One year in, arts collaborative MAC3 is building a civic collection for Los Angeles

When the Mohn Art Collective - or MAC3 for short - was announced last year as a first-of-its-kind joint collection uniting the Hammer Museum at UCLA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), it signaled an ambitious experiment in collaboration. During the annual Frieze art fair - and just days before the Hammer's Made in L.A. biennial closed on March 1 - MAC3's leaders made clear the experiment is already evolving into something durable: a civic model for collecting Los Angeles art together.

At its core, MAC3 shares acquisitions, embeds long-term stewardship and places curators - not only directors - at the center of acquisition decision-making. Hammer director Zoë Ryan emphasized that the partnership reflects the spirit of Los Angeles itself.

"This is probably the most collegial city that I've ever worked in," she said. "To have three great museums come together and work on projects is really unusual."

For Ryan, MAC3 extends the Hammer's deeply local mission while strengthening pathways for artists to circulate nationally and internationally.

Philanthropist Jarl Mohn, a ground-floor supporter of the Hammer's Made in L.A., and a founding funder of the exhibition's Mohn Awards, which honor artistic excellence, framed the initiative in direct terms: "The whole idea is to be in service to the artists of Los Angeles," he said.

The Mohn family's commitment to underwriting storage, conservation and collection care - the invisible infrastructure behind museum acquisitions - drew particular praise.

MOCA acting director Ann Goldstein said that support "structuralizes it in a very, very important and productive way," adding that sustainable stewardship allows a shared collection to thrive. LACMA CEO and director Michael Govan called the move "a wake-up call" for the broader field, underscoring the critical importance of long-term care to responsible collecting.

A defining feature of MAC3, Ryan stressed, is deep curatorial collaboration.

"When the curators are at the table talking about collection strategies … we start thinking more civically," she said. The collection becomes not only an archive of artists' work, but also a record of curatorial vision and response to the moment.

That structure is already producing visible results. This week, curators from the three museums jointly selected three new works for the collection from artists shown at the Frieze Los Angeles art fair. Through an ongoing agreement tied to Made in L.A., the institutions continue to purchase work from the Hammer's influential biennial, which has always been designed to highlight emerging or lesser-known artists. This year, MAC3 acquired 12 pieces from Made in L.A., including works by Mohn Award winners Ali Eyal and UCLA alum Carl Cheng.

One example the group highlighted as an early success was Jackie Amézquita, a UCLA alum whose large-scale work "El suelo que nos alimenta" - made partially from soil sourced from the 144 neighborhoods that make up the Los Angeles region - was acquired from Made in L.A. and later included in LACMA's exhibition "Grounded." The trajectory illustrates what shared stewardship can enable - expanded visibility, cross-institutional loans and a broader platform for L.A.-based artists.

Panelists also reflected on why this model feels particularly suited to Los Angeles. Govan described the city as a place where artists have long found freedom from rigid expectations. "There are no rules," he said jovially. Goldstein traced the city's strength to its art schools and a generational commitment by artists trained in the city in the '70s and '80s to stay, create and teach here.

Looking ahead, the leaders are enthusiastic that MAC3 will evolve, maybe into something completely different.

"We said when we started, we didn't want to know exactly where it was going to go," Govan said. "It's unpredictable in the best way."

For Ryan, that openness is essential. Rooted in the Hammer's commitment to Los Angeles, MAC3 is designed to build infrastructure that endures - ensuring that the city's artists, and the curators who champion them, remain central to its cultural future.

Watch the full panel discussion at this link.