Yes - and do you want to know more?

With so many Museums in Boston showing great Art, you have to wonder why we need one devoted to Bad Art. But the Museum of Bad Art is for real and opened its doors in Dedham in 1994.

Now, spend a few minutes at the museums web site and you’ll discover these guys don’t take themselves too seriously.

And I certainly wouldn’t suggest you clear your calendar and drag your family to Dedham unless you’ve another reason for visiting this town 8 miles west of Boston… or want to catch a movie as well.

The museum’s collection is housed in the basement of the Dedham Community Theatre and next to a still functioning 1927 movie theatre - and outside the Men’s Room… yes, you heard right.

In fact the museum hours coincide with the movie theaters which are normally Sunday-Thursday 2:00pm-9:00pm, and Fridays and Saturdays 1:00pm-10:00pm. Most people go to see a movie and arrive a little early so they can browse through the collection which has around 20-30 pieces of great bad art displayed at any one time.

According to the curators “the pieces in the MOBA collection range from the work of talented artists that have gone awry to works of exuberant, although crude, execution by artists barely in control of the brush. What they all have in common is a special quality that sets them apart in one way or another from the merely incompetent.“

A visit to their web site allows you yo subscribe to their whimsical MOBA News, and in this day and age of incompetent marketers and over zealous email list owners (maybe they’re one and the same) this is one type of “spam” you may want to sign-up to get.

The last time I looked into the museum admission was free, in fact I thought they actually offered passers-by money to go stand in the gallery to make it look popular and busy - but I guess I must have imagined it.

Time to go back to finishing my next masterpiece so I can see if it’s bad enough for them to add it to their collection - but I’m not sure I can live with the ego-crushing rejection of producing art too good for inclusion in the Museum of Bad Art… what did I just say?

See all the bad art you’ll ever want to be subjected to by visiting the Museum of Bad Art online by clicking here.

For more suggestions of things to do in Boston check out Boston vacations online by clicking here.

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Cliff Calderwood
Editor
New England Vacations Guide