Via LAist: The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) announced today that it will offer free admission every Monday until August 8, courtesy of British street artist Banksy.
Banksy's donation is in honor of the Art in the Streets exhibition, which is on display in the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA until mid-August. The controversial graffiti artist, painter, and filmmaker's reasoning for the gift is simple -- "I don't think you should have to pay to look at graffiti," he told MOCA's The Curve blog. Indeed, the work of Banksy and other celebrated street artists has been found all over LA, completely free of charge.
Art in the Streets, though, has been "drawing record attendance," according to MOCA Director and exhibition co-curator Jeffrey Deitch. He and associate curators Roger Gastman and Aaron Rose have gathered an impressive collection of installations by 50 of the world's most talked-about street artists. The exhibition also addresses the development of graffiti and street art, and highlights the photographers and filmmakers who document the controversial genre. If you need any more proof of the dynamic nature of the show, read one of the Huffington Post's four pieces about it here, here, here, and here. And now that the exhibit is free every Monday, it can have the democratic atmosphere of street art in its natural setting, albeit without the dangerous freeway underpasses and dark alleys.