One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
You Like It, You Really Like It: MOCA's "Art In the Streets" Draws Record Number of Patrons
Photo by Visu_ via the LAist Featured Photos pool
Street art draws millions of unwitting viewers daily, but put the stuff in a museum and charge admission, and, whadda ya know? The show breaks records! The Museum of Contemporary Art is congratulating themselves on a job well done with the innovative "Art in the Streets" exhibit that ran for 81 days and drew 201,352 patrons, besting the previous record set by their 2002 Warhol Retrospective.
Daily average attendance was at 2,486 for the unconventional museum show, which reflected a vast array of graffiti and street art in an engaging and colorful landscape created at MOCA's Little Tokyo outpost. The biggest week was the show last's, during which time 32,278 people passed through to check out work by artists like Neckface, Fab 5 Freddy, Invader, Mister Cartoon, and Shepard Fairey. Procrastinators flocking in on closing day totaled over 8,000.
But they weren't all ponying up cash; in the rich (giggle) tradition (wink) of street art, a lot of folks got in for free. Of course, they weren't furtively hopping turnstiles under to cover of night (except to maybe "contribute" some art outside) but rather taking advantage of the sponsorship of one of street art's biggest names, Banksy, who covered the cost of "Free Mondays" for the exhibit.
MOCA says they signed up about 2,500 new members, and believe that their annual attendance will have this year's attendance come in at double last year's overall. Nice job, MOCA!
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
