Area Men Not Sure About Judy Chicago Museum

Judy Chicago, Submerged/Emerged #1, 1976-2005

The New York Times has a piece on Belen, N.M.'s plan to establish a museum dedicated to the art of its most famous resident, Judy Chicago. Not everyone is looking forward to Belen becoming the feminist Marfa.

"I love fine art, but I would never want to see a vagina hanging on my wall," says one resident, retired stockbroker Donald K. Thompson.

"I don't want protestors with pitchforks and torches," said city council member Donald Carter. "Some of the art might upset the masses once they start looking up some of this stuff."

Much of the push-back is coming from evangelical churches that have only recently become a political force in the town. Their talking point is the evergreen one that not a penny of tax money should go to something that people of faith don't like. In response Mayor Jerah Cordova has vowed to donate his salary to support the museum. The mayor's job is part-time, and it would just about cover the museum's one city-paid, part-time employee. Chicago and husband Donald Woodman are to donate the building and pay for a curator and utilities. A GoFundMe campaign is collecting donations.

Though she's lived in Belen for 27 years, Chicago studied at UCLA, taught at CalArts, and was part of the 1960s Pasadena art scene. Earlier this year "Judy Chicago's Birth Project: Born Again" was the final exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. The PMCA building is now a pop-up museum called The Foodie Space.

Maybe Belen and Pasadena can swap museums?

The Foodie Space, Pasadena