MCA chair Lorraine Tarabay points blame for financial woes at predecessors

MCA chair Lorraine Tarabay, pictured at her home. Picture: John Appleyard

Yes, it’s always someone else’s fault, isn’t it?

That’s our excuse whenever we make a mistake here, in this column (“production error” as we say) because it’s easier to foist blame elsewhere than it is to face the rude glare of judgment on a sad walk through the hall of mirrors.

Of course, no one likes taking responsibility for things going terribly.

Because no one who’s important and talented ever does anything terribly. Ever.

And it’s for this very reason that we can sympathise with Lorraine Tarabay, chair of the Museum of Contemporary Art, for privately blaming her predecessors, Simon Mordant and Liz Ann Macgregor, over the institution’s dive-bombing finances.

Just what we’re hearing, although even we must concede this private moaning really doesn’t make much sense.

Tarabay’s been in charge of the MCA since at least 2020 and has sat on the board since 2016. That meant she sat in the room while Mordant was chair and worked closely with Macgregor, the museum’s director, in the final five years of her marathon 22-year tenure.

In other words, Tarabay’s been directly involved in the tanking health of the MCA for the better part of a decade.

Blaming the old guard doesn’t stack when you’re part of it yourself.

Consecutive operating losses tell the story: $2.7m in 2024, $3m in 2023 and $1.15m in 2022.

Former MCA director Liz Ann Macgregor. Picture: Jane Dempster

It culminated in a drastic announcement last year that the MCA would reintroduce a general admission charge for entry to the museum. And they announced this, of course, while blaming the government in the press, almost daring the minister, challenging him, to rescue everyone from the fee. Look what you made us do, the museum seemed to say.

“Our government funding has actually declined, in real terms, since 2007 … our current financial position means we cannot afford to keep admission free.”

And upon reading this the government panicked, of course. As anyone would. Arts minister John Graham rushed to the phone, fell to his knees and apologised profusely to Tarabay while announcing, with immediate effect, a burst of funding to clear the MCA’s debts and the establishment of a new wing in Tarabay’s name along with a promise to buy something ugly and shiny and expensive by Anish Kapoor to put out the front of it.

No, that didn’t happen. Nothing happened. There was no change to the government funding, the ticketing commenced, it helped a bit, and the MCA remains just as financially screwed as it has been for years, which just goes to show that blackmailing the government through the pages of The Guardian is never likely to work (although it will completely ruin whatever relationship exists).

Say what you will about Macgregor and Mordant (aside from the tartan and weight loss, respectively) but at least they understood relationships, especially with donors. Macgregor’s successor Suzanne Cotter and Tarabay, meanwhile, attended the Sydney Contemporary art fair at Carriageworks a week ago and, according to one eyewitness, instead of being feted like K-pop stars, almost no one recognised them. Is it any wonder the cash isn’t rushing through the door?

All of which raises the question of why Tarabay, an investment banker by trade, would nominate for a third term as chair, or why she might be rewarded with it. Again, just what we’re hearing. Ten years on the board. Ought the charter say something, by now, about a term limit?