Long Beach Museum of Art and University Art Museum collaborate on retrospective exhibitions

In a historic first-ever teaming, officials from Long Beach Museum of Art and Cal State Long Beach’s University Art Museum announced Tuesday morning that they’ll partner on two simultaneous exhibitions funded with a $175,000 grant from the Getty Foundation, to “research and develop exhibitions exploring Long Beach’s central role in the development of video art.”

“They’ve really become the equivalent of an East Coast philanthropist,” LBMOA Director Ron Nelson said of the Getty, noting that the West Coast does have its own philanthropists in art lovers like Eli Broad.

“For the Getty to take this step and make this grant is really a sign they understand what was going on here post-World War II.”

Indeed: the grant is part of the Getty’s multi-year initiative, “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980″ which seeks to re-examine and re-evaluate the often-overlooked West Coast art scene of those years.

It means video art, the staple at Long Beach Museum of Art for 20 years beginning in 1974, is headed back to the museum where artists like Long Beach’s Bill Viola pioneered the field–and to the University Art Museum–for two exhibitions in 2011-2012.

“What is video art?” Viola asked the group assembled to make the announcement, in the historic 1911 house that until recently was LBMOA’s first home.

The audience–which included his wife and longtime collaborator Kira Perov, Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander, the directors of both museums, longtime LBMOA Foundation board member and president Pamela Munzer, and the city’s Economic Development Manager Robert Swayze–chuckled: Viola is still a video revolutionary.

Viola and a handful of artists–visiting and in residence–helped create the video art field, and gave Long Beach Museum of Art a well-deserved reputation worldwide as a center for the emerging art form.

In 1995, under the direction of then-director Harold B. “Hal” Nelson, the museum changed direction to focus on craft-based arts–and its video archives went into the deep freeze, emerging two years ago when the museum donated much of its video collection to the Getty.

Tuesday’s announcement might have had a bit of foreshadowing, curators and museum officials said, in Getty curator Glenn Phillips’ March exhibition, “California Video,” which featured examples from LBMOA’s collection. But it is nevertheless huge news for all three institutions.

“I think this is an amazing thing for the museum, the city and the world,” said Viola, who first picked up a video camera in 1970 and–despite the fact that video art as an artform did not yet truly exist–he instantly knew what he wanted to do with his life.

“It’s proved to be true, but I never had any doubt of it,” he said.

Doubt was in short supply at this morning’s press conference in the Anderson House–the stately 1911 Craftsman that is Long Beach Museum of Art’s original home and now houses its administrative offices.

LBMOA still owes the city a $3.1 million debt on its new gallery next door, which was completed in 2000–but its collaboration bodes well for both museums, and for an amicable resolution of the debt.

“Needless to say, I am really thrilled to be able to contribute the UAM’s expertise in working with the Long Beach Museum of Art,” said UAM Director Christopher Scoates. “It allows us to stand alongside museums like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Armand Hammer” museum.

(Really? Alongside MOCA? Okay!)

LBMOA Director Ron Nelson (no relation to his predecessor, Harold B. Nelson) was similarly elated.

“I’m thrilled that that’s on the horizon for us,” Ron Nelson said. “I think this … really helps us in reputation and really shows the value of this institution.”

And what did Swayze, the city’s Economic Development Manager, think?

“I don’t know for sure,” Swayze said when asked about a resolution to the museum’s debt–still outstanding. “Ron [Nelson] and I are going to be sitting down together next week. We look forward to working together with them to find a solution.”

But Tuesday was a historic moment for both museums; phrases like “a step up” and “looking to the future” bounced about in conversations–and for good reason. By looking back to its–and to Long Beach’s –past, both museums may find a way forward together.

“These institutions are reaching out to each other, because they’re realizing what a difficult time this is,” said Viola, who in earlier remarks had pointed out that crisis sometimes equals opportunity.

“Nobody’s going to get through this alone. They’re reaching out to each other. They’re not hunkering down.”

That’s good to hear.

Tags: California, Long Beach, long beach museum of art, Ron Nelson, Southern California, The District Weekly, The Getty, Theo Douglas, university art museum, video art