Los Angeles Museum Of Contemporary Art

Leaders of L.A.'s financially troubled Museum of Contemporary Art said Friday that they have crafted a balanced budget for the coming fiscal year -- but only by sacrificing four planned exhibitions and 17 more jobs, including two of seven curators. They hope that a fall exhibition drawn solely from MOCA's acclaimed collection of post-World War II art will be a blockbuster and signal that the museum's turnaround from last year's near-collapse is well underway.

Bifocals resting on his nose, Chris Burden mounted the scrawny Benelli motorcycle and kicked the machine to life. Revving the motor in first gear to make sure the 41-year-old beast would stay awake, he upshifted to second, then third, forcing the rear wheel of the tiny bike to spin faster and faster against the big wheel with which it was making contact. With the motorcycle revved to 50 miles per hour, Burden's graying hair fluttered from the wind generated by the enormous metal flywheel.

When it comes to extracting free labor from famous cinematic figures, it would be hard to top Francesco Vezzoli. The Italian video artist's output over the last 12 years reflects his ability to get highly paid cinematic talent to work without pay. Vezzoli's enlistees so far have included Helen Mirren, Sharon Stone, Courtney Love, Benicio del Toro, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Sonia Braga, Marianne Faithfull, Natalie Portman, Roman Polanski, Michelle...

The most telling image at the Museum of Contemporary Art's 30th anniversary gala wasn't hanging on a wall. It was a vignette that a few early guests might have seen: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie gazing intently at a Mark Rothko painting during a private tour. For MOCA, which recently made what Eli Broad called one of the "biggest turnarounds in the history of the art world," the sight of one of pop culture's most royal couples taking in one of Abstract Expressionism's most influential pioneers was just the kind of image the museum was trying to project at Saturday night's lavish affair.

A Museum of Contemporary Art trustee who left the board last year amid revelations of the museum's dire financial problems said that his confidence in the leadership of philanthropist Eli Broad, whose Broad Foundation offered the museum a bailout gift of $30 million in December, has led to his decision to rejoin the board. On Thursday the museum announced it has raised nearly $60 million, including Broad's gift, since December. Included in that announcement was news that former music industry executive Gilbert B. Friesen and art collector and restaurateur Peter Morton, co-founder of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, have rejoined the board.

A new name is going up at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's soon-to-open Broad Contemporary Art Museum. LACMA trustee Jane Nathanson and her husband, communication and investment mogul Marc Nathanson, will have a ground-floor gallery in the building named for them in recognition of a $10-million gift to the museum to be announced today. The donation is earmarked for contemporary art programs and acquisitions. "It's going to be one of the best spaces in the world to show contemporary art.

THE text is snappy: BCAM born! The image is catchy: a shiny red sculpture of a cracked egg by Jeff Koons that reflects the saw-toothed roof of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, opening Feb. 16 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. And the message, emblazoned on streetlight banners all over town, is clear: LACMA has a hip new attraction and you need to see it.

Sisterhood is powerful again. Last spring's "WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution" at MOCA gave rise to an explosion of woman-centered exhibitions throughout the Southland. Now, a new public art initiative takes feminism back to the streets. Cindy Sherman's billboards of herself as a faux B-movie star loom over Hollywood & Highland. Jenny Holzer's grids of neon colored posters plaster quotations from revolutionary leaders all over town.

Maria Arena Bell, a television writer and arts advocate, and Pierre Norman Rolin, a philanthropist and global real estate mogul, have joined the board of trustees at L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art. Bell, a native Californian who is head writer for "The Young and the Restless," has a high profile in the nonprofit world as a supporter of arts organizations nationwide. At MOCA, she has led the acquisition and collection committee since 2004, and she chaired the museum's gala for its Takashi Murakami exhibition in 2007.

Los Angeles' prestigious but chronically underfunded Museum of Contemporary Art has fallen into crisis. Museum Director Jeremy Strick said MOCA is seeking large cash infusions from donors, and this week he did not rule out the possibility of merging with another institution or sharing its collection of almost 6,000 artworks. Federal tax returns show that even before the current national crisis, MOCA had been draining its reserves to pay operating expenses.