With so much bad art flooding social media these days, The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) is shutting down.
If you can’t beat them, join them. The Museum of Bad Art is now going virtual only.
Started in 1993 with the discovery of their first acquisition on a faithful trash day and with their first show in 1994, the Museum of Bad Art or MOBA in Somerville, MA began in the basement of a private home and then moved to the basement space of a local theater in Davis Square.
The museum is the only institution dedicated to the acquisition, preservation, and interpretation of bad art.
Once a media darling, the flood of bad art into the general public’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds as well as the influx of retiring baby boomers looking for a new hobby, as impacted visitorship to the physical museum.
Bad art is commonplace.
“Bad Art is unchallenging, safe, and stale. Art that has nothing new to offer, nothing interesting to bring to the table. Background noise if you will, elevator music” – https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/31086/1/is-there-such-a-thing-as-bad-art
Museum-quality bad art has to be extraordinarily bad. One has to create incredibly bad with passion. You can’t fake the authenticity of truly exceptional bad art.
The MOBA is a destination for those who seek attractions outside of the mundane, built for the masses and tour buses institutionalize and sanitized points of interest.
Just like any museum, the worst of the worst, the pieces exceptionally bad are chosen by a board of experts.
PRO TIP 1 – One way to increase your odds of being selected for museum acquisition — don’t sign your work.
Anonymous pieces are much more likely to be included in the museum as well as pieces that have been aged for many years in a garage or attic space.
PRO TIP 2 – PRO TIP 2 – It seems the darkness of a back corner of a storage unit, attic or crawlspace actually adds value to these pieces.ms the darkness of a back corner of a storage unit, attic or crawlspace actually adds value to these pieces.
PRO TIP 3 – Pricing. The value of bad art increases as its pricing declines. Free for the taking makes bad art all the more desirable for MOBA. Price your work accordingly if you are interested in your work becoming part of the permanent collection.
The dedication to preservation and education is commendable. Sadly there is simply too much bad art — it’s so hard for the small staff to keep relevant.
Like all paintings, the virtual experience does not do the work justice. Simple swiping through bad art is not the same as physically being in the same space as the work, under good lighting and examining the brushwork.
The art world turns its attention to flat screens, the movement of pixels and NFTs rather than the mixing of pigments…