[xoxoxoBruce]

MOBA, the Museum Of Bad Art.

The Museum of Bad Art, or MOBA, began its journey more than twenty years ago in 1994, when antique dealer Scott Wilson spotted a painting in the trash —the iconic Lucy in the Field with Flowers— and showed it to his friends, who then suggested he start a collection.

Wilson acquired a few more equally terrible pieces and began to hold receptions at his friend’s home. For a year, these exhibitions were well attended prompting him to move his collection to a ramshackle basement of a community theater in Dedham, Massachusetts. When the building got sold, he found a permanent home in the Somerville movie theater, “conveniently located just outside the men’s room”, where the constant sound of flushing toilet and the smell carry to the collection and helps create a convivial atmosphere appropriate for a museum dedicated to preserving the best of the bad.

The museum acquires its collection from thrift shops, flea markets, garage sales, and trash barrels. Often, artists themselves will make a donation. All submission to the museum must pass through a rigorous review process. No children artworks are allowed, or art traditionally perceived as lesser in quality, such as black velvet paintings, paint-by-numbers, kitsch, or factory-made tourist pieces.

Later, two additional branch galleries were opened in Brookline and South Weymouth, near Boston.

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