MOCA Delays Morning Press Conference

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) released a notice yesterday to delay a press conference that was supposed to be held this morning to name their new director. MOCA said that Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had to cancel his appearance at the event in order to appoint a new deputy mayor of finance, and that the press conference would be rescheduled.

New York dealer Jeffrey Deitch is rumored to be a front-runner for the position. “We’ve interviewed about 13 people, and no decision has been made yet by either the search committee or the board, but we hope that will happen soon,” said Philanthropist Eli Broad, who helped found the museum in the late 1970s.

However, Deitch admitted that he had been in talks with MOCA, and a representative from Deitch Projects, his three-outpost gallery, said he had been in Los Angeles for various meetings. New Museum director Lisa Phillips and Lars Nittve, the director of Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, are also rumored contenders. The new director is going to replace Jeremy Strick, who resigned at the end of 2008 after the museum announced it had lost $44 million of its $50 million endowment over the past nine years.

Via: Art Info