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12/27/2007: "The Sad Tale of the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art" by Nicholas Forrest
The Museum of Contemporary Art, in my home town of Sydney, Australia, is located at one of the most beautiful and spectacular spots in Sydney on the edge of the beautiful Sydney harbour at Circular Quay, adjacent to the historic Rocks precinct. As Australia's only museum dedicated to exhibiting, interpreting and collecting contemporary art from across Australia and around the world, the MCA is an extremely important institution for the promotion and presentation of contemporary art in Australia. From the description above you could be forgiven for picturing the MCA institution as a triumphant expression of contemporary art practise that reflects the experimental and cutting edge nature of the art that they exhibit. But unfortunately, this is not the case. What should be a highly successful contemporary exhibition space is instead an under-achieving, awkward and problematic museum that seems to be doomed to a life of being ignored and passed by, regardless of how good the exhibitions are.From the outset the museum struggled to make ends meet resulting in a major review and restructure in 1999 when the museum faced the prospect of being closed permanently due to a lack of funds but thankfully the corporate sector came to the rescue providing enough funds to keep the gallery open. The problem with the corporate backing is the criticisim that the gallery continues to receive for what many people perceive as a public, cutural institution being manipulated and guided by various commercial and corporate entities. One of the more positive changes which came about as a result of the review and the subsequent corporate sponsorship was the scrapping of the entry fee which, although minimal, was a major factor in the low attendance figures. Although we like to think that modern society is open minded and progressive enough to embrace and appreciate the diversity and experimental nature of contemporary art, the fact remains that an exhibition of old masters is still going to be far more popular than an exhibition of contemporary art. With the option to see a gallery of old masters for free at the nearby Art Gallery of New South Wales there would never be any contest while the MCA was charging an entry fee.
The biggest problem with the MCA is quite obviously the building itself, which is an art deco style stone structure that was constructed between 1939 and 1949 to house the offices of the Maritime Services Board who occupied the building until 1989 when they moved to larger premises. At around the same time the newly created MCA needed a home so the New South Wales Government gifted the former MSB building to the MCA who undertook a restoration and refurbishment of the building before the grand opening in 1991. Even after the refurbishment of the interior the space feels cramped, confined and dinghy, which combined with the confusing layout creates an atmosphere that not only evokes feelings of gloom and displeasure but is also detrimental to the art being exhibited
If you regularly visit museums and galleries then you will be aware that the space in which art is exhibited has a major impact on the way people experience and interact with the art. so one would expect that a contemporary exhibition space would have a building that reflects and complements the modern, progressive and experimental nature of the art being exhibited. In 2002 the MCA held a competition to redesign the museum which should have resulted in the current building being demolished to make way for a specially designed modern space but that irrational fear of the new and different reared its ugly head resulting in enough opposition to the demolition of the existing building to prevent the rebuild going ahead. With a tarnished reputation and several blatantly obvious defects I cannot understand why the museum has not found another premises and undergone a well overdue make-over but then again some people will insist on flogging a dead horse no matter how silly they look. Having said all that I regularly visit the MCA because of the amazing exhibitions that they have so I would still encourage people to visit the museum regardless of it's flaws.
