Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

Opportunities for Learners

• Tours:
  • Adult guided tours: Conversational, by reservation, primarily intended for groups, paid
  • Second Saturday conversation tours: Conversational + information, drop-in, adults + children, regular admission
  • Audio tours: For teens by teens & artist interviews; check out iPod or download onto your own device
  • Art Beyond Boundaries tours: Tours for the visually impaired; adults + children
  • Discounted group tours (guided or self-guided)
  • Team-building tours: For companies, includes artmaking

• School Programs
  • One-hour school visit: Inquiry-based tour
  • Student art start visit: pre- and post-visit materials, one-hour guided tour, hands-on art-making activity, each student receives guest pass to return with 5 family/friends
  • Outreach
    • Pre-visit materials, educator comes to classroom to teach lesson, free family pass for each student
      • $95-$110 per classroom
    • Teacher trunk program: suitcases can be signed out by schools for 3 weeks; Greek and Egyptian art themes
      • Seems unrelated to contemporary art on view at museum
• Teacher Programs
  • Professional Development Workshops
  • Printable Posters: About the artist, discussion questions, mini lessons, resources
    • Printable Poster: Mickalene Thomas
• Family Programs
  • Family Fests: Art-making, scavenger hunt, refreshments
  • Family Nights: Art-making, scavenger hunt, performance, cash bar for adults, 3 times a year
  • Pre-K Art Days: Inquiry-based tour, literacy, movement, art-making, once a month
• Teen Programs
  • Teen apprenticeship program: Apply to participate; 10-15 teens accepted; 12-week program to work with artists and museum professionals
  • Teen Takeover Night
  • Teen Takeover Planning Committee: Plans and executes Teen Takeover Night
• Scout Program
  • MOCA Explorer Patch: Receive a bag from the front desk and it explains what to do to receive patch
  • Visual Arts Badge Workshops: Workshops to receive badges
• Studio School
  • Adult Classes: Drawing & Mixed Media, Painting, Ceramics, Photography & Digital Media; weekly classes, one-day workshops, master classes
  • Teen Classes: 3D Animation, Drawing
  • Children Classes: Divided by age, rather than theme: ages 2-5, ages 6-12, family workshops
  • Art Camp: Ages 2-5, 6-8, 9-12, 13-17; half-day classes

• ARTLab
  • “Interactive space for all ages”
  • Includes hands-on activities connected to another exhibition on view.
  • Doesn’t include art itself, so slightly disconnected from the exhibitions. Why can’t they have these interactives in the main galleries?

• Fleming Gallery
  • Each year, displays artwork by over 1,000 regional artists, educators, and art students.
  • Holds partnerships with the City of Virginia Beach Schools, Skillquest (support program for adults with disabilities), and other local arts organizations.

Educational Philosophy

• More than most other institutions that I have come across, curatorial and education, exhibitions and engagement intertwine. From the top-down and bottom-up, education surfaces in the exhibitions and the exhibitions surface in the education, to the point that they cannot be separated. Intrinsic to this appears to be the staffing structure, the combined department aptly called “Combined Education and Exhibitions Department.”
• Education is central to Virginia MOCA’s 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.”

• In last year’s annual report, they listed every staff member from the Executive Director to part-time Security to every single Gallery Teacher, Studio Instructor, and Art Camp Instructor. This evidences the equitable staffing structure and the value of each and every member of the staff. See Annual Report Staffing.
• Even parts of their website that are not explicitly education reveal the dedication to education and the visitors:

Exhibitions:

Exhibition Proposals:

Support:

• Of the 7 primary Membership benefits, 5 of them emphasize education:
  • FREE year-round museum admission
  • FREE admission / discounts to select openings, programs, and events
  • $15 off art classes and camps $50 and over
  • $5 off art classes $50 or less
  • Pre-registration art classes and camps
  • Discounts in MOCA’s museum shop
  • Invitation to “members only” activities
• Donors receive the same tour that the school groups receive – to actually “see what you support while exploring the exhibitions and creating art with childlike wonder!”

Audiences

• Schools
• Teachers
• Families
• Art classes for children:
  • Ages 2-5
  • 5-12
  • Teens
  • Homeschool groups
• Teens

• Girl Scouts
• Adults
• Adults and children with disabilities
• Companies
• Community
• Local artists
• Middle to upper class: Studio classes are quite expensive and no scholarships seem to be offered (at least apparent online), so you would need to have expendable income. For example, the Saturday in the Studio classes are $120/members or $135/non-members for 7 weeks (2.5 hours/week).
• Mixed class: The half-day camps are much more affordable at $100/members or $115/non-members. They also have scholarships available based on household income and the child’s interest. They ask the students to write or draw why they want to take an art class at Virginia MOCA.

Educators

• Within the Combined Education and Exhibitions Department, they have 9 staff listed on their website (presumably full-time). Of those positions, 6 are explicitly education. The staff positions are as follows:
  • Alison Byrne, Director of Exhibitions & Education
  • Monee Marie Bengtson, Registrar & Preparator
  • Lea Bennett, Outreach Coordinator
  • Rebecca Davidson, Manager of School & Educator Programs
  • Heather Hakimzadeh, Curator
  • Eliot Hicks, Assistant Preparator
  • Katie Kaltenbach, Outreach Educator
  • Truly Matthews, Curator of Education
  • Jade O’Day, Gallery Assistant
• They have 13 Studio School Instructors – each one has a full bio (one of them overlaps with the full-time staff, the Outreach Coordinator)
• All tours say they are led by a MOCA Gallery Teachers (or sometimes an educator). The choice of using “gallery teacher” is interesting because I was surprised to learn that these are still volunteers.
  • Gallery teachers are hired 3 times a year and training consists of four 2-hour sessions.
  • No prior art or education experience required.
• Teen Volunteers assist with summer art camp classes, researching and recording teen audio tours, and planning Teen Takeover Nights.
• They offer unpaid internships in multiple departments and you can volunteer for their Boardwalk Art Show, Special Events, and Exhibitions Support.

Why here?

• Much of their programming is intended for the Hampton Roads community, which is the larger metropolitan area in which Virginia Beach is located. Hampton Roads has a large military presence and they do have programming specifically for military families/veterans.
• Almost all of their “Meet MOCA” video focuses on education and the community, demonstrating the community’s willingness/desire to participate in MOCA’s programming. Everything is about the public.
  • MOCA considers its four primary activities to be: gallery exhibitions, studio art classes, educational outreach programs and outdoor art shows, with the intention of “involv[ing] a diverse regional public in the rich and active language of contemporary visual art.”
• Annual juried exhibition of Virginia artists – emphasis on displaying the work local/regional artists.
• Fleming Gallery demonstrates Virginia MOCA’s valuing of the community, school, and local artist partnerships. The current exhibition, Hampton Roads Historium, displays puppets fabricated by local high school students.

• Other annual exhibitions, all dedicated to the community, in this gallery space include:

• • • Prisms – celebrating artwork created in MOCA’s Summer Art Camp
    • SkillQuest – celebrating artwork created by the SkillQuest program
    • Youth Art Month – exhibiting artwork by every art student in the City of Virginia Beach
    • Salem Visual Arts Academy Annual Juried Exhibition
    • Teaching Artists Art Exhibition – celebrating local art educators
    • A Year in Review – highlights from MOCA Studio School Instructors and Students
    • Hampton Roads Student Gallery Honorees

• School tours: “Focusing on a selection of works to develop observation and critical-thinking skills, discussions support learning standards and inquiry-based learning.”
  • For each tour, they mention the connections to Virginia learning standards, but also museum education theories.