When Julia Latane and James Graham founded Tucson's Museum of Contemporary Art, their budget was the very definition of "shoe-string."
"How did we fund it? I think it was the spare change we found in our couch most of the time," Latane recalled. "We had an out-of-town artist coming once who insisted we build crates for her exhibit, which were going to cost $800 and I kept thinking, 'Where are we going to get $800?' We were doing it punk-rock style, and now they're doing it with people who know how to get money. It's grown up."
Indeed, MOCA has evolved. From its determined but meager beginnings on Toole Avenue in 1997, the nonprofit now has a budget of $375,000, financial support from state, national and international arts' commissions, a full plate of exhibitions and public programming, and is moving into a permanent home in the former Tucson Fire Department (TFD) headquarters at 265 S. Church Ave.
Through its expansion, MOCA has never lost sight of the original mission Graham, Latane and fellow founders David Wright and Dave Lewis articulated in the late 1990s: To introduce Tucson's contemporary artists to the art world at large and introduce Tucson to the world's contemporary artists.
"We both work with local artists to share their work internationally and bring artists to Tucson to create art, with that work then deployed out into the world," explained Anne-Marie Russell, executive director and chief curator of MOCA.
That deployment was illustrated through work created by New York-based, German-Brazilian artist Janaina Tschape during an April 2008 MOCA residency. When she left Tucson, Tschape exhibited her work in Paris and Tokyo and one of the pieces - a Tucson moonscape - was enlarged and transferred to a banner that hung at the entrance of the Opra Garnier in Paris, advertising a Gustav Mahler symphony.
"That's the power of MOCA," Russell said. "It showcases Tucson to the world."
But MOCA is more than just pictures on the walls or sculptures in hallways, said Randi Dorman, president of the museum's board of directors. "We provide programming for all levels, cradle to grave," she said. "We're totally intergenerational, with an art-lecture series, kids making art, teen programs, and author readings, something for everyone. Part of the reason the firehouse is so good for us is the large open spaces; contemporary art is often interactive and needs to be experienced."
MOCA will move to the firehouse in December and commence renovations that Russell said will cost less than $100,000. Half that funding is from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. The fire-truck galleys will be used as a large, open exhibit space, offices in the lower level will be turned into small galleries and a museum gift-shop, the top floor will remain as office space and the center living area once used for firefighters to hang out will become artist studio space.
The museum will open to the general public in late February 2010, a year after the city granted MOCA use of the building after the nonprofit was the lone applicant in a Request for Proposals process. Tucsonans who want to get a sneak preview of MOCA's new home can do so at a fundraising gala February 6, which will honor Swiss artist Olivier Mossett.
MOCA will mount a yearlong exhibit in three installations to mark its first year in the firehouse. Those installations, "Born in Tucson, Made in Tucson, Live in Tucson," will feature artists who were born in Tucson, art that was made here or works from artists who now live in the Old Pueblo, Russell explained.
The changes to the Tucson contemporary art scene are both impressive and bittersweet to Latan, who moved to Los Angeles with Graham in 2001.
"I'm so excited about the permanent space, it is the greatest thing," she said. "And there's so much more money now and MOCA is so much more stable financially. On the other hand, we had a lot more space for local artists, so that vision has been expanded, and there is more of a focus on education and doing things that involve families."
That expansion in emphasis is only natural, Russell said.
"When I came on board it was to take the energy those local artists had created and overlay it with the infrastructure of a proper museum," she said. "At their core, museums are educational institutions. We bring what happens in the academy out to the general public. But what (MOCA founders) did is a great demonstration of the glorious ambition of artists and it was a privilege to pick that up and help build an infrastructure for sustainability for local contemporary art."
For more information on MOCA or to purchase tickets for the February opening gala, visit: www.moca-tucson.org.
