The Underground Museum, Closed

Last night, as I was getting ready for bed, I took one last scroll through Twitter. And a New York Times article caught my eye: the Underground Museum was closing.

I’m not super familiar with the Underground Museum; it is, after all, in LA while I’ve been in Chicago for the last almost decade and a half. Still, I love art museums and was curious about what had happened.

And the answer is, it’s not clear. The museum, founded by artists Karon and Noah Davis in 2012, had become both a vehicle for Noah’s legacy and one of the premier venues for Black art. But last week, after its post-pandemic reopening and hiring a new co-director, the museum announced that directors were no longer with the museum and it was closing indefinitely.

I don’t know either what happened or what will happen going forward; the loss of the museum strikes me as a real loss (glancing through the website, it has some really great art). It will be interesting to watch the next steps. Will the museum reopen in its same form? in a different form? If it doesn’t, what will it do with its art and other assets? Will other museums step up or spring up to take over its curation of Black art and artists?

I never love learning about cool institutions as a result of their closing. But I’ll be watching what happens with interest (and, if it reopens, I have plans for next time I’m in LA).

Samuel D. Brunson