Displaying items by tag: merger

George Washington University plans to sell the historic schoolhouse in Georgetown that it took control of this summer as part of a court approved breakup of the financially-troubled Corcoran Gallery of Art. The agreement sent the museum’s art collection to the National Gallery of Art and allowed the university to absorb its College of Art and Design.

The university said it has selected TTR Sotheby’s International Realty to list the historic brick building, known as the Fillmore, and its one acre of property. The initial sale price is $14 million.

The hearse carried only a wreath, because technically, the dearly departed was still alive — albeit barely, considering the vegetative, life-supported state the Corcoran Gallery of Art has been in since August. When the institution’s takeover by the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University was approved last month, the spirit had already left the body. So on Saturday, the day before the museum was scheduled to close for renovations, from which it will later emerge as part of the National Gallery of Art, former staff members gathered there to mourn.

Visitors to the Corcoran Gallery of Art have quadrupled since admission became free to the public late last month.

With the gallery scheduled to close soon for renovation, art lovers are coming to the gallery in its last month for all kinds of reasons.

After court approval of a controversial plan that ended the Corcoran's independence, the art gallery and its school have merged with the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University.

Now that the deal between the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University is signed and sealed, the first change in operations became apparent Friday: Admission to the Corcoran now is free.

The controversial merger between the Corcoran Gallery of Art, George Washington University and the National Gallery of Art, all in Washington, DC, has received the green light from the district’s Superior Court. In a ruling on Monday 18 August, Judge Robert Okun called the decision “painful,” but concluded that it would be “even more painful to deny the relief requested and allow the Corcoran to face its likely demise.”

Under the terms of the agreement, first announced in February 2014, the beleaguered Corcoran will transfer its historic Beaux-Arts building and its College of Art + Design to George Washington University. The National Gallery of Art will take over a substantial portion of the Corcoran’s 17,000-work collection, which includes paintings by John Singer Sargent and Frederic Edwin Church as well as celebrated photography holdings.

The court calls them “The Intervenors,” which sounds as if it could be the name of a performance art collective. If that were true, the past few weeks would have been quite a show for the group Save the Corcoran.

The scrappy group of students, staff, faculty and concerned observers dedicated to preserving the nearly 150-year-old museum as an independent institution in the face of a merger with the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University see themselves as David fighting Goliath — which makes their recent legal intervention the proverbial sling to the forehead. They won’t find out whether they’ve slain their giant until Aug. 20 at the latest, which makes this week an anxious wait.

The controversial plan to dissolve the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, through a merger with the nearby National Gallery of Art and George Washington University (see artnet News report) received the backing of district attorney general Irvin B. Nathan this week, even as opponents of the plan continue efforts to thwart its implementation, reports the Washington Post.

A brief issued by Nathan’s office on Wednesday called the proposed merger the best way out of a bad situation: “the District supports [the reorganization] because [it] will allow the Corcoran’s assets to continue to be used in DC consistently with the charitable purposes to which they have been dedicated.” The office is responsible for regulating charities such as the Corcoran, and represents the city in the case, so Nathan’s support gives the Corcoran a major boost.

About a third of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art & Design’s 465 employees are slated be laid off as soon as mid-August as the longstanding art institutions prepare to merge with the National Gallery of Art and the George Washington University.

The Corcoran issued a layoff notice to all of its employees last month, but the Corcoran expects about a third of them will actually be laid off as of Aug. 16, which is the effective date affiliated with the notice.

Anyone looking to meet the director of the tiny but highly regarded Museum of Contemporary Art here has two choices. Head into the museum, where its interim director, Alex Gartenfeld, has an office. Or go next door to City Hall, where the mayor’s appointee to the same position, Babacar M’Bow, is essentially working in exile.

The dueling directors are just part of the chaos emanating from a bitter showdown that has erupted between MoCA, as the museum is known, and the city that founded it.

The museum’s board wants to leave this working-class city and merge with the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, its wealthier and more glamorous neighbor. It says that North Miami has neglected the museum building and failed to support a needed expansion.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has offered to acquire L.A.’s struggling Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). MOCA has been at the center of a number of controversies after the museum’s chief curator, Paul Schimmel, left the institution in June 2012 after 22 years on the job. Critics have bashed the museum for becoming too celebrity focused and all of the artists who once served on the museum’s board including John Baldessari (b. 1931), Barbara Kruger (b. 1945), and Ed Ruscha (b. 1937), have resigned after disagreeing with the institution’s new direction.

LACMA Director, Michael Govan, offered to raise $100 million for MOCA’s two locations in exchange for the acquisition. LACMA made a similar offer to MOCA, which is currently helmed by former New York gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, back in 2008. LACMA officials believe that the merger would strengthen both institutions and provide MOCA with stability and strong leadership.

MOCA’s contributions, grants, and operating profits have all declined in recent years.