Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) 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 exhibitions and educational programming, MOCA stimulates individual thinking and dialogue throughout the community. This Museum is one the region’s best examples of a private-public partnership. The building is owned and maintained by The City of Virginia Beach and MOCA operates within it as a private, non-profit. Having maintained a small oceanfront property as the Virginia Beach Museum of Art, local supporters in the late 1980’s planned to construct a new physical space for the Museum. In 1989, after nearly a decade of planning, fundraising and construction, the Museum opened in its present location at 2200 Parks Avenue. The current structure, designed by Boston architect E. Verner Johnson and Associates, is approximately 38,500 square feet and features 6,300 square feet of exhibition space. In 2011, following accreditation by the American Association of Museums, the museum was formally renamed The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art.