November 4, 2024 13:16 PM

Inside The Museum Of Bad Art In Somerville, Massachusetts

The world is full of impressive art. Most art lovers even scour different countries for the best paintings, sculptures and other art-related works that are pleasant to the eyes and their art-hungry minds.

The United States, of course, is no exception. America is bursting with great artwork collections such as The Met in New York, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and much more.

But did you know there is one art museum in the United States that separates it from the rest of all the art museums not just in America, but also in the whole world? The Museum of Bad Art, or MOBA, is an entire collection of artworks that are so bad, they deserve their own gallery.

According to their website, "The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) is the world's only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms." They also said that their art is "too bad to be ignored."

It started on 1993, when a local antique art dealer Scott Wilson found a painting in the trash. He took it home, hung it on the walls, and when his friends saw how bad it is, they encouraged him to hold art galleries and receptions in his house. He's been scouring bad art to add to his collection ever since.

Because the whole idea reeks of ingenuity, more and more people became interested in seeing these bad artworks. Scott Wilson then established a gallery in the basement of the Dedham Community Theater in Massachusetts until 2008, when the gallery has then moved to another basement space in the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square.

The artworks are mostly two-dimensional because of space constraints. There are now over 600 bad artworks in the collection. Aside from the main branch in Massachusetts, you can also catch a MOBA gallery in the Brookline Interactive Group and at the New England Wildlife Center in South Weymouth.

The whole idea may be funny and sarcastic, but the whole endeavor is actually a very serious one. According to the management, "This institution works long and hard at building the finest bad art establishment in the world. We take our mission very seriously."

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