Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
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The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (or MCASD) is an art museum focused on the collection, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of works of art from 1950 to the present.
MCASD functions as a museum whose programs encompass the art of our time; a cultural center and forum for the exploration of contemporary art and ideas; and a research laboratory for artists and audiences to experiment and learn. Visitors come to MCASD to investigate a wide range of artists and the most recent developments emerging nationally and internationally as well as in San Diego/Tijuana.
These two distinct and beautiful venues, where visitors can directly experience the work and ideas of living artists, are an important cultural destination for those coming to San Diego, California, for business or pleasure San Diego tourism.
MCASD has an international reputation for its permanent collection, highly acclaimed, varied schedule of thought-provoking exhibitions, lectures, performances, and scholarly publications. The museum also offers special programs in its 500-seat auditorium, and free tours daily.
At MCASD Downtown, there is a varied schedule of exhibitions, including the Cerca Series of one-person exhibitions of young, emerging artists. The first Thursday of each month, starting at 7PM, TNT (Thursday Night Thing) takes place, featuring music, performance, drinks, and more.
The Museum is currently engaged in a $30 million campaign to expand and endow the downtown venue. With the new MCASD, opening in 2007, there will be downtown gallery space greater than MCASD La Jolla’s, therefore increasing the overall capacity for service. The Museum will have a unique mix of facilities allowing the flexibility to present a wide range of artists (the more traditional, “white cube” galleries and outdoor sculpture garden in La Jolla; contemporary urban galleries at the existing downtown space, and renovated 1915 warehouse spaces in the new Joan and Irwin Jacobs Building and a modern lecture hall and public spaces in the David C. Copley Building).
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[edit] History
Founded in 1941 in La Jolla as a community art center, through the 1950s and 60s the organization operated as the La Jolla Art Museum. The museum was remodeled from the 1915 residence of philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps.
In the early 1970s, the name changed to the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, focusing the purview on the period from 1950 to the present. The Museum has long held a reputation for bold, prescient exhibitions and collecting practices and the oceanfront site became a mecca for artists and art aficionados from around California, the nation, and beyond. In 1990, acknowledging the larger geographic context and the population base of nearly 3 million in San Diego County, the name changed to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and in 1993, a branch facility opened downtown, further embracing the region. MCASD is fiscally sound, with a permanent endowment fund of over $40 million, and an annual operating budget of approximately $6 million. Annual support comes from a balanced mix of individuals, corporations, foundations, government agencies, and interest earned from the endowment.
[edit] Contact information
For questions about MCASD, one may e-mail [info@mcasd.org]. For press inquiries, contact [press@mcasd.org]. If you wish to write to the museum you may do so by mailing to their La Jolla branch at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD La Jolla), 700 Prospect, La Jolla, CA 92037. Their phone number is 858-454-3541, while their fax number is 858-454-6985.
[edit] Addresses of the museum
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
700 Prospect Street, La Jolla, CA 92037
and
1001 Kettner Blvd. at Broadway, downtown San Diego
858-454-3541 (phone)
