Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland

Moca moved into its new home in Cleveland's university circle uptown district in august, 2012. The new moca opened to the public the first weekend of october, 2012. Moca, 11 years old and northeast Ohio's only Contemporary Art Museum, has received critical international, national and regional praise for the building's architecture and the diverse exhibitions and programs animating the space, with the greater Cleveland community embracing both the building and program. Moca's home is 10,000 feet larger than the former rented facility, and was specifically designed to meet its programmatic, educational, and back-of-house needs; located in the midst of a vibrant neighborhood among cultural institutions, universities, restaurants and retail; and positioned in close proximity to many area schools and established and new housing. This provides additional space for visitor amenities and professional workspace and storage. The new building has professional workshops, Art storage, a multi-purpose room for multi-arts programming, a Museum store, ample office space, and wonderful galleries. The new moca is an architectural focal point and cultural anchor of the newer uptown district. Summarized below is moca's 2023 progress against 4 goals centered around: public benefit, artistic and cultural vibrancy, organizational capacity, and equity.2023 public benefit goal:nurture extended collaborations & program partnerships with local organizations to create quality, co-designed experiences, invite & welcome new audiences & expand community use & engagement with our building; activate new mission & vision through strategic communications and community initiatives; empower new engagement team to develop and deepen community relationships towards future planning; continue locally-focused residencies & projects addressing community cultural interests & needs. Progress measures: continued attendance growth toward pre-covid levels; consistent, well-attended onsite & offsite collaborative programming with residency partners; new surveying approaches to drop-in and program participants yield high satisfaction results; community advisory group confirms qualitative program strength, more equitable planning and improved communications; new mission and vision connect moca's goals to moca's actions as noted by board, staff, & stakeholders; increased neighborhood engagement. Mid-term progress update: direct engagement estimate is 24,600 people served directly (gallery & program visitors, offsite & delivery offerings, intensive web programs), and 65,264 people indirectly (casual web, social media, etc.). Compared to fy22, onsite population increased, as did youth & school visits (71%). During days moca is open (thurs-sat., instead of tues-sat. Pre-covid hours), attendance is 90% of pre-covid numbers. We have also reintroduced audience surveying more regularly. Our relatively new, longform residency models and uniquely supportive audience engagement guide program have made positive impact & now we have more quantifiable & qualified info re: "the whys" behind growing satisfaction, length of visits & impact. We hear from visitors, artists & funders that our investment in deepening & personalizing visitor experience, connecting audiences and artists directly, and our growing partnerships & community buy-in are visible and valuable, and set moca apart.year-end progress update: deepening collaborations and equity work via long-form artist & organizational residencies continues to have profound results:- staff co-production & fulfillment.- artist support/feedback re: accomplishing life goals together (e.g. Finnegan shannon said we helped fulfill "access fantasy" with strategies and physical objects [conveyor belt] they will use in future work).- surveys re: moca providing unique, direct visitor connections with artists working today & resulting satisfaction.- positive press, e.g. Artnews names finnegan shannon's show to its 2023 most defining list; an earlier Art in america review extolled its broad impact: " the artist doesn't just point out absences and assumptions normalized in museums; they also dream up solutions [for] institutional repair. "these examples reflect value & depth of engagement for the 25,000+ people served most directly over 2023. We are pleased to be performing at the top of our present capacity.2023 artistic & cultural vibrancy goal: incubate new practices, realize ambitious artists' goals & address germane topics (climate change, identity, mortality) via first-time, collaborative & residency projects; provide resources & direct professional development to underrepresented early career local artists & co-design projects with org residency partner julia de burgos cultural arts center; realize disability-empowered workshops & exhibition with resident artist finnegan shannon; expand building as lab for artist production & exhibition.progress measures: successful realization of artist projects and commissions on time, on budget, and to positive qualitative experience among partners, audiences, and artists; continued expansion of access to artists from marginalized communities; expanded accessibility attunement in programming; constructive professional development curriculum & resources as noted by underrepresented early career artist participants; increasing successful existing and new funders to support new initiatives now & in the future. Mid-term progress update: during our spring season, we featured an astounding 8 exhibitions & artist projects, some created through 2 intensive artist residencies & an institutional residency hosting the Museum of creative human Art. Another show featured biannual toby's prize recipient (posthumously funded by moca emeritus board member toby devan lewis) puppies puppies/jade kuriki olivo, a performance & installation artist. She shared her prize with 2 additional artists who created concurrent solo exhibitions (jerome ab's large-scale movement video/soundscape & j.j. adams' multimedia show), all exploring experiences of duality, marginalization, and resistance as poc. of the 186 artists we supported over fy22, 50% are local & 50% are from marginalized communities (black, poc, indigenous, lgtbq, disabled). Audiences describe moca's recent exhibitions & programs as uniquely collaborative, community-focused, supportive of artists who might otherwise go underrecognized, and therefore broadly welcoming & resonant. Year-end progress update:moca continues to host its 2nd institutional residency with a local cultural organization that shares space & coproduces programs: julia de burgos cultural arts center (jdbcac). Jdbcac focuses on promoting latinex heritage & bipoc contributions to the arts. Moca gave a 3rd floor educational space to jdbcac to program with Art & interactives, and they codesign exhibitions on moca's ground floor, 10 in our former store space. Jdbcac & moca created an early-career professional development residency for cuyahoga county artists, including 2 tenured mentor artists (bruno casiano & ariel verguz) who are helping support 10 selected artists with regularly workshops and three exhibitions. By jdbcac request, moca extended the yearlong residency for another 6 months with special funding from the Cleveland foundation to focus on leadership and operational development.2023 organizational capacity goal:continue recovering & strengthening from covid-influenced operational challenges through equitable, strategic recruitment, team-building & development, & fundraising; engage board expertise on adaptations to maximize building use & earned revenue businesses; finalize & activate new mission & vision towards shared, clarified goals, actions, & communications; audit & update board governance practices to ensure utmost engagement; finalize software updates for transparent accounting & customer relations. Progress measures: continued strategic expense management & fundraising to maximize resources and maintain conservative, controlled budgets; hire, orient, & sustain qualified, diverse new staff for key mgmt. Positions using equitable practices; current staff advanced through prof development opportunities; public sharing of & fundraising for new mission & vision yields stronger planning; deepened operational board engagement results in reliable earned revenue models; staff & board report high satisfaction in roles. Mid-term progress update: the early 2023 addition of joshua hill (poc & john hay alum) as director of community engagement & partnerships has inspired our education team, reintroduced school programs, and engaged new relationships (e.g. In discussions w/ Cleveland public library & local recreation centers). Our strategic visioning continues with modest delays in finalizing of new mission, vision & values statements (originally march 2023, now aug);