The LA Times has a fairly comprehensive story on LA MoCA and how it rolled the dice on a risky strategy of growing out of its deficit spending ways. But instead of hitting the jackpot, director Jeremy Strick may have put the board members in legal jeopardy as they used funds with strict controls for other purposes. Faced with competition and fueled by ambition, the museum was leveraging its reputation toward growth.

Former trustee Susan Bay-Nimoy described it thus: “The exhibitions became more grandiose, more expensive, to try to capture the imagination” of the public, she said. “But they put the institution in financial jeopardy.”

After percolating for weeks in other venues, this story gives the first full overview of LA MoCA’s runaway train.

Museum of Contemporary Art: Bigger, Bolder and Poorer (Los Angeles Times)