Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is a museum located in Los Angeles, California. MOCA has three locations. Its original "temporary" space, now known as the Geffen Contemporary, is in the Little Tokyo district. The Pacific Design Center is in West Hollywood. And the museum's main branch is located on Grand Avenue in downtown across the street from the newer Walt Disney Concert Hall.
The museum's exhibits are usually made up of pieces created after World War II.
Origins
MOCA was founded in 1974 by a group of individuals.
In 1979, at a political fundraising event at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Councilman Joel Wachs, and local philanthropist Marcia Simon Weisman happened to be sitting at the same table. Throughout the evening, Weisman passionately discussed the city’s need for a contemporary art museum. Over the following weeks, the conversation led to the development of the Mayor’s Museum Advisory Committee, led by William A. Norris, whose purpose was to create a museum from scratch: finding funding, trustees, directors, curators, a gallery, and (most importantly) an art collection.
In 1980, the fledgling Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, was still operating out of an office on Boyd Street. The city’s most prominent philanthropists and collectors were being assembled into a Board of Trustees and were given the challenge of raising $10 million in their first year. A working staff were being brought together; Richard Koshalek arrived as chief curator; relationships were being made with artists and galleries; and negotiations began to secure artwork and an exhibition space.
Locations
MOCA Grand Avenue
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in downtown Los Angeles is home to almost 5,000 artworks created since 1940, including masterpieces by classic contemporary artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Diane Arbus, and Andy Warhol, and inspiring new works by emerging and mid-career artists from Southern California and around the world.
Since the museum’s inception in 1979, MOCA’s visionary programming has been defined by a multi-disciplinary approach to contemporary art. With cutting-edge exhibitions, and popular evening events, MOCA is the place to experience where contemporary art began and where it’s going, who’s new on the international scene, and who is making history. In 1986, the celebrated Japanese architect Arata Isozaki completed the sandstone building to international critical and public acclaim, marking one of the most dramatic achievements in the contemporary art world and heralding a new cultural era in Los Angeles.
As the Los Angeles Times declared “There isn’t a city in America—not New York, not Chicago, not Houston, not San Francisco—where a more impressive museum collection of contemporary art can be seen.”
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
While MOCA Grand Avenue, designed by celebrated Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, was under construction, the museum opened an interim exhibition space called the "Temporary Contemporary" in the fall of 1983. Constructed in the 1940s as a hardware store and subsequently used as a city warehouse and police car garage, the "TC," as it became informally known, was initially leased from the city for five years for $1 a year.
Subtly renovated by renowned California architect Frank Gehry, the TC immediately captivated critics and museum patrons alike with its accessibility, informality and lack of pretension. Writing in The New York Times, John Russell referred to it as "a prince among spaces," and William Wilson of the Los Angeles Times wrote that it "instantly had the hospitable aura of a people's museum." These two appraisals have been amply borne out in the ensuing years.
Due to the popularity and extraordinary suitability of the building for exhibiting contemporary art, the museum's board requested that the City of Los Angeles extend MOCA's lease on the facility for 50 years, until 2038. That request was granted in early 1986, and in 1996 the city extended the lease even further. Also in 1996, MOCA received a $5-million gift from The David Geffen Foundation in support of the museum's endowment drive, and in recognition of this extraordinary gift, the Temporary Contemporary was renamed The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.
The site is the largest of the three MOCA locations and most is ideally suited to large-scale sculptural works and installations.
MOCA at The Pacific Design Center
In 2000, MOCA opened a 3,000 square ft. exhibition space at the Pacific Design Center to present new work by emerging and established artists as well as ancillary programs based upon its major exhibitions and renowned permanent collection. MOCA also utilizes the 384-seat PDC auditorium for a range of public programs.
The Pacific Design Center, a 1.2 million square foot landmark building designed by Cesar Pelli & Associates in West Hollywood, features over 150 showrooms of the finest traditional and contemporary furnishings. MOCA at the Pacific Design Center is located at 8687 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood.
Programs
First Sundays Are For Families
On the first Sunday of each month from 1pm to 3:30pm, For Families workshops typically begin with an interactive, discussion-based "spotlight" tour, highlighting selected works from a current exhibition. Next, families work collaboratively to create art in response to the work they've seen.
Designed and taught by artists, these innovative, process-oriented workshops extend the gallery experience and frequently include special activties such as musical performance, movement, and other multidisciplinary approaches to works on view. The program is offered in English and Spanish.
Big Family Day is an annual spring culminating event for all of MOCA's school and community partnership programs. Featuring student docents, entertainment, music, artmaking and a student art exhibition, this event usually attracts about 500 participants, including MOCA members, their families, and the community at large.
First Sundays are For Families events are held at Grand Avenue unless otherwise stated in the bimonthly calendar or on the website.
Teens of Contemporary Art (TOCA)
Teens of Contemporary Art is an open gathering of high school students interested in learning more about contemporary art with thier peers. The group meets each month for exhibition explorations, art workshops, discussions about contemporary art, and events planning. An advisory council of teens identifies the topics and issues addressed at the monthly sessions. All TOCA participants get free admission to the museum.
TOCA events are the second Sunday of every month.
MOCAmaniacs
Started in 2000, MOCAmaniacs is a week-long day camp that brings art to kids aged 9-14. The camp fee is $275 for non-members and $250 for members. There are three week-long sessions and each session revolves around a single theme, usually inspired by the current artist on exhibition. Each day is filled with activities: doing some form of artwork, visiting the galleries, or taking a field trip to another artist or building. At the end of the week, a show is put on, and parents are invited to see the artwork that the campers have created.
It was later spun off into a short-lived group for teens aged 15-18, who pay a similar fee for a smaller group and a more mature session. It began in 2002 and finished its last session in 2004. The teen version was discontinued because there were too many resources for too few campers; its last session only had eight teeangers, compared to 25-30 kids in the main art camp.
Apprenticeship Program
The apprenticeship program began informally in the early 1990s when a group of teenagers expressed their interest in learning more about art. They met once a month to look at galleries, visit other museums, and do other activities. The program was later titled MOCA Mentors program and changed to its current name in 1999. Since that time it has been formalized: apprentices are official employees who earn minimum wage, attend weekly meetings, and receive limited benefits similar to full-time employees' benefits.
Some of former apprentices have since become full-time MOCA employees; some of them A few out newer apprentices.
Getting to MOCA
The Grand Central MOCA is located off the Metro Red line on the Civic Center stop. Upon completion of the Gold line Eastside Extension in 2009, visitors may reach the Geffen Contemporary off of the Little Tokyo stop.