The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) is a privately owned museum whose stated aim is "to celebrate the labor of artists whose work would be displayed and appreciated in no other forum". It was originally in Dedham, Massachusetts, and is currently in Boston, Massachusetts. Its permanent collection includes over 700 pieces of "art too bad to be ignored", 25 to 35 of which are on public display at any one time.
MOBA was founded in 1993, after antique dealer Scott Wilson showed a painting he had recovered from the trash to some friends, who suggested starting a collection. Within a year, receptions held in Wilson's friends' home were so well-attended that the collection needed its own viewing space. The museum then moved to the basement of a theater in Dedham. Explaining the reasoning behind the museum's establishment, co-founder Jerry Reilly said in 1995: "While every city in the world has at least one museum dedicated to the best of art, MOBA is the only museum dedicated to collecting and exhibiting the worst." To be included in MOBA's collection, works must be original and have serious intent, but they must also have significant flaws without being boring; curators are not interested in displaying deliberate kitsch.
MOBA has been mentioned in dozens of off-the-beaten-path guides to Boston, featured in international newspapers and magazines, and has inspired several other collections throughout the world. Deborah Solomon of The New York Times Magazine noted that the attention the Museum of Bad Art receives is part of a wider trend of museums displaying "the best bad art".Solomon, Deborah. "In Praise of Bad Art". The New York Times, January 24, 1999 The museum has been criticized for being anti-art, but the founders deny this, responding that its collection is a tribute to the sincerity of the artists who persevered with their art despite something going horribly wrong in the process. According to co-founder Marie Jackson, "We are here to celebrate an artist's right to fail, gloriously.""The Gallery of the Garish Masterpieces of Bad Art ". The Irish Times, September 18, 1999. 9 In a chat with the Sunn on how to identify bad art, MOBA's curator Michael Frank says, "Here at the Museum Of Bad Art (MOBA) we collect art that we believe was created in a serious attempt to make art but in which, either in the execution or original concept, something has gone terribly wrong. Rather than simply amateurish, the resulting image must be, for one reason or another, compelling to be considered museum-worthy. Some of the most interesting pieces in our collection are ones that show that the artist had some technical skill, but made some questionable decisions such as over-the-top imagery."Sunn, "A few words on art"
History
The Museum of Bad Art was founded by antique dealer Scott Wilson, who discovered what has become the museum's signature piece—Lucy in the Field with Flowers—protruding from between two trash cans on a Roslindale-area curb in Boston, among some garbage waiting to be collected. Wilson was initially interested only in the frame, but when he showed the picture to his friend Jerry Reilly, the latter wanted both the frame and the painting. He exhibited Lucy in his home, and encouraged friends to look for other bad art and notify Wilson of what they found. When Wilson acquired another "equally lovely" piece and shared it with Reilly, they decided to start a collection. Reilly and his wife, Marie Jackson, held a party in their basement to exhibit the collection to date, and hosted a reception they facetiously titled "The Opening of the Museum of Bad Art".English, Bella. . The Boston Globe, April 29, 2007. Reg7
Regular showings of the pieces collected by Wilson, Reilly, and Jackson (and those donated by others), became too much for Reilly and Jackson's small home in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, as hundreds of people attended the receptions. The founders' initial attempt at dealing with their constrained exhibition space was to create the Virtual Museum Of Bad Art, a CD-ROM with a cast of 95 people that presented the MOBA art collection in a fictional imaginary museum. This fictional MOBA allowed the visitors not only to view the paintings but to go behind the scenes in the fictional museum.
The MOBA was officially founded in 1993, and its first exhibition was presented in March 1994.
Word of the museum's collection continued to spread until, according to "Permanent Interim Acting Director" Louise Reilly Sacco, "it got completely out of hand" when a group of senior citizens on a tour bus stopped to see it. In 1995, the display space was moved to the basement of the Dedham Community Theatre, a building with an aesthetic described in 2004 as "ramshackle". The museum in Dedham had no fixed operating hours, instead being open while the theater upstairs was open.Museum of Bad Art . Food & Wine Magazine, October 2008 As The Boston Globe notes, the art collection was appropriately placed "just outside the men's room",English, Bella. "Doing a Good Deed with Bad Art". The Boston Globe, February 8, 2009. Reg1 where sounds and smells carry to the collection and the constant flushing of the toilet "supposedly helps maintain a uniform humidity", according to the South China Morning Post.Wilson, David, "It May Be Art, But They Sure Ain't No Oil Paintings". South China Morning Post, May 17, 2004. 5
In MOBA's early days, the museum hosted traveling shows; on one occasion the works were hung from trees in the woods on Cape Cod for the "Art Goes Out the Window—The Gallery in the Woods". Bad music was played during the public viewings to complete the ambiance. In an exhibition titled "Awash in Bad Art", 18 pieces of art were covered in shrink wrap for "the world's first drive-thru museum and car wash". Marie Jackson, formerly the Director of Aesthetic Interpretation noted, "We didn't put any watercolors in there." A 2001 exhibition, "Buck Naked—Nothing But Nudes" featured all of the MOBA nudes hung in a local spa.
MOBA features its works in rotating collections. In 2003, "Freaks of Nature" focused on landscape artwork "gone awry". A 2006 exhibit titled "Hackneyed Portraits" was designed to "pick up some of the slack" when the David Hockney show at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts closed.Johnson, Carolyn. "So Bad It's Good: Dedham Museum Is Proud Home to Unforgettable Art That's Anything But Fine". The Boston Globe, June 25, 2006. 1 MOBA unveiled its show "Nature Abhors a Vacuum and All Other Housework" in 2006; this format continues on the museum's website.
A second gallery opened in 2008 at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts, where the collection was placed near both the women's and men's restrooms.Smykus, Ed. "Museum of Bad Art Will Open Second Branch at the Somerville Theater" . Wicked Local, May 5, 2008 Although the original gallery was free and open to the public, the second is free with admission to the theater or with a pass requested from the museum."General Info". Somerville Theatre. Retrieved on March 3, 2009. Exhibitions titled "Bright Colors / Dark Emotions" and "Know What You Like / Paint How You Feel" have been held in the academic gallery at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts.Garcia-Fenech, Giovanni. "Bad Art Bonanza". New York City: artnet Worldwide, 2009. Retrieved on March 4, 2009. One of MOBA's goals is "to take bad art on the road", according to Sacco.Gray-Blanc, Elena. "The Good, the Bad... and the Very, Very Ugly — The Museum of Bad Art: A Worthwhile Stop on the World Weird Web". Santa Barbara Independent, September 20, 2008 Pieces from MOBA's collection have been on display in museums in New York City, Ottawa, Taipei, and Virginia.Goldberg, Carey. "Arts In America: Art So Bad a Museum in Boston Relishes It". The New York Times, October 14, 1998. E2
In February 2009, MOBA announced a fundraiser to assist the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, which was seriously considering whether to sell masterpieces because of the 2008 financial crisis, made worse for the university by some of its donors losing money in the Madoff investment scandal. Current MOBA curator Michael Frank placed Studies in Digestion—a four-panel piece showing four renditions of the human digestive tract in various media by artist Deborah Grumet—on eBay for a buy-it-now price of $10,000; the first bid was $24.99. It eventually sold for $152.53 and the meager proceeds went to the Rose Art Museum, while both museums gained publicity.Bolton, Morgan Michele. "". The Boston Globe, February 15, 2009
In 2010, the museum opened a third location in the offices of the Brookline Interactive Group.
In December 2012, the branch at the Dedham Community Theater closed to convert the space into a screening room. Another branch later opened at the New England Wildlife Center in South Weymouth. The Somerville location was closed in 2019 when theater owners sought to renovate the basement space it occupied. All locations closed after the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The museum reopened at the Dorchester Brewing Company's tap room in Boston in September 2022. In 2026, production began on an independent documentary chronicling the museum's history and its impact on the global art community.
Thefts
The loss of two MOBA works to theft has drawn media attention and enhanced the museum's stature.Wulff, Julie "All Things Bad and Beautiful". The Boston Globe, December 13, 2006. SID2 In 1996, the painting Eileen, by R. Angelo Le, vanished from MOBA. Eileen was originally acquired from the trash by Wilson and had a rip in the canvas from being slashed with a knife, "adding an additional element of drama to an already powerful work", according to MOBA.Portraiture #9 Eileen . Museum of Bad Art, 2009. Retrieved on March 8, 2009.
The museum offered a reward of $6.50 for the return of Eileen, and although MOBA donors later increased that reward to $36.73, the work remained unrecovered for many years. The Boston Police listed the crime as "larceny, other", and Sacco was reported saying she was unable to establish a link between the disappearance of Eileen and a notorious heist at Boston's famed Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that occurred in 1990.Wright, Chris. "Framed: Good times for bad art," The Boston Phoenix, April 25 – May 1, 2003Kurkjian, Stephen. "The Gardner Heist", The Boston Globe, March 13, 2005 In 2006, 10 years after Eileen was stolen, MOBA was contacted by the purported thief demanding a $5,000 ransom for the painting; no ransom was paid, but it was returned anyway.
Prompted by the theft of Eileen, MOBA staff installed a fake video camera over a sign at their Dedham branch reading (in Comic Sans): "Warning. This gallery is protected by a fake security camera".Swoger, Kate. "Art Only a Mother Could Love: No Picture is Too Imperfect for Massachusetts Museum". The Gazette, Montreal, Quebec, February 13, 2000. H6 In 2004, Rebecca Harris' Self Portrait as a Drainpipe was removed from the wall and replaced with a ransom note demanding $10, although the thief neglected to include any contact information. Soon after its disappearance the painting was returned, with a $10 donation.Michael Frank, "Art Theft Hits Home in Dedham", letter to the editor, The Boston Globe, February 11, 2006. 10 Curator Michael Frank speculates that the thief had difficulty fencing the portrait because "reputable institutions refuse to negotiate with criminals."
Collection standards