The MUSEUM OF NEON ART after being homeless for a year & a half has relocated to 4th & Main Street across the street from Pete's Cafe. The Museum of Neon Art or M.O.N.A. as members call it was previously located @ Olympic & Hope Street for over a decade. Rising rents in the area close to Staples Center as well as the construction of L.A. Live made it impossible for the museum to remain in the old location. The Museum closed down in early 2007.
  
Executive Director of MONA, Kim Koga spent the last year and a half looking for a new home. She searched throughout downtown, even in Hollywood. The spaces were either too expensive or not big enough. It was until Koga met with downtown developer Tom Gilmore that she was able to secure a location to house the many vintage neon signs the museum displays. The location nestled between the Lost Souls Cafe & Pete's has just enough room for everything.

Koga says, "Now, in its 27th year in Los Angeles, MONA is thrilled to be in the historic core and surrounded by a community of unique enterprises and creative energies in the newly emerging downtown." They opened in the new space late April 2008 and have already had a few exhibits. It makes perfect sense that the museum is now located in the Historic Core of Los Angeles. In many ways MONA was one of the first agencies involved in Downtown's rebirth. Almost 20 years ago, MONA worked with the late great developer Ira Yellin. Yellin restored the Bradbury Building, the Million Dollar Theater & the Grand Central Market. Many have said that the work Yellin did in the late 80s & early 90s paved the way for men like Gilmore.

MONA was in many ways, 10 years ahead of the downtown renaissance. In the 90s, MONA worked with Al Nodal, the former head of L.A.'s Cultural Affairs Department. Nodal & MONA got many of the historic neon signs relit throughout Downtown, Hollywood, the Rampart District & Koreatown. Many of the most attractive neon signs in Los Angeles were turned off in the 2nd World War because of fear that the Japanese were going to bomb them. Nodal & MONA got several of these signs relit. The neon signs on the high-rise apartment rooftops near MacArthur Park are the most prominent examples. Several of the signs had been off for almost 50 years.

Neon was first developed in Paris, Fance in the early 1920s. Los Angeles was the first place it landed in North America. It worked well with the automobile & movie industry. Los Angeles was already an automobile based metropolis by the 20s. They use to call neon a "seducer," because they thought a neon sign would seduce you out of your car & into the movie theater or eatery. Dating back to the Roaring 20s, Los Angeles has always had lots of neon. The glamour of neon worked well with art deco architecture and the flashy facades of Hollywood and the movie industry.

MONA has plans to be in the new location for one year and maybe longer. Developer Gilmore has been very supportive and has gone out of his way to bring MONA to the historic core. After a year and a half without a home, Koga is excited. She says, "Although this is only a temporary home we are making the most of our year with a dozen exhibitions scheduled, a jazz concert series, our Neon Cruise bus tours and more! Join our email list and join us as we share the light!"

MONA offers Neon Tours throughout Los Angeles as well as has many great books and souvenirs in their gift shop.

Neon crowns glow
above the city of Angels
I Am Alive in Los Angeles!

Cruise down to 4th & Main Street to learn the story of neon in
Los Angeles.  www.neonmona.org