MoMA gets occupied
Recently, Occupy Museums, who align themselves with the Occupy Wall Street movement, staged a protest at the Museum of Modern Art in New York by hanging a large banner and having a general assembly. Central to the motivations behind this particular protest, as there have been several since October, is a labor dispute between MoMA's art handlers and two Sotheby-affiliated MoMA board members. Before this protest, the objectives behind Occupy Museums' demonstrations have not been perceived as being this clear-cut.
Some wonder why Occupy Museums' focus is not with lucrative art galleries-some say this is because the Occupy movements are more concerned with government-funded institutions meant to serve the public (hence Occupy Wall Street-ers not directly protesting banks). Underscoring both the Occupy Wall Street and Museums protests are the ideals of collectivity and equal accessibility. How ironic then that one of the current MoMA exhibits features Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, who had Communist leanings and was very outspoken about the idea of public art.
