After 10 years of occupying the lower depths of the Somerville Theater in Davis Square, The Museum of Bad Art is in need of a new home.
“We want free space that is near the T and is accessible to the public on weekends,” Executive Director Louise Sacco said. “We would think that someone would be able to help us out. Breweries, shared space, attention grabber, we would be grateful.”
Founded in 1993, the MOBA presented its first show in 1994, offering the opposite spin on an entire city’s worth of lauded, slightly haughty art culture. They have championed “art that is too bad to be ignored,” operating with no paid staff, very little budget, and has thus far survived on kindness while preserving and celebrating the worst art to the widest audiences.
Their collection of oddly shaped objects, poorly drawn portraits, uncanny landscapes, peculiar paintings, freakish furniture and other questionable composition ranges from 600 to 800 pieces, with around 50 to 70 items on display at a time.
The museum was first housed in a basement of a private home in Boston, the MOBA has known many local domains, and has even toured foreign galleries as the premiere procurement of perplexing craftsmanship. In the meantime, they are trying to set up pop-up shows for a week to two week stays around town. Some possibilities the staff have in mind are breweries, downtown building lobbies, underused event venues, or space in a different movie theater.
Their criteria in displaying creative works is the same as any other museums. They pride themselves on taking the art work seriously without taking themselves too seriously.
“We never laugh at the art or the artists,” Sacco said. “We’re not just grabbing things from flea markets. These are the misadventures of thoughtful interpretations. It celebrates the failure of the artist. They tried to express something, they tried to create something and it just didn’t go as planned.”
