Mission:
The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art is a non-profit institution which exists to foster awareness, exploration, and understanding of the significant art of our time. Through excellence and diversity in our changing exhibitions and educational programming, MOCA stimulates critical thinking and dialogue throughout the Hampton Roads community.
About Us:
This Museum is one the region’s best examples of a private-public partnership. The building is owned and maintained by The City of Virginia Beach and MOCA operates within it as a private, non-profit. Having maintained a small oceanfront property as the Virginia Beach Museum of Art, local supporters in the late 1980’s planned to construct a new physical space for the Museum. In 1989, after nearly a decade of planning, fundraising and construction, the Museum opened in its present location at 2200 Parks Avenue. The current structure, designed by Boston architect E. Verner Johnson and Associates, is approximately 38,500 square feet and features 6,300 square feet of exhibition space. In 2011, following accreditation by the American Association of Museums, the museum was formally renamed The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art.
Regularly changing exhibitions feature painting, sculpture, photography, glass, video and other visual media from internationally acclaimed artists as well as artists of national and regional renown. By balancing its four primary activities--gallery exhibitions, studio art classes, educational outreach programs and outdoor art shows--MOCA seeks to involve a diverse regional public in the rich and active language of contemporary visual art. The Museum received accreditation by the American Association of Museums in 2010.
