Artistic gal seeks outgoing patron

SHE’S somebody’s ideal hookup: female, 31 and living in Los Angeles. She’s interested in meeting “the culturally curious and those who enjoy free things.”

Her friends include hipster bands Run Run Run and the Silversun Pickups, and her message board is full of smart, sometimes cryptic comments. (One reads: “great Gertrude Stein reading! thanks!”)

She’s not an aspiring actress living in the Fairfax District, though, but rather the denizen of a multistory marble structure in Westwood.

She is, in short, the Hammer Museum, which now has a posting on MySpace.com, the website that serves as a social connector and virtual meeting place for young people.

The Hammer is not alone. L.A.’s art-and-performance halls have begun to infiltrate the service, which is mostly full of listings by twentysomethings posting pictures, favorite bands and lists of friends. And it’s about time: Bars and clubs have had pages on MySpace for some time intended to lure those trolling the Net.

One of the latest such outfits to go online is the downtown Museum of Contemporary Art, whose page trumpets its Robert Rauschenberg show as well as “Night Vision: MOCA After Dark,” the museum’s summerlong Saturday night series, which seems to be devoted largely to music and flirting.

“We’re one of the first museums to have a page up there,” says John Foley Hindman, MOCA’s director of public affairs, who adds that MySpace is a sponsor of “Night Vision.” In the few weeks since the page has been on the site, he says, “we’ve gotten thousands of friends.”

The MOCA page was dreamed up by the museum’s development department in collaboration with local marketer Moj Mahdara, who has booked DJs and bands at the museum. Soon, Motorola, another “Night Vision” sponsor, will be producing short videos that will go up on the page.

The MySpace members seem to be having fun with these additions to the site. “I went on a date with Hammer once -- never called me again,” one member wrote on the museum’s page. “That’s Hammer for ya. Playing it cool and aloof.”

-- Scott Timberg