Fla. Museum Merger Plan Sparks Feud Between Board and Town

Officials in North Miami, Fla., are fighting a plan by leaders of the town’s small but highly regarded Museum of Contemporary Art to merge with another museum in neighboring Miami Beach, writes The New York Times.

Each side has hired a director for MoCA, as the museum as known, amid a wrangle that has also spilled into the courts. The city-owned museum’s board wants to relocate its collection to the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, arguing that North Miami has allowed MoCA’s building to fall into disrepair and failed to support a needed expansion.

North Miami, which provides about a quarter of the museum’s $4-million budget, accuses the trustees of violating MoCA’s mission to serve the majority-black town, which has had tense relations with wealthier and overwhelmingly white Miami Beach. A judge has ordered museum and city officials to enter a mediation process that could include alternatives to the Bass merger.