The first thing this lady has to realize is that Gary Mottola is a lunatic.
A Dream of a Contemporary Art Museum on the Jersey Shore
By KATE TAYLOR
ASBURY PARK, N.J. When Robin Parness Lipson walks along the boardwalk here,
she does not focus on the shirtless old men with fishing poles, the concrete
relics of failed condominium developments or the pigeons who have taken up
roost in the neglected Beaux-Arts landmarks along the shore.
What she sees are the bustling new restaurants and gift shops and the energy of
a bright future being shaped. And as part of that future, she sees her baby,
her dream, the New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art: a glittering monument to
the idea that New Jersey is not just the home of Snooki and the Situation, or
feuding housewives, or the Bada Bing Club, but a place where cultured,
philanthropic people can build something that makes a difference.
"We're creating a cultural brand, and it's going to rebrand the state," said
Ms. Lipson, the wife of a parking garage developer, who came from humble
beginnings and discovered a love of contemporary art only in the last few years.
Ms. Lipson has not yet raised any of the $5 million it is projected that she
will need to open the museum, nor does she have a lock on the boardwalk real
estate she covets, or a team of slick consultants armed with surveys and
statistics. But she is a bona fide expert at using charm, guileless candor,
boundless energy and terms of endearment to bring home what she wants: a new
museum on the Jersey Shore devoted to emerging artists.
"I'm blessed with this life right now," she said recently. "And I have a
choice," she went on. "I could go to lunch and go shopping and, you know, do
those things, or I can do something that might make somebody else's life a
little richer."
New museums are not born every day, and when they are, they are usually founded
either by major art patrons Whitneys, Guggenheims, de Menils or, as in the
case of the New Museum, by a visionary curator. Ms. Lipson is neither. But she
does have the support of wealthy friends with a major art collection: Michael
and Susan Hort. The Horts, who appear annually on ARTnews's list of the world's
200 top collectors, host a popular art party, a brunch at their TriBeCa loft,
during the annual Armory Show.
Ms. Lipson also has a dozen young artists, curators, event planners and others
who are part of her dream. These volunteers have done everything from build a
Web site, njmoca.org, to plan an inaugural exhibition and gala on Oct. 23.
"It's just so different," Haley Mellin, a painter who is organizing the
inaugural exhibition, said of Ms. Lipson's ideas for the museum, including
pop-up exhibits around the state. "I was really attracted to that vision."
It was Ms. Hort who first showed Ms. Lipson around Chelsea and introduced her
to the Armory Show and ArtBasel Miami Beach. Two years ago the Horts suggested
that they might lend their collection, which includes pieces by John Currin,
Chris Ofili, Elizabeth Peyton and others, to the Jersey City Museum, where Ms.
Lipson was on the board, if the museum would change its mission to focus
exclusively on contemporary art. Ms. Lipson loved the idea, but when the other
trustees rejected her proposal, she resigned from the board and decided to go
out on her own.
But even her friends were skeptical. In a phone interview Mr. Hort said that
when Ms. Lipson first said she wanted to start a museum, "I didn't think that
it would ever get too far," primarily because of the fund-raising involved. But
as time went by, Ms. Lipson decided to focus on getting a building donated,
instead of constructing one, and it began to seem more practical, he said.
The building of her dreams is a 1920s power plant, designed by Warren &
Wetmore, whose work includes Grand Central Terminal. Abandoned for 30 years,
the plant is owned by the development company Madison Marquette, which owns
much of the property on the boardwalk here.
Ms. Lipson tried to get a meeting with Madison Marquette's president, Gary
Mottola, for weeks to make her pitch. She finally got it on a recent morning in
a sunbaked conference room. Ms. Lipson was in a black skirt and sleeveless top
and big sunglasses, Mr. Mottola in a Stone PonyT-shirt; a reporter attended.
Ms. Lipson noted that while New Jersey had many regional museums, it had
nothing that drew international tourism.
"Except Madam Marie," Mr. Mottola interjected, referring to the stand of a
former boardwalk fortuneteller made famous by Bruce Springsteen in his "4th of
July, Asbury Park (Sandy)."
Ms. Lipson said the museum would be an economic catalyst in the way that Mass
MoCA, a contemporary art museum that opened in 1999, has been in North Adams,
Mass. "It was blighted; there was a high crime rate," she said.
Mr. Mottola appeared to take umbrage. Asbury Park, he said, was "the biggest
music destination in the world." The D.J. Tiësto had recently played at the
Convention Center. And celebrity glamour? What about the New Jersey Hall of
Fame, which has Jack Nicholson's second-grade report card and Susan Sarandon's
cheerleading jacket in its temporary space on the boardwalk?
He might be interested in having an art museum, he said, but "not in the
context of `We're blighted, this is going to make us unblighted,' " he said.
"We're already way past that."
Reflecting later, Ms. Lipson said it had been a learning experience. "I didn't
mean to denigrate what he's done with the music; that was my mistake," she said.
But she didn't feel defeated. She was able to interest Mr. Mottola in hosting
the inaugural gala in another one of the company's buildings, the Paramount
Theater, and she saw that as progress.
"I just have to bring him into our world," she said.
Joel Wachs, the president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts,
whom Ms. Lipson sought out for advice, said that he tried to convey to her some
of the obstacles involved in starting a museum.
"But she just doesn't seem to be fazed by obstacles," he said with a laugh.
"She has this indomitable spirit, this great enthusiasm and this go-getter
attitude, which I think is fabulous."
The museum will depend on loans rather than having a collection, allowing it to
operate more efficiently and avoid "the crunch situations that major museums
get into," Ms. Lipson said. As for the Horts' collection, "If a curator comes
and wants access to the collection, they can have it," she said.
The Horts, who have a home in Monmouth Beach, are planning to support the
museum, and say they feel others will too. They haven't previously been major
donors to existing museums. For Ms. Lipson, who keeps in daily touch with her
young volunteers by phone, e-mail and Facebook, the museum is already bearing
fruit as a community-builder.
"I'm so enriched by meeting everybody, and I'm having so much fun with this,"
she said, her voice bubbling with enthusiasm. "I'm loving it."
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