Just outside the city of Boston, Massachusetts there is an art museum with two gallery locations. Few Bostonians know it exists. One art gallery is located in Dedham, MA at 580 High Street and the other in Somerville, MA at 55 Davis Square. The art museum is the largest of its kind in the world and although featured in The New York Times, Good Morning America and the Today Show, few know of it and even fewer visit.
Bad Boston Art
There are over 500 works of art in the permanent collection with donated items constantly arriving. The “Museum of Bad Art” (MOBA) states that it is “art too bad to be ignored”. A Boston man started the museum from one picture a friend pulled out of a trash barrel in Roslindale. He intended to cut away the picture and re-use the frame. The ensuing 500 items have come to the museum from curbside recycle, trash barrels, dumpsters, yard sales, thrift shops, donations and strategic purchases costing about $6.00. Although hard to believe, the Museum of Bad Art is well known around the world. For example, an Australian television crew filmed a recent exhibition of bad art held on Cape Cod.
Horribly Delightful Art Museum
The museum is a delight in three aspects. First, the artwork is amateur and truly is horrible and good for laughs for the most part. The owner’s quips and narratives accompanying each piece are sometimes hysterically funny and will bring tears to your eyes and leave you gasping for air! To give you an idea of the mindset, the museum prides itself on its enviable display area, a wall outside the men’s room in a 1927 Dedham theater. Anyone is welcome to donate art to the museum and you are advised….” an initial evaluation of the work can be done from a slide or photo but if you just want it out of your house then wrap it up and ship it to us”.
Art Interpretation
Last, the museum offers an outreach program named ‘Guest Interpretator Challenge’ where a person provides a written clarification (imagined) of the artist’s thoughts or depiction on canvas and a fitting title for the artwork. The June 2009 entry, submitted by Jessica Brown of Cape Town, South Africa interpreted the canvas “Out of Joint”. Read for yourself and you will laugh as hard as I did.
Now, for perhaps the best part of all, you can see some of the collection and much of the commentary on the museum website. Visit the site and you are certain to find something you like in this Boston art museum within such categories as blue people, unseen forces, in the nood, andunlikely landscapes. Check your pulse for signs of life if you do not like any of the material. Boston is a city rich in history, a pleasing mix of the old and the new. This Boston museum is totally modern and well thought out. Given the rapid growth and worldwide interest to date, it is on the way to becoming another major Boston attraction as well as a popular web site.
The Museum of Bad Art
Send Art Submissions to the Museum of Bad Art
