The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, also known as MOCA Jacksonville, is a contemporary art museum in Jacksonville, Florida, funded and operated as a "cultural institute" of the University of North Florida. One of the largest contemporary art institutions in the Southeastern United States, it presents exhibitions by international, national and regional artists.
History MOCA Jacksonville was founded in 1924 as the Jacksonville Fine Arts Society, the first organization in the Jacksonville community devoted to the visual arts. In 1948 the museum was incorporated as the Jacksonville Art Museum, and in 1978 it became the first institution in Jacksonville to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
In late 1999, the museum acquired its permanent home, the historic Western Union Telegraph Building on Hemming Plaza (now James Weldon Johnson Park), built by The Auchter Company, adjacent to the newly renovated City Hall, and became the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art (JMOMA). In 2000, a series of preview exhibitions opened in a temporary exhibition space while the building facade was restored to its original Art Deco style. The interior was completely refurbished to house the museum's galleries, educational facilities, a theater/auditorium, Museum Shop and Café Nola. Total renovation of the , six-floor facility was completed in 2003, culminating in a grand re-opening in May of that year.
Growth After moving to its downtown location the museum experienced rapid growth in both membership and the size of the permanent collection. The many substantial additions to the collection increased not only its quality, but also its size to almost 800 pieces. In November 2006, JMOMA became the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville.
The museum continues to be a cornerstone of Jacksonville's multibillion-dollar downtown revitalization plan. Its exhibitions and programming bring new visitors to the civic core during the day, at night and on weekends. Educational programming includes children's literacy initiatives and weekend art making classes as well as regular tours, lectures, films and publications for children and adults.
MOCA Jacksonville's changing exhibitions feature the works of contemporary artists working in a wide assortment of media from painting, sculpture, and video. The third floor hosts exhibitions, which rotate approximately every four months.
The University of North Florida acquired the museum in 2009 to act as a cultural resource of the university.
Past exhibitions 2022 State of the Art: Locate January 21 – May 1, 2022 Anderson Goncalves: Cultural Polarity January 8 – May 8, 2022 Project Atrium: Chiharu Shiota: Letters of Love February 4 – June 26, 2022 Creeks Rising: A City Reflected in Hogans & McCoys Creeks May 6 – June 30, 2022 Jessica Hische: Covered February 25 – August 21, 2022 Express Your UNF Pride May 13 – August 28, 2022 Kara Walker: Cut To The Quick: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation May 20 – October 2, 2022 Project Atrium: Maud Cotter: What Was Never Ours To Keep July 9 – November 20, 2022 Urban Spaces: UNF Photography Student Exhibition December 2, 2022 – January 8, 2023 Art With a Heart in Healthcare: What Lifts You Up September 11, 2022 – January 8, 2023 Art + Politics: Grounding Dialogue December 14, 2022 – February 5, 2023 Fifty: An Alumni Exhibition March 25, 2022 – February 12, 2023 Shervone Neckles: Bless This House September 3, 2022 – March 5, 2023 Project Atrium: Milagros December 9, 2022 – April 9, 2023
2021 Ally Brody: Public Domain January 16 – April 18, 2021 The American Dream November 21, 2020 – March 7, 2021 Jeremy Dean: Neither I, Nor Time, Nor History February 19 – May 30, 2021 The Circle and the Square October 2, 2020 – June 6, 2021 Romancing the Mirror December 4, 2020 – June 20, 2021 Heirloom: Weaving Memory With the Now March 26 – August 1, 2021 Imagination Squared10 March 26 – August 1, 2021 Art With a Heart: Behind The Mask September 11, 2021 – January 2, 2022 Doug Eng: Structure of Nature | Nature of Structure July 9, 2021 – January 2, 2022 Damián Ortega August 27, 2021 – January 16, 2022 Techno-Intimacy August 13, 2021 – February 13, 2022 Left Side Right Side June 25, 2021 – March 6, 2022
2020 Virginia Derryberry: Private Domain January 16 – March 22, 2020 Jenn Peek: (I)dentify as Phoenix December 2019 – April 12, 2020 Project Atrium: Rina Banerjee March 20 – June 28, 2020 Recent Acquisitions: History in the Making January 10 – September 20, 2020 Project Atrium: Rina Banerjee July 1 – October 25, 2020 Breaking Boundaries: The Vision of Jacqueline B. Holmes February 20 – November 15, 2020 A Decade of Art With a Heart: Celebrating 10 Years of Partnership September 12 – December 13, 2020 Urban Spaces December 17, 2020 – January 10, 2021 The American Dream November 21, 2020 – March 7, 2021 Project Atrium: Carl Joe Williams November 20, 2020 – March 21, 2021 Multiple Ones: Contemporary Perspectives in Printmedia July 1, 2020 – March 21, 2021
2019 Project Atrium: Evan Roth: Since You Were Born March 16 – June 23, 2019 Urban Spaces April 20 – July 7, 2019 Invisible Cities: Paintings by Nathan Lewis March 2 – July 21, 2019 Micro-Macro: Andrew Sendor and Ali Banisadr February 2 – July 28, 2019 Creative Campers: Art Camp Anthology Vol. 3 April 13 – August 4, 2019 Project Atrium: Khalid Albaih: Camp/Wall/Flock July 20 – October 27, 2019 Project Atrium: Kedgar Volta: The Fragility of Promise November 15, 2019 – March 1, 2020
2018 Art + Politics March 14 – April 4, 2018 Pledges of Allegiance March 14 – April 4, 2018 Project Atrium: Anila Quayyum Agha March 10 – June 24, 2018 Art Camp Anthology Vol. 2 April 28 – July 29, 2018 A Patterned Response March 31 – August 19, 2018 Attentive Arrangements April 1 – August 19, 2018 A Dark Place of Dreams: Louise Nevelson with Chakaia Booker, Lauren Fensterstock and Kate Gilmore April 28 – September 9, 2018 A World of Their Own: Art With a Heart in Healthcare August 4 – December 2, 2018 Gideon Mendel: Drowning World August 31 – December 9, 2018 Frank Stella Unbound: Literature and Printmaking October 6, 2018 – January 13, 2019 In the Water September 1, 2018 – February 24, 2019 Project Atrium: Amanda Coogan: The Ladder is Always There November 26, 2018 – February 24, 2019 Spotlight: Marc Chagall's Dress November 26, 2018 – February 24, 2019 Interior Geography: Mark Lester December 8, 2018 – April 7, 2019 Painting the Picture: Works From the Permanent Collection December 22, 2018 – May 12, 2019
2017 Project Atrium: Juan Fontanive, Movement 4 Call & Response Project Atrium: Gabriel Dawe, Plexus No. 38 Synthesize: Art + Music Project Atrium: Lauren Fensterstock Bands of Color: the Use of Line in Contemporary Art Hans Hofmann: Works on Paper The Evolution of Mark-Making UNF Gallery Iterations: Lorrie Fredette UNF Gallery Frank Rampolla: the DNA of the Mark Another Side Revealed: Art with a Heart in Healthcare Art Camp Anthology
2016 Retro-spective: Analog Photography in a Digital World Breaking Ground: the Donald and Maria Cox Collection Project Atrium: Shinique Smith: Quickening Project Atrium: Nicola Lopez Confronting the Canvas: Women of Abstraction Project Atrium: Ethan Murrow Time Zones: James Rosenquist and Printmaking at the Millennium In Living Color: Andy Warhol and Contemporary Printmaking (from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family) UNF Gallery Leaves: Recent Prints and Sculpture by Donald Martin UNF Gallery Sustain: Clay to Table UNF Gallery Amer Kobaslija: A Sense of Place UNF Gallery The Other: Nurturing a New Ecology in Printmaking Mary Ratcliff, Interwoven: Hear, Home, and Community Inside the Outline: Art with a Heart in Healthcare Rock Paper Scissors: the Printmaking Process
2015 Project Atrium: Ian Johnston: Fish Tales Smoke and Mirrors: Sculpture and the Imaginary Project Atrium: Joelle Dietrick: Cargomobilities Southern Exposure: Portraits of a Changing Landscape In Time We Shall Know Ourselves: Photographs by Raymond Smith Project Atrium; Angela Glajcar: Terforation WHITE UNF Gallery Avery Lawrence: Live in Jacksonville UNF Gallery Assemblage/Collage: Works by Phil Parker UNF Gallery John Hee Taek Chae: Barbara Ritzman Devereux Visiting Artist Exhibition UNF Gallery 2015 Art Ventures Grant Awards Artists, The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida Amanda Rosenblatt: Allegory of Fortune Unmasked: Art with a Heart in Healthcare Art Aviators Exhibition
2014 Project Atrium: Angela Strassheim Get Real: New American Painting Project Atrium: Caroline Lathan-Steifel: Wider Than the Sky The New York Times Magazine Photographs Project Atrium: Sean Thurston Observing Objects: Works by Leigh Murphy Material Transformations Erica Mendoza: Visual Love Letters A Thousand Words: A Photo Response Project Express Your #Selfie: Art with a Heart in Healthcare Scholastic Art Exhibition: Gold Key Portfolio Winners Rainbow Artists Exhibition UNF Gallery Art + Design Faculty Exhibition UNF Gallery Juxtaposition: Works by Larry Wilson & Laurie Hitzig UNF Gallery Backdoor Formalism UNF Gallery Bede Clarke: Barbara Ritzman Devereux Visiting Artist Exhibition
2013 Art with a Heart in Healthcare Project Atrium: Heather Cox Kept Time: Photographs by Joseph D. Jachna Inside/Out: MOCA's Permanent Collection Project Atrium: Sarah Emerson Michael Aurbach SLOW: Marking Time in Photography and Film UNF Student Juried Exhibition First Coast Portfolio
2012 Project Atrium: Ian Bogost ReFocus: Art of the 1980s Project Atrium: Tristin Lowe Annual UNF Art & Design Faculty Exhibition In This Moment: Art with a Heart in Healthcare Exhibition Rendering Italy: UNF Art and Design Faculty Abroad ReFocus: Art of the 1970s Project Atrium: Mark Licari The Joys of Collecting: Selections from the Eisen Collection Rainbow Artists: Art and Autism Across the Spectrum Exhibition Carrie Ann Baade: Solar Midnight Joe Forkan: The Lebowski Cycle North East Florida Scholastic Art Award ReFocus: Art of the 1960s
2011 Tamara Culbert: 2011 Memphis Wood Excellence in Teaching Award Project Atrium: Gustavo Godoy UNF Art and Design Faculty Exhibition Larry Clark: The Tulsa Series Shared Vision: The Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez-Falla Collection of Photography No Place in Particular: Images of the American Landscape Project Atrium: Melanie Pullen What a Doll: The Human Object as Toy Stranger in Paradise: The Works of Reverend Howard Finster What A Doll: The Human Object As Toy Rainbow Artists: Art and Autism Across the Spectrum Exhibition FUSION: Ceramic Exhibition by the FIRM: Shane Christensen, Brian Jensen, Stephen Heywood, and Michael Schmidt Wind Weaver and the Whirling Wheel: A Tale of Wolfbat Romance The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design Chair Installation by Dolf James Edge of Your Seat: Design Challenge, a juried student show in conjunction with The Art of Seating
2010 East/West: Visually Speaking UNF Art and Design Faculty Exhibition Imagination Squared: A Community Response Project Hyperbolic Nature: Plein Air Paintings by Lilian Garcia-Roig Tradition Redefined: The Larry and Brenda Thompson Collection of African American Art Marilyn Monroe: Life as a Legend Looking Forward, Looking Back: Celebrating the Contributions and Careers of Artist/Educators Larry Davis, Mark Howard & Paul Ladnier Dan Estabrook: Forever and Never
2009 Separate Strategies & Common Goals Hamish MacEwan: 90 in 09 Robert Motherwell: Lost in Form, Found in Line The Art of Teaching: UNF Faculty Exhibition Emergence: Works by UNF Sculpture Students Balance and Power: Performance and Surveillance in Video Art Jazz Giants: The Photography of Herman Leonard Why Look at Animals? Photography from the George Eastman Collection
2008 Ultra-Realistic Sculpture by Marc Sijan