Geffen Gives $5 Million to MOCA Fund

The Temporary Contemporary, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s warehouse-like facility in Little Tokyo, has become the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA thanks to a $5-million gift from entertainment mogul and art collector David Geffen.

The donation, announced Monday by MOCA, supports the museum’s $25-million endowment drive, launched publicly in October. With Geffen’s gift, a total of $19 million has been committed to the campaign, including a $5-million contribution from an anonymous donor.

“It’s a major, major gift,” said David Laventhol, chairman of the MOCA Board of Trustees and editor at large of The Times. “It’s a very significant gift on its own and presumably it will encourage others to support the campaign.”

Geffen, who made his fortune in the recording industry and is a partner in the multimedia production company DreamWorks SKG, said his gift was made in the spirit of supporting the arts in a city that is developing an increasingly vibrant creative community.

“I never wanted to be a role model,” he said, “but since one inevitably becomes one, I want to be a good one. The museum means a lot to me and to Los Angeles. The Temporary Contemporary is an extremely sympathetic space. So my interest is in the space, but also in the museum and Los Angeles. There’s a thriving contemporary art scene in Los Angeles. I want to be supportive of it.”

Geffen’s donation makes him one of Los Angeles’ most highly visible arts patrons--and puts his name on a second arts institution. Last spring he gave $5 million to UCLA’s Westwood Playhouse, which was renamed the Geffen Playhouse. His name is also on the Geffen Center, an AIDS service facility in Hollywood, in honor of his $1-million gift to purchase and refurbish the former television studio.

Geffen did not ask that the Temporary Contemporary be named for him. He responded to an offer from the museum, MOCA Director Richard Koshalek said. “We wrote to David because we knew of his strong interest in art and in collecting,” Koshalek said. “We thought that he might be interested in participating in the campaign. The idea of renaming the TC was part of the campaign strategy approved by the board of trustees and proposed to him.”

The Temporary Contemporary’s name change is only the latest example in a long tradition of calling art galleries and museums after donors. In 1986, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened its Robert O. Anderson Building, named in honor of a $3.5-million grant from Arco, made while Anderson headed the corporation. The Pepperdine University Art Museum was renamed the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art in 1992 after the late Los Angeles-based collector donated $1.5 million to the campus facility. In 1993 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York put the name of builder Samuel J. LeFrak on the museum’s exterior rotunda on 5th Avenue, in return for his $10-million gift, the museum’s largest-ever donation at the time. But when the New York City Landmarks Commission declined to approve the addition of the name, it was moved to a fifth-floor gallery.

About $20.5 million of MOCA’s overall $25-million goal will be used to build its endowment to a total of $50 million. Income from these new funds will be used to support temporary exhibitions in the museum’s two buildings, display the permanent collection and foster artistic collaborations, education and community outreach. The remaining $4.5 million of the campaign goal is earmarked for a new education center, building improvements and operating funds.

The Temporary Contemporary opened in 1983 as temporary exhibition space while MOCA at California Plaza was under construction. The cavernous facility, which incorporates two warehouses built in the 1940s as part of a hardware store, was renovated by architect Frank Gehry for the museum’s use. An informal space that lends itself to reconfigurations and experimental installations, it has been popular with artists, curators and the public. It currently houses MOCA’s exhibition “Hall of Mirrors: Art and Film Since 1945.”

Gehry is now designing alterations of the facility, including an entrance lobby and plaza to accommodate large groups of visitors, an education center with areas for art-making and interactive technology, a coffeehouse/restaurant and an expanded museum store opening directly to the street.