The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)[1] in Tucson, Arizona, United States, was founded in 1997, by Julia Latané, James Graham, and David Wright.The museum was founded to create a permanent institution for contemporary art in Tucson's arts district. Originally housed in the HazMat building on Toole Avenue, the museum relocated to the former fire department building on Church Avenue in 2010.
In 1992, James Graham, Julia Latané and Dave Lewis founded the Toole Shed Studios under the auspices of the Tucson Arts Coalition (TAC). MOCA was incorporated in the spring of 1997. It was conceived as the next step in the continued growth and development of the Toole Shed Artists’ Studios and as an important addition to the downtown Arts District. In order to better serve the interests of the tenants and the community, and responding to the wealth of local contemporary art activity, the artists of Toole Shed Studios decided to incorporate as an independent cooperative. The articles of incorporation and bylaws were written in 1997 and 501(c)3 status was received by the end of that year. Graham was the Founding Director of MOCA, and Latané served as President of the board with David Wright (founder of Sixth Congress Gallery) as Secretary and Treasurer.
During the spring of 1998, the foundations for MOCA were laid. In August 1998 the opportunity arose to occupy a warehouse space at 191 East Toole Avenue. Over the course of the next four months, volunteers worked to transform the previously abandoned warehouse into the Museum of Contemporary Art, featuring more than four thousand square feet of exhibition space.
Between 2001 and 2003, local gallery owner Elizabeth Cherry served as interim director and curator. In March 2003, Anne-Marie Russell was appointed to the position of Executive Director and Chief Curator,[2] and in 2017 Ginger Shulick Porcella became the new Executive Director and Chief Curator of MOCA.[3]
In 2009, Tucson’s Fire Station #1 was decommissioned and the firefighters relocated to a new facility. A request for proposals was issued for the “highest and best use” of the building and MOCA Tucson saw an opportunity to acquire a permanent space while preserving an important piece of Arizona's modernist architectural history. The main hall that once housed fire trucks became the museum's main exhibition space, while the first-floor offices were converted into white-box galleries for showcasing intimate works. The firefighters' quarters were transformed into artist-in-residence accommodations, and the second-floor offices were repurposed into administrative offices and an education space for the museum.[4] Since 2009, MOCA has presented between eight and twelve exhibitions per year, showcasing the works of local, regional, national, and international artists. The museum has also established an Artist-in-Residence Program, developed youth programming for underserved populations, and hosts a variety of public events such as ArtNow!, Artist Talk series, dance, performance, music, and other celebrations of the arts.
| Date of Exhibit | Exhibit Name | Artist(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 6 – June 13, 2010 | Made in Tucson/Born in Tucson/Live in Tucson Part 1 | Artists included in the exhibition: Taylor Baldwin, Don Bell, Robert Breer, Skyler Brickley, Raven Chacon, Robert Colescott, Bailey Doogan, SJ Gibson, Amy Granat, Harmony Hammond, Alex Hay, Drew Heitzler, Adam Helms, Charles Hitner, Brookhart Jonquil, Marguerite Kahrl, Kim Largey, Jessica James Lansdon, Julia Latané, Carolyn Leigh, Dave Lewis, Jason Manley, Mathieu Mercier, Tom Miller, Olivier Mosset, Vik Muniz Coke Wisdom O’Neal, Raymond Pettibon, Lucy Raven, Francois Robert, Dave Sayre, Aili Schmeltz, Ken Shorr, Luke Stettner, Andy Steinbrink, Eric Golo Stone, Julianne Swartz, Janaina Tschäpe, Kade L. Twist, Dick Tuck, Alex Von Bergen, Steven Yazzie, Nathan Young, and Peter Young | |
| July 10 – September 26, 2010 | Made in Tucson/Born in Tucson/Live in Tucson Part 2 | Artists included in the exhibition: Jack Balas, Matt Cotten, Lawrence Gipe, Dimitri Kozyrev, Kim Largey, Bill Mackey, Chika Matsuda, Armando Miguélez, Dean Narcho, Alfred Quiroz, Lucy Raven, Gwyneth Scally, Kenneth Shorr, Dana Smith, Paco Velez, and Lee Ann Woolery. | |
| October 23, 2010 – May 29, 2011 | The Artist As Collector: Olivier Mosset | Artists included in the exhibition: Peter Young, Jeffrey Schad, Vincent Szarek, Virginia Overton, George Belcher, Mathieu Mercier, Serge Bard, Drew Heitzler, Amy Granat, Alexandre Bianchini, Jeff Bursey, Darren Clark, Catherine Eyde, Sylvie Fleury, John Armleder, Cliff Taylor, Emory Douglas, Frederic Sanchez, Hinrich Sachs, Francis Baudevin, Renee Levi, Joan Waltemath, John Nixon, Sarina Basta & Gabrielle Penabaz, S.J. Gibson, Dave Sayre, Chuck Nanney, Nicole Hassler, Steven Parrino, Dimitry Orlac, Emily Sunblad, Haley Mellin, Lawrence Weiner, Jackie McAllister, Mike Bidlo, Fia Backstrom, Robert Colescott, Liam Gillick, Dan Walsh, Isabel Halley & Joana Avillez, Howard Smith, Christian Robert-Tissot, Dan Graham, Sherrie Levine, Louise Lawler, Michael Zahn, Yves Klein. | |
| March 5 – May 29, 2011 | The Slanted Broom | Jocko Weyland | |
| Tomorrowland | Aili Schmeltz | ||
| July 9 – October 16, 2011 | The Tucson Work | Gerben Mulder | |
| October 22, 2011 - April 1, 2012 | The Punk Years 1978-86 | ||
| November 1, 2010 – March 25, 2011 | Plata o Plomo | Camp Bosworth | |
| Winter 2011 | |||
| December 17, 2010 – March 25, 2011 | Legislate Crazy | Armando Miguelez | |
| Spring 2012 | |||
| April 21 – November 21, 2012 | The Air Show | Participating Artists: Gerban Mulder, Brookhart Jonquil, Mathieu Mercier, Jessica James Lansdon, Olivier Mosset, Janaina Tschäpe, Sarina Basta & Gabrielle Penabaz, Peter Young, Vincent Szarek, Alois Kronschlaeger, Dorothy Iannone, Jocko Weyland, Henry Kerr, Robert Colescott, Coke Wisdom O’Neal, Armando Miguélez | |
| Summer 2012 | |||
| June 30 – September 16, 2012 | Quietly Taking Over the World | Vinjon Global Corp | |
| Winter 2012 | |||
| December 14, 2011– April 27, 2012 | Capitalist Masterpieces | ||
| Spring 2013 | |||
| May 25 – July 7, 2012 | Chrysalis | Chico MacMutrie/ Amorphic Robot Works | |
| May 25 – September 22, 2013 | Action Through Redaction | Kenneth Shorr | |
| July 26 – August 18, 2013 | The Early Years | Wylywn Dominic Reyes | |
| July 13 – September 8, 2013 | The Box | Coke Wisdom O'Neal | |
| Fall 2013 | |||
| October 4, 2013 – March 16, 2014 | Untitled (Basin and Range) | Alois Kronschlaeger | |
| October 4, 2013 - January 26, 2014 | How to Kill a Marvin Gaye Song | David Sayre | |
| Spring 2014 | |||
| February 15 – May 18, 2014 | Floating Worlds | Janaina Tschape | |
| Summer 2014 | |||
| June 21-September 14, 2014 | Blueprint | Guest Curator: Sebastiaan Bremer and Florian Idenburg & Jing Liu | |
| MOCA Bas-Relief (Mike-Papa-Bravo) | Sebastiaan Bremer | ||
| BAKERMAN | I.U.D. (Lizzi Bougatsos, Sadie Laska, and Spencer Sweeny) | ||
| Fall 2014 | |||
| September 27 – December 7, 2014 | Mouton | Francois-Zavier LaLanne | |
| On Kindness | Jacob Kassay & Kyle Thurman | ||
| Golden State | Guest curator: Drew Heitzler Artists included in the exhibition: Samara Golden, Lucy Dodd, Kaari Upson, Lucy Raven, Amy Yao, Pentii Monkkonen, Liz Craft, Mungo Thomson, Scott Benzel, Theodora Allen | ||
| Spring 2015 | |||
| January 11 - May 31, 2015 | Robert Barber: A Retrospective | Robert Barber | |
| Summer 2015 | |||
| June 20 - September 26, 2015 | Mobile Pools | ||
| 6 Artists | Artists included in the exhibition: Eli Burke, Bryan Crow, Ishi Glinsky, Jessica James Lansdon, Andrew Shuta, Jason Write | ||
| Fall 2015 | |||
| October 24, 2015 - January 31, 2016 | Next Time | Alex Von Bergen | |
| Best Dressed Pirate | Alex Streeter | ||
| Spring 2016 | |||
| February 13 - May 29, 2016 | For All: Selections from the Arts for All Archive | ||
| Every Word Said: History Lessens from Athens and Tucson | Nicole Miller | ||
| 1991-2016 | Max Estenger | ||
| Summer 2016 | |||
| June 18 -September 25, 2016 | Tucson 3 Ways: A Foray into Digital Alchemy | MachineHistories | |
| Gardens of the Pure | Kitty Brophy, Emma Kohlmann, Alice Mackler | ||
| Christofer Churchill | Christofer Churchill | ||
| Steven Parrino | Steven Parrino | ||
| Fall 2016 | |||
| October 29 - January 29, 2017 | Meeting the Clouds Halfway | Aranda\Lasch and Terrol Dew Johnson | |
| Sleep Never Rusts | JPW3 | ||
| Sound and Noise | Miranda Lichtenstein | ||
| Spring 2017 | |||
| February 18 - May 28, 2017 | If You Stay Busy You Have No Time to Be Unhappy | ||
| How to Make and Mend Cast Nets | Andy Steinbrink | ||
| From Antelope Springs | Dennis Jeffy | ||
| The Joy of Multitasking | John Kilduff | ||
| Summer 2017 | |||
| June 17 - October 1, 2017 | A night on the edge of forever: The art of midnight films, free theater, and the psychedelic Underground San Francisco 1969-1973 | Guest Curator: Steve Terry Various artists included in the exhibition | |
| Why?! Why Did You Take My Log? | ?! | Virginia Overton | |
| Selected Ambient Works, Volume II | Chuck Nanney | ||
| Tucson Nights: After dark in the Naked Pueblo | Tucson John | ||
| Fall 2017 | |||
| October 7 - December 31, 2017 | Nothing to Declare | Artists included in the exhibition: Lana Z. Caplan, Saulo Cisneros, Wesley Fawcett Creigh, Miguel Frenandez de Castro, Einar & Jamex de la Torre, Blane de St. Croix, Francisco Eme, Louis Hock, Khaled Jarrar, Kaydee Jimenez, PANCA, Omar Pimienta, Marcos Ramirez | |
| Estamos Buscando | Paul Turounet | ||
| BYNOWWEARETHERE | Artists included in the exhibition: Isan Brant, Stephanie Burchett, Conor Elliot Fitzgerald, Wren Gardiner, Hellen Gaudence, Jonathan Marquis, Nassem Navab, Karoliina Paatos, Dustin Shores, Galen Trezise, David Taylor | ||
| Winter 2017 | |||
| January 13, 2017 - March 25, 2018 | Westification | Rosson Crow | |
| In Residence | Rose Eken | ||
| Out of the Pale | Victoria Fu | ||
| Town and Country | Robert Melee | ||
| Carl Jung's Assault Rifles The Game | Bryan Zanisnik | ||
| Spring 2018 | |||
| April 7 - June 30, 2018 | Last Nation | Folkert de Jong | |
MOCA Tucson has two large fundraisers a year: an annual Gala and a Fall Fundraiser. Every two years, the gala features the Local Genius Awards, honoring visionary and innovative Tucsonans whose activities have a global impact and whose talents have been internationally recognized.
| 2018 | Carol A. Barnes | |
| Thomas Grogan | ||
| Susan Stryker | ||
| 2016 | Ofelia Zepeda | |
| Mort Rosenblum | ||
| Andrew Weil, M.D. | ||
| Brad Lancaster | ||
| 2013 | Rick Joy | |
| Dr. Gary Nabham | ||
| Dr. Anna Dornhaus | ||
| Robert A. Williams | ||
| Peter Warshall, Ph.D. | ||
| 2011 | Joey Burnes (of Calexico) | |
| John Convertino (of) Calexico) | ||
| Jacob Valenzuela (of Calexico) | ||
| Dr. Diana Liverman | ||
| Jane Poynter | ||
| Taber MacCallum | ||
| Leslie Marmon Silko | ||
| Janos Wilder | ||
| 2009 | Peter Smith | |
| Byrd Baylor | ||
| Sherwin Bitsui | ||
| Suzana Davila | ||
| Robert Colescott | ||
| Howe Gelb |
MOCA Tucson has a competitive artist residency program that was relaunched through a public application process in 2017, receiving several hundred applications for just seven annual slots lasting between two weeks and three months. Selected artists receive private studio and housing space, studio visits with curators, production stipends and PR support, as well as an opportunity to present a public program, exhibition, or lecture at the museum.
| October 8–28, 2017 | ||
| November 11–23, 2017 | Gelare Khoshgozaran | |
| October 8, 2017 - January 13, 2017 | ||
| January 15 - March 31, 2018 | Kris Grey | |
| Scotty Wagner and Bailey Hikawa | ||
| May 1–22, 2018 | Rachel Frank | |
| October 1 - December 31, 2018 | Tra Bouscaren |
MOCA recently launched a Curator-in Residence Program starting in 2019 with the first Curator-in-Residence, Alex Young. Selected museum professionals will be given a three-month residency and MOCA will provide time, space, and access to resources for a curator to develop an exhibition, conduct research, and engage with MOCA Tucson’s artists-in-residence.