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Our American Stories

A Museum Dedicated to Bad Art?

Our American Stories

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6817 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of Our American Stories, The Museum of Bad Art is one of a kind...here to tell the story is one of its founding members.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

This is an I-Heart podcast.

0:14.2

And we're back with our American stories.

0:16.9

And up next, a story about an art museum in Somerville, Massachusetts.

0:21.5

At this art museum has a bit of a twist.

0:23.8

Here's Louise Riley Sacco with the story.

0:27.5

I'm Louise Riley Sacco, and I'm the permanent acting interim executive director of the Museum of Bad Art.

0:35.6

In 1993, Scott Wilson, an arts and antiques dealer, noticed a framed

0:42.3

picture leaning against a trash barrel, waiting for the collection truck to come by. The painting is a

0:48.9

woman in a field of flowers, and the wind seems to be blowing the flowers one way in her clothes a

0:55.8

different direction. She's either sitting in a chair or standing. That's unclear. And the sky is

1:03.9

yellow. It is a very compelling painting, but it's puzzling. Scott really liked the frame

1:10.5

and he was planning to throw out the painting Scott really liked the frame,

1:12.7

and he was planning to throw out the painting,

1:14.2

clean up the frame, and sell it.

1:17.4

But his friends, Jerry Riley and Mari Jackson,

1:19.4

told him you can't throw that out.

1:20.7

It's so bad, it's good.

1:22.7

And they hung it in their house.

1:26.1

And that was the start of this whole thing.

1:29.1

After that, Scott and other friends kept an eye out for really bad paintings in thrift stores, yard sales,

1:33.0

things like that.

1:34.3

And this collection kind of took on a life of its own.

...

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