Proposed Fashion Museum Gains Support of L.A. Cultural Affairs Dept.
The Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, which last week narrowly escaped the city’s budget axe, has pledged support for a longplanned fashion industry museum in downtown Los Angeles.
The department’s general manager, Margie J. Reese, will act as an advisor for the museum, which will be called the Museum of Fashion Designers and Creators (MODAC), said founder Irene Kasmer.
Both organizations will promote the arts and the fashion industry in Los Angeles. Kasmer said she is working with Reese to launch a major fund-raising event in May or June for MODAC, as well as other projects. “We’re seriously thinking about doing a fashion show featuring newer and [veteran] designers from California,” Kasmer said.
MODAC’s main focus is on California fashion, but the organization’s 250,000-piece collection represents all aspects of fashion.
The city’s cultural affairs program was revitalized after last week’s vote of support from Mayor James K. Hahn, who earlier had proposed integrating the program into the Parks and Recreation Department because of the city’s budget crisis. But opposition from arts and cultural groups and citizens prompted the mayor to maintain the department and even enhance it. He named Music Center chairman John Emerson to head an advisory council for the arts. Emerson will appoint about 15 to 20 people to an ad hoc committee that will advise on changes in the Cultural Affairs Department.
Members of MODAC’s board of directors were among those who supported saving the Cultural Affairs Department.
Kasmer said she hopes the department’s support can finally help MODAC land a permanent and temporary home. She said she had reached an agreement with the Hollywood- based CIM Group during an October 2002 Community Redevelopment Association meeting to house a 10,000-square-foot museum annex at the company’s mixed-use project on Grand Avenue in Los Angeles but the company backed out of the proposal. CIM officials would not comment on the situation.
Kasmer is still interested in a downtown building that had housed the defunct Hearst-owned Herald Examiner newspaper. But the cost for that property is out of reach for the organization, at least at the moment, Kasmer said.
The museum received a $30,000 grant from the city last year. —Robert McAllister
