vocabularyworkshop. com: SAT and ACT practice worksheets Read the following selection in which some of the words you have studied in Units 13-15 appear in boldface type. Then answer the questions on page 195. The museum that is described in the following passage features “art too bad to be ignored.” (Line) (10) (15) (20) (25) (30) One of New York's many superb art museums is the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). MOMA showcases art and design of notable originality and excellence from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Meanwhile, to the north, in Boston, lurks a lesser-known yet formidable institution. This rising star vying for admission to the small clique of the world’s leading museums goes, not by MOMA, but by MOBA. It is the Museum of Bad Art. According to its statement of purpose, the mission of MOBA is to “pring the worst art to the widest of audiences” by being dedicated to “the collection, preservation, exhibition, and celebration of bad art in all its glory.” And what, you might ask, constitutes bad art? What perverse criteria do MOBA staffers apply when judging a submitted work? For MOBA, museum-quality bad art must be compelling. It must be so bad that the viewer can't stop looking at it, yet somehow congenial at the same time. In the words of the administrators, works must have “a special quality that sets them apart 194 = Review Units 13-15 (35) (40) (45) (50) (55) (60) from the merely incompetent.” Highly prized qualities include no artistic control, courage and enthusiasm, and an inappropriate frame. The MOBA permanent collection (housed in the basement of a community theater) exemplifies these standards. Many of the works have an unrivaled pedigree, having been rescued from Boston-area dumpsters. “Lucy in the Field with Flowers” (a scene of rustic strangeness), “Peter the Kitty,” and “Two Trees in Love" are just a few of MOBA’s worst. In addition, the museum has mounted many unusual exhibitions since its 1993 founding, including “Awash with Bad Art: The World's First Drive Thru Art Gallery and Car Wash.” And recent acquisitions are described as “the worst yet in the museum's long, proud tradition of ever-dropping standards.” The Museum of Bad Art offers a refreshing, funny alternative to the world’s collections of “ordinary” masterpieces, which are profuse in number.