Museums team up for new art

Three major national museums have joined forces to support the work of emerging artists. The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the UCLA Hammer Museum have formed the "Three M Project," an alliance to commission, buy and display works by young artists. To fund the program, the museums raised $50,000 from the American Center Foundation and $60,000 from the Peter Norton Family Foundation. The museums will cover the remaining $40,000 cost.

The first artists selected for the joint venture are New York-based Patty Chang, and Fiona Tan and Aernout Mik, both living in Amsterdam. A curator from each museum selected one artist. The $50,000 allotment per work covers the artist's fee as well as a catalogue and related expenses. The museums will either assume ownership of the work as part of the commission or will have the first right to buy it.

This is not the first venture of its kind. In 2000, the Ban Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, jointly acquired a sculptural installation from Matthew Barney's "Cremaster" series, though circumstances differed since that work had already been produced. While the three museums describe the project as a way of dealing with the increasing costs of purchase and display, it isn't clear how the Three M process is more cost effective than simply buying an existing work by an artist. On the other hand, the scheme marks a new approach to the funding of acquisitions.

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