Press Release

The Museum of Contemporary Art Hot Springs Selects art-exchange to Solicit Works for Permanent Collection

Hot Springs, AR  February 9, 2005

In a joint release today, The Museum of Contemporary Art Hot Springs (MOCA) and art-exchange.com, inc. announced an agreement to work together to build the museum’s permanent collection.  Per Ray Steelsmith, Executive Director of MOCA, “It is the stated goal of MOCA to attract 500 original works of art by 500 top artists who have been creating works since 1900.  We will go about locating and procuring these works in a variety of ways; however, we are most fortunate to have an art company with literally thousands of ties to working artists located right here in Hot Springs.  We are very optimistic art-exchange will be able to get this ball rolling for us.”

Mr. Steelsmith detailed the criteria for selecting the pieces for MOCA as follows: Artists must already have works in other museums, have works in important private collections, have strong gallery support, and have positive critical reviews. 

Richard Gipe, President of art-exchange, said, “Our Company is proud to work on this task for MOCA.  It so happens that of the four criteria outlined by Mr. Steelsmith, having a piece of work in the permanent collection of a museum is the crowning achievement for all artists.  It affects that artist’s place within the art world and eventually affects the value of that artist’s works forever.  Our database of artists numbers in the hundreds of thousands.  Most will not qualify to have a work selected by MOCA; however, we will immediately get the call out requesting works from our artists.”

About The Museum of Contemporary Art Hot Springs-MOCA is a 501(c)(3) corporation intending to occupy the Lamar Bath House on historic Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs.  A formal RFP will be submitted in May of 2005 to the Department of the Interior soliciting a lease to occupy the Lamar Bath House.  One of the requirements for MOCA will be adequate financing with which MOCA may convert the Lamar for use as a museum.  This budget is estimated at $500,000.

About art-exchange-art-exchange is a business-service-platform company designed to bring services to sellers and buyers of fine art.  The company’s database contains approximately 80,000 art listings representing over 8,000 different artists.  The company has a database of over 200,000 artists.  This database serves professional buyers in much the same way the Multiple Listing Service serves real estate brokers.  Users on the buy-side of the fine art market are designers, art gallery owners, art dealers, and professional picture framers who can access needed art more efficiently on art-exchange than they could using other traditional methods.

About MOCA’s Capital Formation Plans-MOCA is striving to raise the requisite capital in a variety of ways.  One example of MOCA’s capital formation plan calls for artists to submit two works of art to MOCA, one piece intended to be in MOCA’s permanent collection and one piece to be auctioned on April 24, 2005, with proceeds to fund the construction budget needed to build out the Lamar to suit the requirements of the museum.  “Several artists of national reputation have already committed to donating works to MOCA for this purpose,” announced Mr. Gipe, “but much work remains to be done in a very short timeframe."

The Call to Artists-art-exchange is actively soliciting “museum worthy” works of art for MOCA’s Permanent Collection.  If an artist is known for a particular style or subject matter, MOCA wants a significant piece, worthy of being in a museum’s permanent collection.  A second piece is requested, which will be auctioned by MOCA to fund the construction budget for the Lamar Bath House.  MOCA has no art budget as yet so only artists willing and capable of making an outright donation of the pieces described above need apply at this time.  If an artist would like to place a piece in MOCA’s collection, but is only willing to do so if the piece is acquired, that artist’s name will be added to a list to be approached when funds permit.

As previously stated, MOCA is seeking major works by artists with national reputations satisfying the following criteria:  having works in other museums, having works in important private collections, having strong gallery or sales support, and having been critically reviewed.  If you are such an artist and wish to have a work considered for the Permanent Collection of The Museum of Contemporary Art Hot Springs, please contact Richard Gipe or Ray Steelsmith at the contact information provided above.

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