of Celebrating Art, Artists, & Ideas
By Amber Sesnick, Director of Communications & Marketing at MOCA Jacksonville
January 2024 is the launch of a year of celebration that marks a significant point in the history for our fine city and reaches beyond local impact into the history of art and culture in our country.
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2024, holding the distinction of being the first visual arts organization in the city of Jacksonville, as well as the oldest art museum in the region and the second contemporary art museum to be established in the United States, after only the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. This celebration year is an opportunity for MOCA to give back to the community that has been its home for a century by presenting groundbreaking exhibitions and programs that will engage the community and elevate Jacksonville as a regional destination for arts and culture.
A hundred years ago a group of visionary, pioneering women came together to imagine the kind of city they wanted Jacksonville to be—the kind of community they wanted to live in and be a part of. At the core of their vision for a rich, vital, dynamic city was a strong foundation of arts, culture, and education. Thus, what we now call MOCA Jacksonville was born—first as a series of exhibitions by artists of the day, used as a fundraising tool to support public school education; then as a guild; and later as an art museum, an educational leader, and a cultural institute of the University of North Florida (UNF).
A century later, these very same goals remain at the core of MOCA’s vision and work, as well as that of many other cultural organizations and leaders in our community. By working together toward our common goals for our community, we have the power to highlight Jacksonville as the amazing cultural destination it is.
