In 2010, Eli and Edythe Broad announced plans to open The Broad, a new public museum of contemporary art on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles (anticipated opening: 2014). Dubbed "the veil and the vault", the museum's design merges the two key components of the building; public exhibition space and archive/storage. The museum's exhibition programming will focus on the contents of the renowned contemporary art collections of Eli and Edythe Broad, which feature in total 2000 artworks by more than 200 artists. The Broad Art Foundation and The Elia and Edythe Broad Foundation together comprise The Broad Foundations, which have assets of $2.4 billion.

Meanwhile, across the street at Grand Avuenue, MOCA was melting down. In December 2008, the press reported that the museum's endowment had dwindled in nine years from $40 million to $6 milliion, and that California's attorney general was investigating its finances. A Letter of Agreement between MOCA and the Eli and Edythe Broad foundation was signed on December 23, 2008. Two notable clauses require the museum "to strengthen its Board of Trustees to include a substantial number of individuals who share MOCA's vision of downtown Los Angeles and art" and "to acknowledge Eli Broad as the founding chairman of the Board of MOCA".

On February 10, 2013 Nancy Popp performed on the Broad Museum construction site as an interventionist political action to protest and call attention to the machinations of money and redevelopment that lie behind the establishment of The Broad, including the history of KB Homes (Eli Broad's real estate development corporation) and its role in destroying the urban cores of cities such as Detroit while attempting to 'enliven' downtown Los Angeles.

Sources:
http://broadartfoundation.org/thebroadmuseum.html
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/03/problem-moca-la-jeffrey-deitch

Artist Bio:
Nancy Popp is a Los Angeles-based artist and educator. Her performances, videos, drawings, and photographs draw upon the rich traditions of durational, corporeal performance and political intervention to explore relations between body and site, and often incorporate public and architectural spaces. Collaboration is a long-term strategy she employs in her practice. She exhibits frequently at such venues as the 2011 Istanbul Biennial, Turkey; the Manifesta 9 Biennial, Belgium; the Getty Center, Los Angeles; Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center; Rowan University, New Jersey; SUNY University, New York, numerous galleries in Los Angeles, Düsseldorf, Belgrade, and Tijuana, and many other public sites and institutions. She holds degrees from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena and the San Francisco Art Institute, and is a recipient of the California Community Foundation's Visual Arts Fellowship and a Lucas Artist Fellowship from the Montalvo Arts Center. Upcoming exhibitions include solo shows at Monte Vista Projects and Gallery KM in Los Angeles as well as a group exhibition at the Luckman Gallery at Cal State LA.