The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, a cultural resource of the University of North Florida, collaboratively serves the Jacksonville and UNF communities through exhibitions, collections and educational programs and publications designed to enhance the understanding and appreciation of modern and contemporary art with particular emphasis on works created from 1960 to the present.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, a cultural resource of the University of North Florida, thoughtfully presents programs to serve the Jacksonville community. MOCA’s programs are rich with cultural and educational content, and reflect the goal of the eeply into the community with meaningful and purposeful services. MOCA’s presentation of contemporary art—-the art of our times - the unique offering for the northeast region of Florida.
MOCA, Jacksonville has a history of successful programming which in itself proves its capacity to take on initiatives such as Voice of the People. MOCA presents visual art exhibitions to the community of all forms: paintings, photography, sculpture, video art, and contemporary mixed media. These exhibitions are supported by lectures, gallery tours, classes and interactive experiences for the public to deepen the understanding and appreciation of art. Special focus is given to art education with a full range of educational programs for pre-school students through adults.
Grant-funded Strategy:
1. Creative interpretation: Provide students with art pieces that are open to interpretation, instigating creative thought, and individual perspective in addition to understanding contemporary art through personal study and response.
2. Critical thinking: Improve critical thinking skills through facilitated observation based on the Feldman approach: description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment of select pieces of art in MOCA’s permanent collection.
3. Writing: Improve creative writing skills through development of interpretive art response in the form of written audio script.
4. Verbal: Improve verbal presentation skills in a clear and well-articulated manner through the production of a digital audio recording that are available for all visitors of the museum.
5. Cooperative work: Encourage cooperative learning through the shared production process of writing and producing the audio recordings in small groups.
6. Self-esteem: Enhance by virtue self-concept through showcasing finished audio recordings in the museum and by honoring students for their creativity.
7. Self-awareness: Participate in a group where everyone has a voice that is important.
MOCA’s Voice of the People program has provided novel learning opportunities for fourth grade students from S.P. Livingston Elementary, utilizing contemporary art as a catalyst for developing critical thinking, writing, and verbal skills. Participating students have demonstrated improvement in their willingness to collaborate with peers through working in small groups, improved self-confidence and self-awareness, and improved writing and verbal skills. Specific details are provided in the Measurement section of this report. Students have received diverse experiences through this project. Their families were also included and involved in this program. Many of the students’ parents and family members attended museum visits and learned ways to engage with their children through utilizing art. They also learned that MOCA provides a safe and educational space – a space they can visit with their children in the future.
Through this project, S. P. Livingston instructors worked with Museum educators. Many of these participating educational professionals remarked that they were amazed at how their students engaged with art and how the visual arts are closely related to communication. This project also allowed the students to show off their efforts to their families and see their work displayed next to a work of art in a museum exhibit.
MOCA’s Voice of the People program has provided novel learning opportunities for fourth grade students from S.P. Livingston Elementary, utilizing contemporary art as a catalyst for developing critical thinking, writing, and verbal skills.
Participating students have demonstrated improvement in their willingness to collaborate with peers through working in small groups, improved self-confidence and self-awareness, and improved writing and verbal skills.
