond nominatingcontests, and campaignbears little resem- playingwithvoters’ already blance to the first—he’s frazzled nerves. At apri- flush with cash,buoyed by mary-eve rally in Manches- an uptick in poll numbers, ter, N.H.,the president even and brimming withconfi- urgedsupporters in the dence aftersurviving inves- statewho were registered Mel Melcon Los Angeles Times tigations, an impeachment nonpartisans, and thusable MAURICE Marciano with aSterling Ruby painting inside the Marciano Art Foundation. The center, and myriad controversies to vote in either party’s pri- started by Guess Inc. co-foundersMaurice and Paul Marciano,opened with abig splash in spring 2017. that have helped uniteonce- mary, to vote forthe weakest wary Republicans behind Democrat. him. “My only problem is I’m Unlike hisslapdash, any- trying to figure who is their thing-goes 2016 campaign, weakest candidate—Ithink Trump nowcan rely on a they’reall weak!”hesaid Museumthatopened to massive, professionalized [See Trump, A8] such fanfarecloses. Why? Police arebegging Ego, labor dispute, otherfactors befell Marciano center offthis ‘dirty’ job economy,including abike- By StacyPerman Lawenforcement says: parts salesmanand a “credit-cardlady.” Resi- In spring 2017,600 members of We aren’t the solution dents said therewas asense the glitterati gathered inside the to homeless camps. of community, safetyand converted Masonic temple near comfortthere.Though Koreatowntocelebratethe opening plagued by violence, thiev- of the Marciano ArtFoundation, By AnitaChabria eryand aheroin-fentanyl the swank newhome for the private mix called redrock, there collection of GuessInc.co-founders SANTAROSA, Calif. — were rulesinwhat they Maurice and Paul Marciano. No one looked happy to be called “Camp Rebel:No Guests from theworlds of Holly- on the JoeRodotaTrail in Longer Sorry.” wood (Sharon Stone), politics Sonoma Countylast week — But the families and com- (Mayor Eric Garcetti), philan- not the homeless people muters whoused to walk thropy (Eli Broad) and art(Takashi who had built amiles-long and bikeunder the oaksand Murakami) strolled through the encampment, not the park redwoods on the trail were 110,000-square-footspace. On view: rangers tasked with making gone, warnedawaybyfears 114works from 47 artists culled from surethey left and not the po- of crime and rats rumored to the brothers’ 1,500paintings, sculp- lice officerssent as backup. be the size of cats. And so the tures, drawings, photos, videos, Last summer,morethan Sonoma CountyBoard of prints and installations. As guests 250peoplewith no place else Supervisorsordered the mingled, the loadingdock gate to go —veterans, elderly camp closed by the end of opened ontothe parking lot, tempo- Genaro Molina Los Angeles Times women and men,teenagers, January. rarily transformedintoasumptu- NINA Gibson, left, Anna Calubayan and other laid-off Marciano parolees and addicts — The question became ous garden whereafeast was workersprotest outside LAXARTinNovember,the same month the startedbuilding this shanty- who would force the home- catered by [See Marciano, A14] museum abruptlyclosed. Employees had begun an effort to unionize. town, complete with its own [See Job, A12] 15 games ■■■ HOMETOWN ■■■ Americaasseen from the candidates’ front doors thatdefined KobeBryant When was the Lakers PETE BUTTIGIEG’SSOUTH BEND star at his best?Fans, teammates and rivals the city’sdecline. Titus couldn’t chime in. SPORTS, D1 The city’sreinvention, stay away. L.A.’s Broadway largelyonhis watch, has “The scale —it’sjust crazy. Just maygocar-free howbig and emptyand just com- broughtunevenprogress. pletely dark,” he said. “Theywere Citycouncilmanpro- very alluring.” poses majoroverhaul By Melanie Mason If Titus, 27, tried to revisit that of downtown street. routenow,he’drun intoafew ob- CALIFORNIA,B1 stacles. The Studebaker tool room SOUTH BEND,Ind.—It was is nowhome to South Bend City How an Afghan JacobTitus’ favoriterunning route Church.The paintlab houses busi- truce could end when he trainedfor high school nesses includingabiotechstart-up Just aseven-daydeal track: along the traintracks to the and acodingschool.The six-story with the Taliban could sprawling warren of machine assemblyline, once most recogniz- lead to long-term shops, assemblylines and ware- able for its broken windows, is the houses on the city’ssouth side, and anchor of amajor commercial re- progress. WORLD, A3 thenintothe abandoned factories development project catering to Weather themselves. the city’sburgeoningtechscene. Mostlysunny. Decades ago, these buildings It wastherethatPeteButtigieg L.A. Basin: 70/49. B10 whirred with activity —and none officiallylaunched his bid for the moresothan Studebaker Auto Co., Democratic presidentialnomina- whichhad poweredSouth Bend to Luis Sinco Los Angeles Times tion. prosperity. HUNDREDS of vacant homes in mostlyminorityneighborhoods No cityhas been as integral to 7985944 10300 Hollowedbydecades of disuse, were razed rather than repaired under aButtigieg plan known as the presidentialcampaignofits thesefactories were testament to “1,000 Homes in 1,000 Days”—resulting in little but emptylots. home- [See South Bend, A10] The Classics Sale Now–2/25 VisitaKnoll HomeDesignShop LOSANGELES 314North Robertson Boulevard |310 620-2680 NEWYORK 1330 Avenue of the Americas |212 343-4190 Shop knoll.com or Find aRetaileratknoll.com/home-design A14 SUNDAY,FEBRUARY 16,2020 S LATIMES.COM ‘To close down a museum that they had spent so much time and money on ... is very strange.’ —KAREN BOYER, art advisor Yoshiro Makino wHY/Marciano Art Foundation THE MARCIANO Art Foundation, a converted Masonic temple on Wilshire Boulevard near Koreatown, opened with 114 works from the Marcianos’ personal cache. Art center’s demise is complicated [Marciano, from A1] Ruby; they championed Wolfgang Puck. emerging artists like Analia The new foundation, part Saban. By all accounts, of the growing pack of pri- Maurice took the lead in ac- vate museums established quisitions. He cultivated re- by ultra-wealthy art collec- lationships with artists, fre- tors, signaled that the Mar- quently visiting their studios cianos had reached the pin- and galleries. nacle of powerand prestige As Maurice’s collection among the city’scultural expanded, so did his role in elite. Jeffrey Deitch, the art the city’s art community. In dealer and former director of 2014 he became co-chairman the L.A. Museumof Contem- of the board at the Museum porary Art, had predicted to of Contemporary Art. One the New York Times: “I think person familiar with the this will become one of the board’s dynamics called him most important spaces for one of the top three or four contemporary art in the most generous patrons in whole country.” L.A. His $20-million gift Alas, it was not to be. pledged in 2013 to MOCA 1 Last November, just 2 ⁄2 helped to rescue the trou- years after opening, theMar- bled museum. cianos shocked the city and In 2012 the brothers es- the art establishment by tablished the Maurice and abruptly closingtheir new Paul Marciano Art Founda- showpiece. The brothers tion. A year later, they pur- blamed low attendance, but chased the former Scottish others linked the announce- Rite Masonic Temple on ment to an internal labor Wilshire Boulevard for $8 dispute. Just one day earlier, million and hired architect the foundation laid offabout Kulapat Yantrasast to refur- 70 employees who were at- bish the building, vacant tempting to unionize. since 1994. Mel Melcon Los Angeles Times In interviews with The In the buzzy run-up to Times, nearly two dozen MAURICE Marciano, right, with artist Paul McCarthy, was seen as the driving force behind the foundation, the foundation’s opening, people involved with the which was part of the growing pack of private museums established by ultra-wealthy art collectors. Maurice Marciano told The Marcianos or familiar with Times: “We just wanted to their art collection and their share our collection and pas- other enterprises over the sion for art with the public.” years said the closure was Although described as a more complicated. They joint enterprise between the paint a knotty portrait of brothers, the art foundation troubles at the foundation was Maurice’s project. One from the beginning, citing a person who worked directly lack of organizational struc- with the brothers said Paul, ture and long-term planning who remained chief execu- that girds cultural institu- tive of Guess (Maurice re- tions for the long haul. tired from the company in The demise of the Marci- 2012), did not want to estab- ano Art Foundation not only lish the nonprofit and underscores growing ten- thought buying the temple sions between art patrons was excessive. Still, he sup- and art workers but also ported Maurice. raises questions about the Contemporary art was public benefit of private